This past Saturday The St. Louis Surge took on the Elsberry Flyers and won 93-88. This was as electric of a basketball atmosphere you could ask for. The game featured hard fouls, long icy glares, technical fouls, and plenty of back and forth on the scoreboard. Before the game, I caught up with Surge head coach Tony Condra and asked him what should I expect to see tonight.
A big grin came across Condra’s face. He paused for a second and said, “This is going to be a very competitive game. They don’t like us too much. It’s going to be like the Chicago Bulls vs. New York Knicks in the 90s.” Then Condra channeled his inner Gregg Popovich (head coach of the San Antonio Spurs) when asked what the Surge needs to do. “Play D,” Condra said. A pause followed, and he walked off. Now I know how TNT side line reporter David Aldridge feels.
Elsberry Flyers coach Brittany Koch-Dowell was definitely in game mode as well.
“They have a good team over there, but they are going to have to stop us, because we are going to run at them for 40 minutes,” Dowell said.
The Flyers came into the game with a 6-1 record.
The team showed early and often why they are a formidable opponent for the Surge.
At the start of the game, the Surge had a few defensive breakdowns. Condra pulled Michala Johnson quickly after a getting backdoored for an easy layup. She had a quiet first half, but made up for it in the second half. And the Surge needed every single shot Johnson made. She finished the game double digits points. Leah Cotton was the Surge’s best player on the floor. She went 14/15 from the free throw line totaling 19 points. Cotton also played smothering defense. She knocked down several big free throws during that tight fourth quarter and yanked down 7 rebounds and added three steals.
Free throw shooting was the biggest difference between the two teams.
The Flyers had plenty of chances from the charity stripe. If they had been able to cash in, the game would’ve gone into overtime – and quite possibly ended in their favor.
The Flyers didn’t go down without a fight. Despite untimely misses from the line, they at least gave themselves a chance to win.
The Surge will be off this week next game at UMSL against the Cleveland Crunch tip off at 7:05. For more sports please subscribe to our YouTube page www.stlamerican/youtubevideo and you can also follow me @thelegendkil @NTheZoneShow.
