Boys basketball: Tatum’s 23 leads 70-59 upset of No. 8 Eagan

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While the Rosemount boys basketball team is enjoying a solid start to the season, Irish coach Bryan Schnettler is cautioning his players there is still a long season ahead.

It might be hard to temper expectations.

After Rosemount went on the road and beat then-No. 8 Eagan on Tuesday, the Irish are 6-1 heading into tonight’s game at Chaska.

Yet Schnettler is preaching a bit of patience and further improvement — and for good reason.

“Come March we don’t want to be just good,” Schnettler said. “We want to be a team that no one wants to play. We want to be a great team then, doing whatever we need to do.”

Rosemount beat Eagan 70-59 on Tuesday, extending their winning streak to four games. During the Hastings tournament last week, Rosemount beat Hastings, 71-45, and St. Thomas Academy, 46-36.

“We’ve been playing well,” Schnettler said. “The guys are working hard. We set some goals to improve every day and the guys are taking that to heart.”

The biggest test to date came Tuesday at Eagan.

Rosemount was able to jump out with a strong defensive first half, holding the explosive Wildcats to just 23 first-half points. The Irish then held strong throughout.

Toriano Tatum led Rosemount with 23 points.

Justin Larson scored 13 points and Zach Vraa added 10.

“I thought we played very good defense,” Schnettler said.

Defense has been the key for the Irish.

Rosemount has allowed 59 points or less i each of the past four wins. The Irish only allowed 81 total points in the Hastings tournament.

“Defense is what has been winning games for us,” Schnettler said. “On offense we like to push it hard, but in the half court we want to be patient and get a great shot every time down. Some possessions we have the ball for a long time, but we want to get a great shot.”

Larson had 12 points in the win against St. Thomas Academy. With Larson the only player scoring in double figures, eight players scored points for Rosemount, which held St. Thomas Academy to just 14 points in the first half while building a 27-14 halftime lead.

Vraa and Tatum each scored 14 points against Hastings. Chris Couillard scored 11 points.

“We’ll have games we don’t play that well and games we do play well like (Tuesday) night,” Schnettler said. “The true mark will be when we don’t play well and if we can still win those games or not. We’ll see. There are 20 games left in the regular season. We’ve got a long ways to go.”

Tags: boys basketball, sports, prep, rosemount