McDowell 46 General McLane 35

I arrived at General McLane at the end of the first quarter of the JV game with the Lancers up 17-4. I thought this was going to be a laugher but McDowell's coach wasn't laughing. As a matter of fact he encouraged and challenged his team to not give up and boy did they rise to his challenge. After 3 quarters McLane's lead was only 5 at 36-31 and at :38.3 of the fourth it was all tied at 44-44. With :o1.5 left on the clock, McDowell missed two free throws and went on to lose a tough one 54-49 but I was very impressed with McDowell's comeback and kudos to the coach.

Now on to the main event. Both teams were playing pressure defence all over the floor and points were hard to come by. McDowell jumped out to a 4-0 lead but McLane came back and tied it 4-4 on a bucket by Shawn Walker. Jason Keim gave McDowell a 9-7 lead at the 1:04 mark on a nice 3 point play the old fashioned way but McLane quickly knotted it up at 9 to end the first quarter.

The second quarter was much like the first with pressure defense by both squads and blocked shots by McDowell's big man Keim. McDowell outscored McLane by one point 10-9 with Shawn Walker netting 5 for the Lancers and five different players for McDowell getting 2 each. Halftime score 19-18 McDowell.

The third quarter was the key for McDowell as they turned up the heat and the offense scoring 21 to 10 over the Lancers. Several of their points came as a result of GM overplaying on defense and getting backdoored. Their 21 points were more than the 19 they scored the whole first half. Score after three was 40-28 McDowell.

The fourth quarter was basically Coach Hetz slowing it down and using clock as they only mustered 6 points but they held McLane to only 7 and breezed to a 46-35 victory.

Observations: McDowell is strong and play a very disciplined game. The Keim boy rebounds well and blocks shots to give McDowell a presence in the paint. They move the ball very well and attack the lane. I also noticed that they have a strong bench.

McLane's Shawn Walker is a man under the basket but he also hit two 3's tonight to lead all scorers with 14 points. After a tough 3rd quarter these kids never gave up and played hard to the end which I have come to expect from an Andy Shultz coached team.

BigSkinny Player of the Game: McDowell's Jason Keim who scored a team high 13 and rebounded well with at keast 4 blocked shots.

Pictures are here: http://www.bigskinnyonline.com/McLaneMcDowell.htm