Five Things to Know: Codute Controls the Game
Orono’s season opening win was a showcase game for point guard Colton Codute. The senior point guard controlled the action on both ends of the floor allowing the Spartans a solid 71-47 opening night victory.
Today in “Five Things to Know” Prep Hoops reviews the game to give you the main parts of the Spartan opening night victory.
One. Codute Stands Out. The most memorable part of the senior’s night was the back to back to back scores in the second half that put the game away for good. Colton first attacked and completed an And1 at a tough angle while being hammered by the defense. Basket two was an attacking pull-up jumper made from about 11 feet and then the third score was a behind the back dribble into a quick And1 finish after a hesitation move to mess with the defender one more time.
Colton had 18 points on a dozen shot attempts plus another eight assists. His ball movement finding Jarvis Omersa for dunks and post touches, Griffen Sage for threes, and Max Bjorklund for scores set the tone early. His defense flustered Roosevelt from igniting any type of halfcourt offense resulting in several turnovers/poor shots taken. All in all Colton looked like game controlling PG both ways getting good touches for his teammates and stopping the opposition from any type of offensive rhythm.
Two. The Orono Support. There is a lot of it. Max Bjorklund is a scorer but never once did he force his offense Thursday night. Going into the half he had four points, four boards, and four assists doing some of everything for his team. He finished the game with ten points and five assists on ten shot attempts. Griffen Sage had the hot hand early scoring all of his ten points in the first half including hitting a pair of treys. Jarvis Omersa dealt with foul issues so his time was limited to about 18 minutes but he had two explosive dunks, a massive block, a pair of post moves, ten points, and seven boards.
Three. The Roosevelt Approach. Coach Rob Mestas had the right idea for trying to compete with one of the state’s best. His players came out with good ball movement against the zone, they hustled to boards, actively defended, and doubled Omersa hard inside. The problem was there offense could not hit shots not maintain any flow and a 20-14 game quickly became a 52-26 contest. Junior guard Deszi Sims, stands 5-foot-11, looks like a player to watch. With the Roosevelt offense struggling Sims used his quick first step and explosive leap to get into space for shots but many of them were tough. He made 7 of 23 looks which isn’t a good percentage but you could see the potential he has in scoring 18 against one of the state’s elite teams.
Four. Night One Double-Double. Because of the score some many have missed a great effort from Roosevelt senior guard Leo Buchwald. The strong wing knocked out three three-pointers for his 13 points overcoming a tough mid-game stretch to score many of his points in the second half. Buchwald also hustled to the glass for ten rebounds giving him a night one double-double.
Five. Spartan Depth. The depth of the Orono starting five is well known (Omersa, Colton, Sage, Bjorklund and Thomas Lecy who hit two threes) but how much depth do they have? Forward Blake O’Connor is a junior bruiser who is already experienced and can be counted on to battle. Mitchell Hirschberg looks like the ball handler/playmaker of the future as he did a lot of nice things backing up and playing with Codute. Eli Sustacek made a three plus some did some other things off the bench and Caleb Olson came off the bench playing hard. Also, another junior (all players mentioned here have been juniors) is Simon Rice, a 6-foot-5 lanky player. Rice seems to run well and shot the ball comfortably with good form.