Five Things to Know: Holy Family Routes a Tired Jordan Team
Holy Family defeated Jordan 85-55 Friday night behind 20 three point makes against a Jordan team playing their third game in four nights. It wasn’t a fair match-up on that night.
One. A Contender for the State Tournament, Believe It. It’s not just that Holy Family is 11-2 on the year and just wore out Jordan, it’s how they played together. Holy Family’s rapid ball movement combined with active players cutting, wrapped in with unselfish players that play within their role, that is why they found space to make 20 three-pointers and obliterate the Hubmen (sorry for all these adjectives and aggressive verbs Jordan, it was a tough night). This is a Holy Family team that has experience. They knocked Brooklyn Center out of the playoffs last year and they’ve defeated Breck, Rockford, Annandale, and Jordan this year (early season losses to Maranatha and Brooklyn Center who earned themselves some revenge). The schedule gets tougher with Byron, Orono, Delano, New Prague, and Waconia coming up in the next 3.5 weeks but this team is prepared. Nathan Hendler and Lincoln Cizek but guys like Griffin Johnson and Jaocb Zay are versatile guys that play their role and many coming off the bench can shoot.
Two. Find Lincoln! The Holy Family senior is scoring 20 a game this year. How? The veteran shooter has an understanding of the offense and a sharp mind about finding space and knowing where his teammates will locate him. Cizek hit four threes in the first half scoring 16 plus he assisted on three other scores. Jordan switched their best defender on Lincoln (Tiedman stands 6-foot-6) and Lincoln was the same player within the offense, he just took shots from way deeper on the floor. Those went in too as Cizek, who is a big time golfer which is what he will go to college for I’m told, hit eight threes on his way to 28 points. He and Hendler are a legit 1-2 punch.
Three. Tiedman Can Pass it Too. If you are familiar with Eric Tiedman you know that at 6-foot-5 or 6-foot-6 he is one of the elite defenders in the state of Minnesota and an active scorer that gets numbers with his activity using his physical gifts. What I didn’t know was that Eric is such a sharp passer. He recorded nine assists and they came from high-low looks, kick outs from the post, ball reversals, transition pushes, and cutter hits facing the cup. Eric also had six boards and 17 points in this game plus shut down Nathan Hendler in the first half scoring wise as Tiedman generally does. Again, a steal of a worker for Augustana.
Four. Hendler. As I said Nathan Hendler only scored twice in the first half with Tiedman on him but I didn’t feel Nathan was flustered, he simply kept working within the team offense moving the ball so other Holy Family players could hurt the Hubmen. And they did. Cizek, Johnson, and Ryan Bowlin all put quality first half points on the board and Hendler had no problems setting screens for them and moving the ball to find them. And once Tiedman moves off of Hendler, the Holy Family forward ate up the rest of the Jordan players. Nathan moved off the ball to find space for four threes and with Tiedman chasing Cizek, Hendler was too physical and too savvy for his opponents working his way to 20 points on 7 of 13 shooting.
Five. Tired Bunch. There was a lay-up attempt that Tiedman finished where usually he would of given the fans an explosive dunk but Eric barely even left his feet for this second half score and right there you could see that three games in four days was wearing on him. Jordan got a huge win over Mayer Lutheran on Tuesday and then beat Class AAAA Bloomington Kennedy on Thursday. Meanwhile, Holy Family hadn’t played in a week. Holy Family is good but this was not a telling game for what Jordan is. In Class AA, Jordan is still the Section 2 AA favorite and in the North 2AA sub-section, they and Sibley East are the only teams with a winning record. On the south side NRHEG is 12-1 and Maple River is 7-6. After that all the south teams have losing records. With only four of the 15 in 2AA having winning records it’s safe to say Jordan has a solid shot at state.