St. Thomas vs Little Falls (AAA Quarterfinal #2)

Continuing the young theme of the night for teams who are a surprise to be here, Little Falls has only 1 senior. They certainly traveled better than Grand Rapids did. The Flyers only have 1 guy 6'4 so that's a concern going up against 6'7 Alex Schneider of STA.

Nick Erdrich gets the 1st 5 Little Falls points including a nice back cut for a layup that makes it 5-3 Little Falls with 15:40 left in the half. But 6'4" soph Dan Kornbaum already is gone with 2 fouls. STA gets the next 8 points including 2 by Schneider and a steal for 2 from Fritz Valdvogel. That makes it 11-5 STA with 13:48 to go in the half. Erdrich with another bucket and another steal and 2 for Valdvogel lead into a deep 3 for Alex Scott. 13-12 STA with 11 minutes to play in the half. STA then goes on a 14-2 run over the next 7:09 with Schneider getting a couple of buckets. 27-14 STA at 3:51. The rest of the half is blah and its 31-19 STA at the break. Schneider with 9, Valvogel with 8. Mike Fitzgerald had 3 3s go in and out and STA missed 4 FTs in the half so this could have been much worse. Erdrich with 10 for Little Falls. LF turned the ball over and had no answer for Schneider in the 1st half.

STA gets the 1st 6 of the 2nd half (4 from Schneider) to push the lead to 18 with 16 minutes to play. The lead stays there until 8:25 to play when its 47-29 STA. Little Falls then gets the next 7 points and their crowd is in to it. Schneider is flustered and things aren't going STA's way. STA tried to spread the floor with about 10 minutes left and it bit them. After Schneider breaks the run at 5:49, STA is back to normal offense. Little Falls then misses 2 front ends between 4 and 5 minutes left and the deficit only 11 points. After that STA wakes up and finishes it. St. Thomas moves on with a 59-44 win.

Little Falls finishes 14-15 but let's give props to the Central Lakes Conference for having 3 teams at state. St. Cloud Tech in AAAA and Willmar and Little Falls in AAA. Nick Erdrich with 13 points and Alex Scott with 12 for the Flyers. STA advances to play Willmar in the 8 PM semifinal. Alex Schneider with 18 to lead the Cadets but this was a game where he could have had 25-30. Mike Fitzgerald with 13 points, but 6 of those from the foul line. Cold shooting night for him and they'll need him to hit shots. Fritz Valdvogel was a defensive terror and finished with 13 points. I wonder if teams will guard Jake Szymanski and how STA will deal with that issue if it comes up. His defense earns him playing time and is valuable, but at some point they may need to look for more offense.