Game 12:
#7 J&W (9-2, RPI 7) at Emmanuel (5-7, RPI 29), line J&W by 12
Well I screwed this one up, but fortunately it worked out anyway. I looked at the gameplan last night, but with the day off I forgot to change my lineup back from the previous game. So we started a very young lineup against a pretty good Emmanuel team. They were 5-7 coming in, but had played a very tough schedule and lost some close games.
I noticed there was a big difference in defense between their PG and SG (and they play M2M), so I gave Tolley a little more distro than normal and took Fuson's way down. And of course it seemed to make zero difference as they both took about the same number of shots they've been taking. +1 for gameplanning mattering.
I knew Emmanuel would take almost no 3's, so my only question was whether to play -2 or -3. I stuck with -2, but I think that's a debatable decision. I mean if I knew for a fact that they would only shoot 1/4 on 3s, then should I play -3? -4? -5? I worry about creating foul problems the further I go with it, so I tend to stay away from the bigger numbers unless I think it's needed.
The game was very competitive in the 1st half, with Emmanuel's Johnson and Seda taking advantage of my FR frontcourt. We eventually pulled away in the 2nd half for the 65-52 win behind Tolley's efficient 26 points. Emmanuel hurt themselves too much with 16 TOs (running slowdown) and only 15/26 at the FT line.
Big win for JW, especially considering my lineup mistake, as Emmanuel is nearly always in the race for the division title in the GNE. Up tonight is a team having a similar season to Emmanuel, St Joe's. They're 7-6, but with a 13 RPI and 1 SOS. I will probably experiment with the lineup some more now after how this game went.