GBB Out & About: Rosemount v Burnsville 1.22.2020

ROSEMOUNT 69, BURNSVILLE 42

This was a make up game from the Friday storm last weekend, the first of many makeup games. The storyline in this game featured two top 20 teams that were coming off recent losses. #15 Burnsville fell to Apple Valley on Tuesday; #8 Rosemount stumbled against Eden Prairie on Monday and were playing their third straight game (they beat Eagan on Tuesday). This game had implications for the South Suburban conference race and section 3AAAA seeding too. Both teams were the top two teams (according to QRF) in 3AAAA. On top of that, this game featured two sharpshooters whose stats were almost mirror images of each other. Larisa O’Neil was the Irish’s lucky charm with six 3s on ten attempts as she racked up 20 points (she made her only 2 field goal attempt). Megan Diggan lit a fire for the Blaze with six 3s on nine tries, good for 19 points (she was ½ at the free throw line).

So where were the differences? Rosemount had more support outside for O’Neil as they were 4/17 (.235) with three other players converting 3s. That easily trumped the Blaze with a 1/14 mark (.071). Even more telling was what happened after the shots. Besides O’Neil and Diggan most shots were misses. Rosemount dominated the glass on both sides—a whopping 28 differential. The Irish almost had as many offensive rebounds as Burnsville had total rebounds. The Blaze managed to scrape together only three offensive boards. With each miss Rosemount had a 32/35 chance to gather the board an overwhelming .914 mark. The Irish were almost 50/50 on their offensive chance boards 15/31 (.484).

These trends were prevalent right from the start. Zhane Thompson drew first blood with the only other 3 for the Blaze on the second possession. Rosemount took the lead on their sixth possession and never gave it up. Rosemount nailed three straight 3s–an O’Neil-Janssen-O’Neil sandwich and it was 13-5. Another O’Neil 3 made it 25-9 at the 6:07 mark. Diggan responded for her first 3 on the next Burnsville possession. Still the Irish were safely in charge at half 39-19. Burnsville had a surge in the second half spearheaded by Diggan when she knocked down two straight 3s to cut the deficit to 47-33 with 10:12 left, plenty of time provided the aerial circus could be maintained. The other side needed to ground the Rosemount launches. That did not happen. Janssen immediately responded with her own 3. O’Neil added a pair of 3s around the six minute mark and the crisis had passed. Both teams went to the reserves with three minutes left.

Tonight, was the head coach debut of Jaya Perkins for Burnsville. She played at Lakeville North and was a junior when the Panthers won the state in 2010. She replaced coach Maurice Hodges who was off due to two technical fouls against Apple Valley the night before. The second was a failure to wear the seatbelt.

I now have charted 79.03 percent of the AAAA crowd. There are 13 left of the list.

The Irish maintained their status in the South Suburban with an unblemished mark at 9-0; host Burnsville drops to fourth with a 5-4 mark.

  ROSEMOUNT BURNSVILLE
POINTS 69 42
REBOUNDS/OFF 47/15 19/3
TURNOVERS 17 16
2FGA/% 31/54.83 23/34.78
3FGA/% 27/37.03 23/30.43
FTA/% 7/71.42 8/62.50
PP100 111.3 68.9
TOP SCORER Larisa O’Neil 20 Megan Diggan 19

TRENCH PLAYER: Helen Staley of Rosemount with 19 points, 126.7 pp100 and a 32 score in the 31 Club.  Despite all the O’Neil fireworks, Staley provided seven d stops and six distributions—value added of 13.

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