SHP vs St. Francis

[CCSman1]

St. Francis the WCAL champs and in my mind and almost everybody's mind the best team in CCS. They are going up against SHP who are undersized, but have the shooters to make up for it. I feel like St. Francis is just a bigger version of SHP. Witt and Stapes are phenomenal shooters just like Randall and Koch, but SHP doesn't have something St. Francis has and that is Hewitt the 6'9" size inside. If SHP had a kid that was his size their team would be almost twice as good. SHP is gonna struggle to deal with Hewitt, Stapes, and Benedetti because of their size. Stapes is a great shooter with that height is a deadly combo against SHP, whose tallest player is 6'3". SHP will also cause problems with their full court pressure that cause teams to turn the ball over constantly giving them free buckets. If they can keep the pressure and force turnovers at a good rate and convert those into points they will have a good shot at winning the game. SHP has to shoot better than they did last game. They shot 38% from 3, which is not terrible, but in order to upset St. Francis they will need to shoot around 43%-45%. I really want to take SHP, but St. Francis is too good. I would not be surprised one bit is SHP wins cause they are a legit team and can hang with any WCAL team. I think St. Francis' size is too much and will take the game late from the Gators and win by 5.

St. Francis: 64
SHP: 59

Comment with your predictions
This post was edited on 3/1 5:08 PM by CCSman1

 

[colhenrylives]

Very bad matchup for SHP. SF beat Serra twice. Serra beat SHP on the road. All of the signs point to a SF win. The margin? We'll see.

 

[Rmbr26]

So it seems the game comes down to these 3 players from the 2 teams:

SF: Hewitt - 6'9", Benedetti - 6'5", Stapes 6'4"

SHP: Koch - 6'3", Randall - 6'0, Moses - 6'0.

How SF's big 3 scored against Fremont: Stapes 14, Benedetti - 11, Hewitt - 10 [35 points total]

How SHP's big 3 scored against Riordan: Randall 15, Koch 11, Moses 11 [37 points total]

So SF has the decided size advantage & its a big one. SHP will almost certainly rely on their F/C Dashbach who was the TE on the football team for help on the boards. SF lost twice to Mitty another team who size wise could compete with SF. Besides the home loss at Riordan the SF Lancer's also lost in a low scoring game 37-36 to Bellarmine - a team very similar in size to SHP.
On paper it does not appear that SHP can trade buckets with SF and win in a shoot out. Despite its high scoring during the season SHP will likely have to press on D the entire game and try to slow it down as much as possible - which is another reason I do not think there is going to be a 20-point difference in the outcome. I could be wrong on this if SHP has absolutely no answer for SF's size, but I do think however that SHP is a good disciplined team and will try to make adjustments for this between Koch & Daschbach. SF has the edge in the Front Court while SHP has a def edge in the Back Court. If SHP's Randall & Moses shoot lights out it will be an interesting game. As with football SHP's Randall is very good in the clutch.

 

[jordan24]

Though St. Francis is favored, as well they should be as being the #1 seeded team, do not sell this SHP team short. Having seen this team up close and personal, they may be shorter in stature than SF, but have long and athletic players that are very well coached and know how to spread the floor and anyone can score. They also play WCAL-style physical D as I was surprised the refs let many calls go and continued letting both teams play a physical game throughout. In the Riordan game, the Crusaders had many multiple put-back opportunities (one was at least a 5 rebound sequence) but the ball simply did not fall into the bucket. SHP will not back down and SF's Hewitt does not play physical or finish strong for being the tallest player on the floor unless he has no one around him. WIll be interesting how this scenario develops.
I think the key to the game is SF's pg, Witt, and 6th man, Thomas, as this rotation may eventually wear down the Gators. If SF plays D, the Lancers win. SHP likes to run and was averaging 72 points a game until the Crusaders limited them to 21 first half points and 51 for the game. Unfortunately, the only offensive weapon they had was Stansberry. SHP employed an effective full court zone press that pestered the Crusaders into getting into an offensive flow. WIll be interesting if they do this to the Lancers. Should be a great game! St. Francis 62 - SHP 58

 

[PAL95]

This game will come down to who shoots the ball well. This gym is tough for shooters as it has the huge open background like college gyms. I have seen alot of playoff games here where the good shooters struggle early. Which team will adjust?

 

[NorCalSportsFan]

Gators could pull the upset.

 

[CCSman1]

Wow not to be cocky but I predicted the score.

 

[PAL95]

Like I said this gym is a tough shooting gym if you have never played there. Not only on the three point shot, but both games I saw multiple layups and put backs that didn't fall. Those rims do not give.