ROSEMOUNT 61, PRIOR LAKE 58

Rosemount survived Prior Lake on the road 61-58 on Tuesday evening. Survived is the key word. The luck was with the Irish as they saw an eight point lead with 38.3 seconds left melt down to two thanks to efforts of PL’s Haidyn Pitsch. Pitsch delivered strikes down the stretch that made Rosemount reach for the antacid tablets. First was a triple from up top. An Irish free throw pushed the lead back to six. Off the second attempt, a miss, Pitsch received the pass and raced down to slice the deficit to four with 16.1 seconds left (60-56). After a PL time out, Rosemount went for the home run ball. That shot was off, but they got the rebound. Again, the Irish went to the line, but forgot their lucky charm. They missed the front end this time. Again, Pitsch was on the receiving end of the pass after the rebound and made it a two point game with another layup (60-58). BAM! Another PL time out at 5.4. Taylor Janssen was fouled with 4.0 seconds remaining. She missed the front of her free throw, but since the Lakers reached ten fouls, she got another. This time she capitalized on it for the final margin. PL did not have a time out remaining and their shot selection came to a driving two. Perhaps they were looking for an &1 but the drive did not fall, and no fouls were involved. Perhaps they didn’t realize they needed a three.

This was one of the rare games where both team’s pp100 topped 100. The reason for all the elevated totals? 3 point shooting. As has been typical when I chart Rosemount, Larisa O’Neil cashed in six times on twelve attempts. The Irish, as a team, connected eleven times; Taylor Janssen had four; Ivory Finley had a solo shot. PL made one less, and that was the difference in the game. Four Lakers dialed long distance with Pitsch and Kate Trachsel each scoring four times beyond the arc. All five Rosemount starters had 100+ pp100 scores, PL had four starters reach that coveted number.

Even though the game appeared close at the end, Rosemount led most of the night with a bigger margin. They enjoyed leads of seven (26-19) in the first half—forcing PL to burn one of their five timeouts—-and 13 (44-31) in the second half. Throughout the game there was an “anything you can do I can do better” rhythm. For example, on that widest margin for Rosemount, O’Neil (surprise) hit a 3. Pitsch answered on PL’s next possession. This sequencing happened six times during the contest.

Keeping with the former Missota conference theme that started Monday I traveled to another Scott County school. This contest was much more riveting than Monday’s. By the way, once upon a time all the schools in the South Suburban were members of the Missota at one point (minus the newly created schools).

There are only six AAAA remaining to be charted. Two more will fall this week. Right now, 90% of the AAAA teams have been charted. As for the QRF top 100 listing 11 are remaining. Four are to drop by Sunday.

The ending tonight reminded me of a game at Rosemount many moons ago with Burnsville. The Blaze had an 8 point lead with five seconds left. Rosemount launched a half court heave. A Blaze player fouled. The same player mouthed off. BAM! Technical. Five free throws later it was a three point game. The throw in went to a kid under the basket. ?????? The final was a one point win for Burnsville.

	ROSEMOUNT	PRIOR LAKE
POINTS	61	58
REBOUNDS/OFF	30/15	27/9
TURNOVERS	11	16
2FGA/%	27/37.03	25/44.00
3FGA/%	25/44.00	19/52.63
FTA/%	15/53.33	8/75.00
PP100	113.0	105.5
TOP SCORER	Larisa O’Neil 18	Kate Trachsel 18

TRENCH PLAYER: Helen Staley with 15 points, 100 pp100 and right on the nose with 31 in the 31 Club. The only 31 Clubber of the night. She played at the high post, had nine distributions with five of O’Neil’s 3s coming off her pass. Staley also had seven d stops and was 5/6 at the line.