3 things to look for in Saturday’s Lausanne-FACS matchup
Lausanne and FACS made it out of Friday and will meet Saturday night for the Division II-A West Region Tournament Championship. The Crusaders had to grind out a 60-55 win out over Tipton-Rosemark Academy. The Lynx were in a close…
Access all of Prep Hoops
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue ReadingLausanne and FACS made it out of Friday and will meet Saturday night for the Division II-A West Region Tournament Championship.
The Crusaders had to grind out a 60-55 win out over Tipton-Rosemark Academy. The Lynx were in a close one with ECS for three quarters before outscoring the Eagles 29-12 in the final eight minutes to win the game 69-50.
Now that the championship game is set, let’s take a look at the three things to look for heading into Saturday.
How will FACS defend Moussa Cisse?
The 6-foot-11 big man led Lausanne with 27 points, 18 rebounds and eight blocks. Cisse had 11 points after the first quarter, with eight of those points coming off dunks. He made a 3 in the early minutes of the first quarter. Cisse had 17 points at halftime. ECS sat in a 2-3 zone all game, trying to force other players for the Lynx to score, but that didn’t work.
The Crusaders threw different defensive sets at Rebels junior wing Alex Anderson. Anderson, who finished with 13 points, saw a 1-3-1 zone, 2-3 zone and man-to-man. FACS even sent two bodies at Anderson to force him to give the basketball up.
Will the Crusaders defense Cisse the same way? Probably so since he led the offense from start to finish.
Can Jalen Bo Montgomery and Johnathan DeJurnett play well again?
Since this tournament has started, senior combo guard Jalen Bo Montgomery and senior forward Johnathan DeJurnett have scored in double figures. That continued Friday night as Montgomery finished with 17 points, eight rebounds and five assists. DeJurnett added 15 points, five blocks and went 8 for 8 from the field, converting on two 3-point plays.
Montgomery scored nine of his 17 points in the third quarter when it was still a close game.
Montgomery and DeJurnett scoring in double figures takes a lot of pressure off of Cisse and forces the defense to respect the offensive capabilities of Montgomery and DeJurnett. That also gives Lausanne’s offense balance.
Can FACS shoot the ball well enough to beat Lausanne?
The Crusaders didn’t shoot the well extremely well in their win over Tipton-Rosemark Academy, but they didn’t need to, thanks to big scores down the stretch from junior guard TJ Thomas, who led FACS with 25 points in the win.
But against the Lynx, the Crusaders will need to make shots from the outside. Thomas got a lot of his points from driving into the paint. He won’t have much success with Cisse and DeJurnett standing in the paint. Senior guard Jayden Williams will need to have another double-digit performance. He had 12 against the Rebels. Sophomore guards Kobe Wilkes and Corey Savage will need to make shots. Junior guard Josh Ward will need to make shots. Wilkes, Savage and Ward combined to score 13 points against Tipton-Rosemark Academy. That won’t be enough to beat Lausanne. Sophomore forward Daniel Egbuniwe will need to make shots as well. He had 10 against the Rebels.
Third place game
Tipton-Rosemark Academy will play ECS. This matchup will feature two solid players in the 2021 class in Alex Anderson and Kameron Jones. Both are coming off not-so-good performances, but will look to bounce back in Saturday’s third place game. Jones had 18 points in his team’s loss to the Lynx. Tip-off is at 5:30 p.m. at the University School of Jackson.