17:11: Pardon gets a 2nd foul on Alexander. We are up 9-2 with Sockwell dominating early. I know this is a team with no true center so Sockwell is getting off easy tonight, but I think Sockwell is going to have a better year than Peterson did because of his faster foot speed.
16:39: Pardon gets his 2nd foul.
12:27: We are up 15-2. This team is playing with incredible intensity early.
12:21: Gardner gets his 2nd foul. I love his defensive intensity.
10:24: We were up 21-3, but we've given up 2 3's. Time to rest our tiring starters. Sockwell has had a brilliant first 9 1/2 minutes. He has 12 points, 5 boards, and 3 blocks so far.
We bring in Sutton, Bruce, Goodman, Henning, and Abram. However, Hicks will get a look at PF later this game as well.
Goodman's first points come after he is fouled on a breakaway. He makes both FT's and hits a corner 3 on our next possession.
7:05: Goodman with a fastbreak dunk and he gets fouled! He makes the FT to put us up 37-13.
4:50: We are up 44-17 as our starters return. Goodman scored 11 points in that stretch including 2 3's.
3:45 to go: Gardner picks up a 3rd foul. I decide to try Goodman at PF.
That experiment didn't go well. They score 16 in the final 4 minutes and Goodman picks up 3 fouls. However, Goodman did make a NBA buzzer beating 3 at the half. We are up 57-33.
Sockwell was the player of the half with 20 points, 6 boards, and 3 blocks.
19:33: Pardon picks up his 4th foul.. I'm letting him play through it.
18:18: Pardon fouls out! Goodman will come in for him.
17:14: Goodman picks up a 4th. We are up 62-42. We lost that early defensive intensity..
8:48 to go: I think we fould the defensive intensity again. We just finished a 28-0 run!
I should have puilled my starters earlier, but I just couldn't do it during that run. We are up 90-44. I wonder if Gardner is the key to our defensive intensity? He has great hustle. Anyway, with the big lead we pull our starters. Hicks and Baldwin both get into the game.
What a great home win to start the year. 105-55 win.
Sockwell was the player of the game with 30 points, 13 boards, and 4 blocks. He shot 12 of 17, 0 of 0, and 6 of 8. Like I said, I think his speed at center is going to make him dominant. He's much more of a mismatch with that speed than he was at PF.
Everyone gets their performance reviewed tonight with this great game:
Singleton: He didn't shoot from the field once because everything was clicking so well. He did a good job of distributing with 5 assists and he had 1 point on 1 of 2 FT shooting.
Chancler: Tonight he was more of a setup man than anything. He set up at least 4 easy dunks for Chancler by driving into the lane and throwing beautiful lob passes. He finished with 1 points, 6 assists, 4 boards, and 3 steals in a well rounded performance. He shot 3 of 4, 1 of 1, and 4 of 7.
Pardon only played 16 minutes due to fouling out. He mostly was focused on defense and rebounding. He scored 3 points and had 6 boards. He shot 1 of 4, 0 of 2, and 1 of 2.
Gardner: 7 points, 6 boards, 2 assists, and a block. He shot 2 of 7 and 3 of 4 from the line. He played great defense.
Bruce: Very efficient night. 9 points, 3 assists, 1 steal. He shot 4 of 5, 1 of 1, and 0 of 0.
Sutton: Only got to play 6 minutes due to the blowout but was very productive for such limited time. He scored 2 points and had 3 assists (all to Goodman.)
Goodman: What a debut! I wasn't even trying to feed him the ball, but it just kept flowing to him naturally. He's faster than I thought, he handles the ball really well, and he has a quick, smooth shooting motion. I haven't had such a natural shooter since Hannan. He finished the night with 26 points, 3 boards, 2 assists, and a steal in what I believe is the best debut I've seen (maybe Hannan was better.) He shot 8 of 15, 3 of 7, and 7 of 8. His abilities will allow Pardon to be much more aggressive. Oh yeah, Goodman did all of this in just 19 minutes!
Abram: A very productive 14 minutes with 4 points and 5 boards.
Henning: A productive 14 minutes with 4 points, 4 boards, 1 assist, and 1 steal.
Baldwin: In 9 minutes, he had 6 points, 2 boards, and 2 steals. He shot 2 of 4 from the arc.
Hicks: He won an extended opportunity to be the #1 backup PF next game. I loved what he did in his 9 minutes. He is very rangy and quick and had a nice 9 minutes with 2 points, 5 boards, 1 assist, and 1 block.