Gleneagle vs MEI

I keep going to games and watching upsets, it's happened 3 times in a row now. The Gleneagle Talons downed the MEI Eagles by 10+ tonight in the first round of the FV playoffs. The Talons were the 11th seed while the Eagles were the 7th seed. There was a sizeable crowd at the neutral Heritage Woods location, around 100 on hand including a throng of around 30 Gleneagle Hecklers complete with a drum. The Talons are led by starting PG Daniel Damien while the Eagles by a combination of Jon Loewen, Karl Toews and Jesse Smith.

Both teams showed the first game jitters early missing easy shots and sloppy passing. But the pace sped up considerably as both teams used their quick gaurd play to run the floor at break neck speed. Damien pushing the play for the Talons, while Loewen answered for the Eagles. Early advantage to the Talons for being slightly quicker, Talons by 3 in the teens.

The Talons upped the tempo in the 2nd quarter flying down the floor offensively and extremely active on the defensive end. Both teams pressed, Talons with a soft full-court man on man. Eagles with a 3-2 zone press. The Talons exploited the Eagles press using their quickness and precision passing. The Talons used a combination of dribble penetration, spot up 15 foot jumpers, and an extremely effective swarming half-court man defense. The Talons stretched the lead to 10+ before the Eagles foutght back with a couple of 3s by Loewen and Smith brought them back within 6. 36-30 for the Talons at half.

The Eagles came out with a great game plan to start the 2nd half with a 3-2 zone that zoned the Talons to death. Damien got into some foul trouble picking up his 2nd and 3rd fouls early in the quarter. The Eagles used their height and size advantage in the post with Smith anchoring to claw back to within 3, 47-44 by the close of the 3rd quarter. Smith was dominating scoring at will down low and from the outside. The post play allowed Loewen and Toews to get open. The Eagles also owned the glass in the 3rd. On defense, the 3-2 zone completely threw off the Talons. They shot and missed several 3 pointers as well as turning over the ball.

Damien came back in for the 4th. After Talons guard Drew Slaght hit a couple of 3s, the Eagles called a timeout and switched back to man-to-man defense. On offense, the Eagles resorted to shooting 3s as the Talons lead continued to grow. Damien shredded the Eagles' one-on-one man defense and stretched the lead to 13+ with less than 2 min left. The Eagles were unable to execute offensively settling for outside shots and missing most of them. The Talons closed out the game with a 70+ to 50+ score.

Here's why Gleneagle won and MEI lost.
- speed kills. And the Talons are all about speed. One-on-one, the Eagles did not have anyone that could contain Damien.
- The Talons are never idle on offense or defense. All players are always in motion slashing to the hoop on offense, and creating incredible ball pressure and controlling the passing lanes on defense.
- The Eagles did everything opposite of what they should've done. They pressed a quicker team. It took them 1 half of play to figure that didn't work.
- After the 3-2 zone limited the high octane Talons offense to 11 points in the 3rd, the Eagles switched to man for the 4th and watched a 3 point Talon turn into 13+ in a span of 2 min.
- They shot the 3 when they should've used their size advantage down low.
- After dominating the 3rd quarter, the Eagles refused to get Smith the ball in the 4th.

The game was a great matchup on paper as both teams had great backcourts. The Talons easily won that matchup with their incredible spped. Damien is a solid point guard. He could be as good as Ryan Murray. I say Murray has a better first step but in terms of fast break speed they are about even. Drew Slaght was solid as well at the SG spot. There was a Gr. 9 player, #21, don't know his name but he was solid. Weakness for this team is obviously size. They get outrebounded and have trouble guarding big physical post players down low. When the Eagles switched to the 3-2 zone, the Talons struggled. Because they play the game at 100 mph, they don't have the patience to work the zone by passing and cutting and finding the holes in the zone. I think the Talons are a dangerous team that could finish as high as 5 or 6 and sneak into the Provincials.

The Eagles have enough talent and skill to beat the top teams in the Fraser Valleys. Jon Loewen and Karl Toews make up a great backcourt. Both are fundamentally very sound, good handles, solid shooting, and good defenders. Jesse Smith looked better today then he really is, he was the biggest player on the floor today and had his way down low when he got the ball. Against bigger teams, I think he would be more or less average. Some of the strategies throughout this game were certainly questionable. They tried to run with the Talons and got burned. When they slowed the game down and got close, they allowed the Talons to speed up the game again and run away with it. I think the Eagles potentially could get one of the last few berths, but had they played to their potential all year, they would be a #1 or #2 seed and not a #7 seed, so I'm saying they won't make it.