Tonight takes me to a Lake Conference showdown between Kennedy and Eden Prairie. The first time these teams played, EP won 108-65. Would tonight be more of the same? Kennedy can tie for the league lead with a win but an EP win can essentially clinch the league title.No Carlton Starr in the starting lineup for Kennedy but he's in at 16:02. Kennedy leads 3-1 on a Alfred Jaryan 3, but that's the last lead they'll hold. Brett Ervin gets a 3 pt play to give EP the lead for good and finishes a 10-2 run with a bucket to make it 11-5 with 13 minutes left in the 1st half. Ethan Wragge (pictured) gets his 1st field goal with a 3 to make it 20-12 @8:10 and then he gets a layup off a steal to make it 24-14 EP @ 7:21. He hits a 3 to end the half and its 38-16 EP going to the break. Its a 23-4 EP run over the last 9 minutes of the half. Jaryan has 10 points and Carlton Starr has the other 6 for Kennedy. All their offense is 1 on 1 off the bounce. Starr was initially guarded by Carter Bykowski (awful matchup for EP, didn't get that one), but after EP fixed that, he was done. Wragge with 10 and Ervin with 9 for EP.
The second half is more of the same. Jaryan tries to make it interesting with a circus fadeaway for a 3 pt play that makes it 42-24 @ 15:10. The 1st points solely from someone other than Jaryan or Starr come from Josh Nance at 13:10 (he got a layup on the possession before off a nice screen/roll from Jaryan). A Starr bucket makes it 46-30 EP with 12:45 to play but after an EP timeout, that's it. I leave with 4:03 to go and its 62-33 EP after a 16-3 run over 8:42.
Alfred Jaryan with 19 but lots of shots. Carlton Starr with 10 and Josh Nance with the other 4 points. No offense at all for Kennedy, just 1 on 1 or shoot 3s. Bobby Fong goes bagel thanks to Ethan Wragge's defense and that bad offense. Kennedy was just awful on both ends and laid another huge egg in a big game. They're now 2 games back thanks to 2 blowout losses to EP. Big loss as they had a chance at the #2 seed in 2AAAA, now they're closer to 4th as I'd seed Prior Lake and Shakopee higher. More likely they end up 3rd. A very Jeckyl and Hyde team as they can be dangerous with their perimeter people, but if they don't get it done, they can be brutal to watch as they were tonight and in the Hopkins game. Kennedy vs Richfield (Matt Mullenbach, Richfield asst was in the house tonight) would be fun with Renard Robinson vs Carlton Starr plus the guard matchups like DeAaron Hearn vs Alfred Jaryan
As to Eden Prairie, Ethan Wragge with 12 pts on 4 of 9 shooting, 5 rebs and 3 ast (+ another screen that directly led to a Ryan Grant bucket) according to my unofficial score sheet when I left early. Brett Ervin with 11, Carter Bykowski and Ryan Grant each with 8. Great balance for EP. They have a good case for the #1 seed in 2AAAA being Lake champions and non-conference losses to Cretin-Derham Hall and Minnetonka. Don't count the winner of the Missota out of this discussion either.
Ethan Wragge photo courtesy of MNPhotoNet.net
Wow, I was searching why Cooper coach Kurt Pauly resigned and saw your blog, I love it, great information and great insight. I did indeed find the post about why Pauly resigned, unfortunate how one incident overshadowed the successes of the program in the past few years. Do we know how it was known that he swore? Someone had to obviously tell, right? Anyways, I was at the Cooper/Fridley game tonight (CHS c/o '03 represent!) and must say that Rodney Williams Jr, is a highlight reel all to himself. Wow, there were some impressive dunks. Hopefully he does that to BSM on Friday. :) Thanks!
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You know, Eden Prairie has been on the news quite a bit in addition to its football championship. First there was the underaged drinking on Facebook. Now today, the school was closed due to a threat received.
ReplyDeleteChamplin Park takes #2 Osseo to the limit ... Theisen hits a 3 with 5 minutes left for the tie. CP falls 76-67 ... what a game!.
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