Friday, March 13, 2009

Halftime thoughts

It's been an interesting game so far in the finale from Gwinnett Arena. The Wheeler Wildcats currently lead the Milton Eagle 29-18 at the break.

It was a tale of two quarters in the first half. Milton grabbed some early momentum by hanging around and energizing the crowd by taking the lead several times early. But Wheeler poured it on in the 2nd quarter, storming to an 11 point halftime lead. Interestingly, they did so without playing their best basketball. The 'Cats scored just two points in the final three minutes after widening the gap beforehand. Stewart and Howell missed several open jumpers and they turned the ball over a multitude of times. If they had executed, this lead could be much larger.

As for Milton, they fell apart in the second quarter. Freshman Evan Nolte has looked the part so far (I can't say I blame him, it can't be easy to play in this atmosphere as a frosh), missing three open treys and a pair of free throws. Julian Royal has had a tough go of it so far, with the size of Howell and Stewart clearly bothering him. For an inexperienced team playing on this big stage for the first time (and it's the first of many times they will do that), it's going to be tough to get back into this game.

We're three minutes away from the second half, see you then!