Game 14: Knoxville vs. Alleman (Girl's)

Game 14
Knoxville vs. Alleman (Girl's)
Galesburg Thanksgiving Tournament
(11/20/10)

After staying up until close to 1:00 a.m. getting caught up on laundry, the 6:00 a.m. alarm wasn't too welcomed. As I one-eyed the clock, I did the "bedroom math." Bedroom math is where you try to figure out (to the minute), at what the latest time is that you can wake up and get ready without being late to your appointment. It can be quite an adventure sometimes, especially for a moron like me that sets his alarm clock ahead 10-15 minutes. On the other hand, it's an early morning brain exercise that can supercharge the mind....maybe.



I did good with the bedroom math, and in fact was running early. Actually, really early since I was hung up waiting for an AMTRACK train for about 10 minutes after grabbing my morning jolt of coffee. I even made a stop at the radio station on my way to the gym to get the sports page.

Knoxville and Alleman were battling out the 9:00 a.m. game. Alleman will play the one game, and then root on their Pioneers football team that will be hosting Sandwich in the afternoon of the Class 4A Semi-finals.

Freshmen were on display this morning. The Blue Bullets feature three rookies in their regular rotation, Haley Kelso, Kelly Lenz, and Paige Putnam. The trio combined for 13 points in the eventual 41-37 loss to Alleman. Meanwhile, the Pioneers feature Cierra Davis, a freshman, who finished with 10 points. She is more valuable with her guard play and defense.

The one achilles heel of the Blue Bullets that will give them trouble, at least early on, is their ball handling. Too many turnovers. After committing five turnovers in the first few minutes of the game, they played a pretty mistake free second quarter, and had 10 turnovers in the first half. The third quarter was not good, with an additional 10 turnovers in that eight minute stretch. Knoxville turned the ball over 24 times. Alleman didn't fare much better in the turnover department, coughing up the ball 19 times.

After a good second quarter, Knoxville took a 17-11 lead into halftime, but the Pioneers outscored the Bullets, 17-10 in that third quarter. Makenzie Frank led Knoxville with 10 points, including a pair of clutch three-pointers.