ICC-Germantown Bball Scrimmage

Had a chance to take in the ICC-GTown boys basketball scrimmage today at ICC. The Riders are considered one of the better teams in the Patroon Conference this year and an above average Class A team while the Clippers are probably the early favorites in the C.H.V.L. and the favorites in Class D.

The teams played six, 8 minute quarters with the final 2 being running block. ICC won the first quarer 14-9 as both teams played their starters. In the second quarter each team kept their starters in and Germantown won 25-16. In the third the Riders put in subs while G-Town kept in their starters and ICC won 14-12. In the fourth the Riders put their starters in against most of the Clipps starters. Eventually the rest of the Clippers starting unti came in but ICC won 9-2. A mix of subs and starters for the Clippers played over the final 2 quarters while ICC relied on subs. The Riders won 7-6 in the 5th and lost 16-13 in the final eight minutes. The overall score would have been Ichabod Crane 73, Germantown 70.

Overall it felt pretty close and there was a noticeable difference in size between the Riders and Germantown. The Clipps had just one player who seemed big enough to match up with the Riders front line. Both teams could use some work at the free throw line and the teams could tighten up their ball handling and passing, but it is still early in the year.


Some notes on each team-

Germantown: It's obvious the offensive burden will fall onto the shoulders of Cody Broast, Thomas Griffin and Larry Niebling just as it did last year. Germantown has more players on it's roster this year and has lots of nice pieces who can defend and shoot, but it's going to be up to those 3 to lead this team. Broast is a fantastic scorer who showed a great mid range game in the scrimmage. Niebling is great at pushing the tempo and nailing threes while Griffin didn't seem to have that same killer instict I saw last year. He's stronger than most other wings he'll play against but he seemed to hang around outside and move the ball a bit more than last year. They need him to regain his aggressiveness to reach their full potential. The big thing I noticed was last year the Clippers really pushed the tempo but they didn't do it as much here, against a bigger team who sat back in a zone. This team will be at it's best when pushing the ball for quick scores or taking advantage of speed mismatches when team's go man, but against big teams and or teams who play zone they need to get up and down the floor and Niebling is the perfect point guard for that role if they let him be like last year.


Ichabod Crane: The Riders have a lot of size and a lot of bodies but I'd be surprised to see ICC play more than 7 or 8 guys this year. It's obvious seniors Chris Larm, Derick Horn and Josh Ingham are the leaders. Larm isn't super tall but he's very strong and a fantstic rebounder and clean up man. I'd love to see them feed him in the post a bit more to see what he can do on his own. Horn has good size, he shoots, he rebounds and he drives well, he's a mismatch. Ingham is a hustler, he gets into his man on defense, drives to the lane hard and can get hot from outside. They've got Tanner Wolfe, he's a big kid but he still seems to be adjusting to the speed of varsity. I like Mitchell Niemeyer, I have since he was an 8th grader on JV and it's his time to run the show. He is skinny and not super quick or athletic but he plays very smart and with great pace. He's a safe player who will get the ball where it needs to go. I like Joe Fey and Tyler Zeh, both are sophomores and are strong and can be be effective downlow. Ricky Pallozzi has a chance to earn some playing time, he's a scoring point guard more in the mold of more recent ICC points. The big thing for the Riders is they have been uptempo the past few years and I'm not sure who they have to push it this year. Even the Rider bigs handled the ball at times in this scrim but they need someone to step up and handle and create like Dalton Austin-Michaud, Kevin Knack and Sean Shattenkirk have over the past few years. My gut feeling is Ingham ends up in that role and if he can gel into that the Riders will be much more dangerous.