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| Zach Speikers 24 points (photo by J. Lindquist) |
The loss dropped Farmington to 14-4 overall and 4-2 in the conference with one game remaining in the opening round of league play. Chanhassen moved to 13-6 and 5-2.
Things went Farmington's way in the opening half. The Tigers shot the ball well early on before a cold spell help the Storm claw its way back into the game. The visitors hit the halftime break with a 37-31 lead.
"We had some really poor turnovers late in the half which allowed them to stay closer than they should have been," Tiger coach Shane Wyandt said.
"In the second half we were ice cold and once we started missing shots we had nobody getting on the offensive glass. We wanted our guys to get the ball working inside but when it went in we didn't get any flow going and we started rushing outside shots when the ball was kicked back out...We never got into any kind of flow the second half and they really did."
The player who really got into the flow was the Storm's Joey Witthus who torched the Tiger defense for 35 points on a variety of offensive moves.
"He (Witthus) was able to score inside and out and even more damaging was their ability to get to the line," Wyandt said. "It was just a rough half for us and I give them (Chanhassen) credit for playing really well."
Tiger leading scorer Zach Speikers had another strong outing in the losing effort, finishing with a team-high 24 points. Eli Rockett was the only other Farmington player in double figures with 10. Wyatt Ferm canned a trio of three-pointers for nine points and Nick Varner chipped in with seven.
The Storm owned a 23-21 advantage on the boards with Varner pulling down a team-best six rebounds. Speikers dished out three assists and Varner came up with three steals.
Next Tuesday the Tigers will try to get back in the middle of the hunt for the Missota title when they entertain league-leading Shakopee. In a scheduling quirk, three days later they head to Shakopee for the re-match.
