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Me and 400 or so other diehards showed up to watch the Beach get a double digit lead then struggle to put the feisty Eagles of La Sierra out of their misery. The Niners weren't sharp in the 1st half, seemed underwhelmed and needed to wake up. Starters played a lot and had trouble for a while. Defense was good with some big time lapses a handful of times leaving shooters wide open. Rebounding was weak for a while.

2nd half was a different story. Broke the game open with better rebounding, better team defense, and some wicked alley oops to lengthy bigs Richardson and DMX. The guards and those two bigs seem to have a nice connection with Askew, Wainwright, and Martin all getting assists for slammos. Throw in a nifty bounce pass rifled from TJ to Askew in the 2nd half, our offense seems to be finding itself.

Bad news, Nagy was in warmups but didn't warmup, doesn't looked injured, and didn't sit on the bench. Sat in the expensive seats nearby. Guessing grades. He was into the game cheering on his mates. Bummer if we lose his services for a while, just a guess because we never know anything. Didn't see Hart at all, gotta think he'll redshirt. Corey Curtis on the bench not in warmups.

Lloyd at least he's back that will help with the loss of Nagy for who knows how long.

Richardson had to play against guys big and strong enough to emulate DI enough, and again he proved valuable the dude makes a few mistakes but is active, alert, pretty good feet and better hands. He's got game! How much, anyone's guess but if he even slowly continues to develop we've got a nice rim protector who can hold his own mostly.

DMX had a nice game with 12 boards and an athletic block, dude is oozing with potential once he finds his stride. One of those situations where he doesn't look comfortable yet in the flow so he just works hard, clunks things sometimes, sometimes does something fantastic. He finds his stride, we elevate as a team.

One thing that makes no difference against a great or bad team is making FTs. We made a ton. Didn't get many in the first half, Denson made 1 of 2 someone else made 1, in the 2nd half we made like 19 straight until Varick missed the 2nd of 2. Included was Richardson making like 6 or 8 in a row, big fella you deserve props for having a game like that! (just peeked at the box score, Richardson 7-7 for the game, team 93% that's awesome!).

We've got a legit BW FOY in Martin. Kid is dynamite, mature beyond his years, silky smooth moves and very determined on defense. 18 pts 4 assists 1 TO.

Walk on Grant Martin got some minutes and seems to have some moves. Nice to see.

Next game at home v UCR Thursday Jan 2 I may have jury duty in San Diego so someone else may have to post a report from the Mid but if not called, I'll be there. Real big test for us to protect home court against a real good BWC foe this year.