PARK CENTER 73, TOTINO-GRACE 58

There were four NW Suburban conference games on the docket on a rare Wednesday night. #5AAAA Park Center hosted #19AAA Totino-Grace and picked up their fourth win in a row with a 73-58 victory. The score was closer that the spread most of the night. The Pirates led 68-38 with about 7 minutes to go. The Eagles soared when PC went to the reserves to the tune of 20-5. In the last 1:30 they scored seven unanswered points. By that time, it was a forgone conclusion to the outcome. Comparing starters vs starters PC overwhelmed TG 67-36 or 117.5 pp100 to 67.9. TG had the upper hand when it came to the bench 22-6 or 104.8 pp100 to 31.6. PC’s bench is shorter now that T’Naye Griffin is injured. She was at the game on crutches. The Pirate defense established its presence early getting two turnovers in the first three TG possessions. The PC starters ended the night with 15 steals. PC’s starters also took better care of the ball with 17 touches per turnover to 9 for the reserves. The differential in shooting percentage was pronounced as well with 54% to 21% in 2s and 36.8% to 0% in 3s. Adalia McKenzie picked up a couple of fouls early and was sent to the pine with 9:07 left in the first half. PC was up 21-9 at that point. She returned at the 5:20 mark of the first half. In the interim PC lost the time sequence 5-2. McKenzie can provide that instant jolt on both ends of the court. When she next left the court with 55.1 seconds left in the first half PC’s lead zoomed to 39-18, a 16-4 advantage.

Besides the dynamic McKenzie, who had 23 points on the night, Lauren Frost made life frosty for TG with 28 points. The UN Omaha bound senior joined the 41 Club with a 45 which included 28 points, including a sizzling 4/5 mark from 3s; 12 d stops and 5 distributions on 14 set ups. Frost has a creative gene, sees the future, sees without staring and sees narrow openings that others don’t and that can result in some passes that teammates are not prepared for.

As for TG their storyline was flipped with bench and starters. The starters shot 62.5% compared to 30.76% from 2s and 66.67% to 23.52 from 3s. The two areas the TG starters had an advantage over their bench was at the line, where the bench did not attempt one free throw, and the touches per turnover; with the starters up 15.37 to 12.12 touches. My gold standard tends to be 30 plus—the mark of teams that win titles.

At half time PC led 42-21.

PC is now 16-3 with TG evened out at 9-9. But when looking at TG in class the Eagles are 1-2. Most of their competition is at the AAAA level. They have played ten games against teams that have appeared at least once in the polls (2-8). With that steady diet of a power schedule it could be an advantage in the postseason.

I have now seen 67.7% of the AAA teams.

This was my fifth PC charting this year.

	PARK CENTER	TOTINO-GRACE
POINTS	73	58
REBOUNDS/OFF	43/20	36/14
TURNOVERS	19	27
2FGA/%	51/45.09	34/38.23
3FGA/%	23/30.43	23/34.78
FTA/%	9/66.67	10/80.00
PP100	96.1	78.4
TOP SCORER	Lauren Frost 28	Carla Meyer 15

TRENCH PLAYER: Lauren Frost with 28 points, 140 pp100 and a 45 score in the 31 Club.