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Health & Fitness

Ladue Rams Weekly Review: Cake Walk Week

The Ladue Rams played in arguably their easiest week of basketball this season as they took on 4-8 Wentzville Holt and winless McClure South-Berkley.

Having been in three tough tournaments, played Jennings in the conference, and challenging non-conference opponents, the Ladue Rams finally got a break from the  difficulties their schedule has provided them. Now they got to play at Nielson Gymnasium against 4-8 Holt. The Rams were coming off a desolating 74-41 loss to the number 1 ranked school in St. Louis, the CBC Cadets, and wanted to take out their frustration on the Indians.

At this time last year Ladue had just knocked off CBC and drove an hour to Wentzville with no heat in the cold bus and had to sit around for 2 hours until getting a warmup. Oh by the way it was a classic trap game too. The Rams came out cold and the Indians came out hot and treating Ladue like they were a top team in the state. The Rams survived Holt's scare. This year the Rams lost to CBC and were ready to punish whoever they played next, which was Holt and they had to take that unforgiving bus ride down highway 40.

The game started well for the Rams because they turned the Indians turnovers into points. Another fatal mistake Holt made was by opting to play man to man rather than a zone that has worked recently against Ladue. However they chose to try and keep up with the notoriously quicker Rams. Cornell Johnston ran through traps and past his man all night long, while finding an open Andrew Maddock Jon Collins under the basket because the defenders had to come out of position to stop Johnston.

With 5 seconds to play in the first quarter, Mark Rogers hit a 3 pointer from the corner to put the Rams ahead 24-9. When Holt inbounded the ball, the inbounder and the receiver assumed Ladue would fall back and defend the half court shot that they would unleash. Connor Spirtas had other ideas. He jumped right in front of the receiver and stole the ball then took 2 dribbles and unleashed a 22 footer that went in as the buzzer sounded to put the Rams up 27-9 after the first quarter.

Holt didn't cry uncle just yet as they held there own and only got outscored 24-21 in the second quarter and trailed 51-30 heading into the locker room. However when the 2nd half started it was all Rams. They outscored the Indians 21-6 in the third quarter and led 70-36 heading into the 4th quarter. The Indians did outscore the Rams 5-2 though when both teams unloaded their benches. The final score was 72-41.

Ladue then travelled to Ferguson to play winless McClure South-Berkley on Friday. night. The Rams got out to a 16-5 lead in an entertaining first quarter with several fast breaks and steals. Johnston was particularly fun to watch when he drove to the basket and dished the ball several times and occasionally float a shot in while gliding through the lane. He also hit to 3 pointers in the first half. 

The Bulldogs hung around though in the 2nd quarter. Ryan Stokes led the way for them with 11 points, but went 3 of 15 from the field. They even made it interesting with a buzzer beating 3 pointer to cut the halftime deficit to 13 points, which made the home crowd fans satisfied and hopeful. However all of that hope went by the wayside as soon as the 3rd quarter started.

The Rams opened up with a 14-0 run with a variety of players scoring and Johnston dishing out assist after assist. After each possession Berkley was losing more and more confidence in their body language. Eventually Ladue seemed like they were toying with the Bulldogs Johnston or Spirtas cut in, drove to the basket, and either passed to a happy, open, Ram or just took it themselves and scored.

As the dust settled at the end of the 3rd quarter, the Rams had outscored Berkley 31-2. Yes 31-2. It was 64-22 and the game ended at 77-32. Ladue shot 54 percent from the field, which will win you most games.

Johnston had 13 points, with 8 assists, and 3 steals. Andrew Maddock tallied 10 points with a season low of 5 rebounds, but did have a rare assist total of 3. Connor Spirtas had 6 points, but did have 7 assists.

Next week Monday, the Rams travelled less than a mile down Clayton road to John Burroughs School to take on the Bombers in their brand new beautiful basketball gymnasium. The Bombers however haven't christened it in the best of ways. They  are in the midst of a down year having graduated most of their talent from last years 20 plus win team.

However the Bombers came out playing better basketball then they had been playing of late and even had a lead. The Rams however as usual woke up and took a  20-9 lead going into the 2nd quarter. Then again the Rams played even basketball in the 2nd quarter and did not put away the Bombers. They had some lapses on defense and missed opportunities, but the Rams held their nerve and went into the locker room up by 14 points thanks to a well designed Spirtas 3 pointer at the buzzer. Perhaps the majority of the people in the gymnasium thought the score should have been more.

When the 2nd half started, yet again the Rams put the game to bed. This time they outscored their opponent 24-8 and entertained the Ladue faithful who didn't have to do much driving. The final score was 75-34, which was capped off by a Mark Rogers 3 pointer with 5 seconds to play in the game.

Rogers had a season high of 15 points and all came off of 3 pointers. 5 of 6 went down for him. Andrew Maddock had another satisfying night with another double-double finishing with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Nahom Assefa had a career high of 10 points tonight with 7 rebounds. Probably the most fascinating stat of the night was Cornell Johnston dishing out a whopping 16 assists. He followed that up with 10 points and 4 steals.

The Rams now will attempt to play Westminster for the third time this season after failing to play them twice in one week when schools had to cancel because of the snow fall. Ladue will then play Parkway North at home on Wednesday the 5th. Then they end the week playing against St. Louis Christian at the Public Private School Invitational at Whitfield High School.

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