Finally free from family obligations and back to recap the rest of the game. Unfortunately it just wasn't Kiyan's night as he finished 1-6 from the field and 1-4 behind the arc finishing the game with the three points he had at half. He did grab a couple boards and had another nice dime (could've had a couple more if teammate could finish a little better through contact) and finished the night playing only 12 minutes. I was really watching how he looked on defense with the offense struggling and he stayed engaged on the court, got through screens smoothly, and had a couple of nice possessions where he defending in the post and did a nice job denying the entry pass each time. He had one possession switched out on to Bosco's star and was very engaged and was doing a nice job staying in front of him before picking up a ticky tack foul. Overall I would say he wasn't really a negative or a positive on the defensive end, but you can see the foundations of a good defender if he continues to work at that end of the court.
Bosco made a late push to make the game interesting before falling to Lutheran 58-55. Bosco got no production from their bench and their star player, Rutgers commit Dylan Harper, had a rough game and was visibly frustrated. He finished the game with 24 points on 7-25 shooting and 0-7 from deep with five boards and four steals. I would sum up his entire offensive game as "drive and be bigger that his defender". He constantly drove into two, three, and sometimes even four defenders with no real plan to score, he used this strategy to get to the line 13 times making 10 of them. His shot from deep was off all night and the shot selection left me puzzled at times. Defensively his strength is again that he overpowers smaller players, he basically ripped the ball out of a player's hands for one of his steals before taking it coast to coast for one of his few clean looks at the hoop. Of course you can't judge a player off one bad game, but I feel he could be in for an inconsistent freshman year as defenders get a scouting report on him and crowd driving lanes with larger players than he's currently seeing.
Here is the full
Box Score for anyone interested. His team plays again Friday at 9PM and I'm hoping to make it back again to see him play again and hopefully have a better game.
Final note, Melo was in the building. He showed up early second half with no fanfare and was sitting courtside about 8 rows in front of us. He had his cap pulled low and certainly seemed to be keeping a lower profile. As the game drew to a close the fans started moving in his direction and he took a couple pictures with some kids before making a swift exit to the locker room.