An absolutely incredible start for Simmons and Hannan. Simmons is working his way into the lane at will and Hannan is drilling every open 3. By the 10 minute mark, Hannan has 21 and they are starting to double him whenever he touches the ball. As a result, Simmons is finding even more room to operate and is scoring as well as passing it off to Cornette and other guys for easy baskets. I don't want to rest Simmons or Hannan with them both playing so incredible, but with 6 minutes to go, I rest them for the first time in the half. We are up 41-28.
With 2 minutes to go, we get our starters back into the game. We are up 48-32 as we've taken complete control of the game. Maybe I spoke too soon, Hannan misses a 3 and they close the gap to 48-36 before the end of the half.
Still, Hannan has had the most incredible 1st half of any of my players ever. He did it all - made 3's, even beat a few double teams (I've never seen guys split double teams with any regularity, but he did it twice.) He also had several nice layups and 1 nice dunk. As a result, Hannan is the player of the half with 28 points! He shot 11 of 13 and 6 of 8 from the arc. He also had 4 steals as he dominated the smaller Gatling. Simmons also with a nice first half had 9 points and 9 assists (mostly to Hannan but also 1 to Cornette and Clifford each.)
Hannan is being slowed down by constant double teams and our offense just isn't clicking at the same level. With 8:52 to go, we are up 64-54 as I rest my starters.
Our bench with some solid transition baskets off Waters' steals and we build the lead to 15. Since they never get closer than 13, I let the bench finish it off. 83-70 win
Hannan was the player of the game with 35 points, 4 boards, and 4 steals. He shot 13 of 19, 6 of 10, and 3 of 6. They double teamed him the entire second half. He also held Gatling to 11 points on 5 of 15 shooting.
Simmons finished with 11 points, 11 assists, 2 steals, and 2 turnovers. He shot 5 of 8, 0 of 2 from the arc, and 1 of 2 from the line.
Gill with 5 points and 4 boards on 2 of 7 shooting.
Cornette with 4 points, 4 boards, 2 steals, a block. He only shot 2 of 5 as we never got to pounding it inside with Hannan being so hot in the first half.
Clifford with 2 points, 7 boards, 2 assists, and a block.
Bowers and Chen Li scored most of our points down the stretch. Bowers had 9 on 3 of 7 shooting and Li had 8 on 2 of 6 shooting, 1 of 4, and 3 of 4 from the line. In just 14 minutes, Waters had 3 points, 4 assists, and 4 steals as he harassed their slower point guard.