Chargers

pummel

Crusaders

By BENJAMIN TOMCZAK

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- "It was a step in the right direction."

Those are mild words when your team wins 81-54, but that's the way Minnesota Valley Lutheran coach Craig Morgan chose to describe his team's nonconference victory over St. Croix Lutheran of West St. Paul Saturday afternoon.

"It was a lot better than last night," Morgan added, referring to the Chargers' 68-58 win over Wabasso. "We're going to look at the film Monday and see what we did well and work on that, continue to improve on it."

What the Chargers will see is that they put together a pretty good game on both sides of the ball.

MVL (2-0) wanted to work on its defense after nearly blowing a 20-point lead against the Rabbits and they did.

The Chargers' tight defense pressed for much of the game and forced 26 Crusader turnovers. They also held St. Croix (0-3) to 20 of 65 (30.7 percent) shooting, including 6 of 27 (22.2 percent) in the fourth quarter.

The Crusaders seemed hesitant to shoot, passing up numerous opportunities in the lane to dish out.

"They were passing up shots they could have taken," Crusader coach Dave Huebner said. "They were all getting comfy with where their strength is. We've got some new guys and they're all trying to figure out their roles.

He added concerning the shooting, "We're not a great shooting team, but we're not that poor."

The Chargers also did well offensively, shooting over 46 percent from the field and running a great transition game, as well as getting everybody into the game, as 11 Chargers scored.

The Crusaders kept it close early. Even though they didn't score until the 4:37 mark of the first quarter they were only down 16-9. But you could sense that the Chargers were ready to break out.

With 1:25 to go in the first, MVL senior Jeffrey Dolan hooked up on an alley-oop with Jake Firle. On the very next possession, the two hooked up again on another alley-oop. It was Firle's tenth point of the first quarter.

"Jake stepped up for us," Morgan said. "He came in and got a chance to see the court, see what was open and what they gave him on defense."

Firle did just that, finishing with a game-high 25 points. The junior was aggressive with the ball, taking it consistantly to the hole and mopping up any rebound in his path.

In the second quarter Firle and Aaron Madsen paced the Chargers as they put on a clinic.

The team shot 9 of 15 from the floor, outscoring the Crusaders 27-10. Firle scored 10 of those. Madson added 13 in that quarter and was on the receiving end of another of Dolan's alley-oop passes at 4:47 in the second.

"We're trying to get Jeff to see down the floor a little bit," Morgan said of his guard, "and Jeff's been seeing that longer pass and getting the ball down to him (Firle) if he's open. If we get out on the break, Jeff can make those passes."

Madsen returned the favor on the next play by dishing to Dolan who hit a three, scoring his only points of the day.

Those alley-oops were backbreakers for the Crusaders, who until Dolan started hooking up with his aerial artists, may still have been in the game.

"That's what we talked about before the game," Huebner said, "sprinting back and playing defense on them, and then we let that happen. There's no excuse for it. They did it well, and we didn't play very good defense."

Madsen, a 6'0" guard, quietly put together an incredible game, hitting four 3's on his way to scoring 20 points.

"Aaron's one of those guys that steps up," Morgan said of his senior. "We expect it from him. He's produced every year. He's got a good shot, a good drive and he handles the ball well."

MVL took a 43-19 lead into the half. Some thoughts of the letdown with Wabasso may have been in Morgan's head, but his team quickly erased it.

MVL put another 27 points on the board in the third, stretching their lead to 33, 70-37.

A key stretch came early.

Madsen hit his fourth 3, rattling one home 49 seconds into the quarter. A Shawn Black 10-footer was followed by six straight points, from Jason Lohmiller, all on offensive putbacks. Lohmiller finished with 11.

Madsen was able to leave the game with 2:53 to go in the third, and Firle left early in the fourth, letting other Chargers like Andrew Harpestad, who finished with seven points, clean up the Crusaders.

The Crusaders were sort of hot in the third, hitting 6 of 11, but that was mostly because they were unable to get their offense going, committing 10 turnovers in the quarter.

St. Croix got seven from Carl Albrecht in the third, and he finished with a team-high 10. AJ Kruse also had 10, six of those coming in the fourth quarter.

Things kind of fell apart for MVL in the fourth. The Chargers committed 12 of their 28 turnovers in that quarter and shot just 38 percent from the field. They were outscored 17-11.

"We went out and won the fourth," Huebner mused, "and that's something positive to come away with."

Even before the fourth, the turnovers troubled Morgan.

"We threw the ball away a few times and a few of them were just silly. We weren't focused. We threw it where nobody was and that's just a matter of these guys starting to gel together a little bit."

The game between these two schools, both Wisconsin Synod area Lutheran high schools, was the first that Huebner could remember, but hopefully can turn into a yearly event.

"We're hoping to go back and forth," the Crusader coach said before the game, "and have them up at our place next year and get it going every year."

Hopefully he still feels the same way.