IRONDALE 67, MINNEAPOLIS ROOSEVELT 21

Mondays are thin after the Thanksgiving weekend, and there still are some turkey leftovers. This year there was one AAAA team in operation. Irondale hosted Minneapolis Roosevelt and tripled the score over the  AA Teddies. The Knights scored the first 10 points of the game and Roosevelt tried to stem the tide with a time out at the 14:27 mark. It worked for a possession, Precious Smith got the Teddies on the board with a 3, but it was a struggle with shooting in the sub-freezing range and turnovers popping at 32. Irondale wasn’t playing suffocating full court defense either. Irondale dominated the boards including 29 second chance opportunities.

At the 6:23 mark of the first half Irondale had enough in the bank to win 23-8. By halftime it was 38-13. The trajectory of the game did not veer off course in the second half.

Irondale’s leading scorer came off the bench. Sophomore lefty Dora Okpara came up with 18 points and drew the Teddies’ interior defenders into foul trouble; one fouled out, the other gathered four fouls. Okpara had a double double, almost a 20/20 with 23 rebounds.

Irondale’s starters had an 84.8 pp100, their bench was more potent at 102.6.

Last year Irondale was 13-14. The real test for the Knights awaits when they get to the NW Suburban. Roosevelt is looking to improve on their five wins from 2017-18.

	Irondale	Minneapolis Roosevelt
POINTS	67	21
REBOUNDS	59/29	44/14
TURNOVERS	10	32
FT ATT/%	22/50.0	7/28.6
2FG%/3FG%	38.6/18.2	15.6/17.6
PP100	94.4	30.4
LEADING SCORER	Dora Okpara 18	Jamelia Wright 10

TRENCH PLAYER: Dora Okpara with 18 points, 23 rebounds, 128.6 pp100, & 26 in the 31 Club.