After seeing the big boys last night, we get the little guys today as The Czar travels to Spring Lake Park for the Section 4A semis. Game 1: a rubber match and a revenge match as these teams split 2 regular season games with SW Christian getting the best of MCA in the MCAA tournament championship game by 3. MCA won the regular season matchup at SWC by 2.
David Hanson out of the gate quickly as he gets 11 of MCA 1st 13 points for a 13-7 lead with 11 minutes left in the half. SWC is ice cold as they start 2-9 from the field vs the MCA 2-3 zone. A Caleb Palkert bucket is the only SWC bucket in a 14-2 MCA run that sees David Hanson with 7 more points and Josh Hanson with 5 in a row of his own. The Palkert bucket is the only SWC FG in an 8 and a half minute stretch. So its 27-9 MCA with 3 minutes to go but David Hanson picks up his 2nd with 2:44 left in the half and sits. But SWC stays cold and can't make a run in that limited time. 32-16 MCA at the half. David Hanson huge with 18 points. Griffith with 5 and Palkert with 4 for SWC. SWC couldn't buy a bucket but they had good looks.
David Hanson is still on a roll as he gets the 1st 3 MCA buckets of the half. For some reason, SWC went to a curious strategy where they had 5'11 Austin Petersen trying to faceguard David Hanson but no backside help in the man defense. Hanson got an offensive rebound, drew a foul on Petersen on an offensive rebound and had 2 buckets against this. The strategy makes sense if you're diamond and 1 with a big guy behind (see Armstrong vs Cooper from the 06-07 season and how they played Dennis Williamson) but the SWC strategy was shredded here. 38-22 MCA with 14:17 to play and SWC is back to the 2-3 zone they played for most of the 1st half after a timeout. They heard something in the timeout because they go on a 7-0 concluded by a Palkert 3 ball and its 38-29 MCA with 11:20 to play. Its 41-31 MCA with 7:22 to go when SWC makes another curious move, Palkert goes to the bench for rest. He gets the advantage of an MCA timeout but he stays out for rest as play continues. Garrett Nordling with a 3 pt play for SWC @ 6:53 and then they get 2 straight steals and go the other way but they miss a layup and 2 FTs. Tyler Campion hits 2 FTs to push the lead back to 12, 46-34 with 6:26 as Palkert finally comes back in the game. It doesn't matter as SWC will get no closer. Josh Hanson gets his 2nd bunny off the same inbounds play and a Darian Pittman layup push the lead to 50-35 with 4:40 to go. The rest is elementary as MCA wins 60-41.
SWC gets 11 from Garrett Nordling. 9 from Caleb Palkert as there was nothing run for him and he got limited touches. This is the same issue I had with their coaching staff when I covered their game at Minnesota Transitions. He's their star player and he's not getting touches when they need him to in their offense and they're not running any set plays for him. SWC finishes 17-11 with most of those losses being good losses in close games (MCA, Bethlehem, PACT, St. Agnes, NLA). With Palkert and a couple of sophomore guards returning look for them to be near the top of the MCAA again next year.
David Hanson all that for MCA with 26 points. They played a lot of zone which was surprising. Coach Wall has really tightened up his rotation. Darian Pittman plays about 9000 miles per hour at the point. That can be dangerous as they advance in the tournament. The final is Tuesday 6 PM at Holy Angels.
Jeff wall is 1-4 in section championship play.
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