2008 Pat Paterson Championship Day

Championship day at the Pat Paterson tournament at Hamline featured a couple of premier girls matchups thanks to yesterday's results.

Game 1: Rosemount vs Highland Park
Fouls the story in this one as the 1st half had 11 fouls for HP to 1 for Rosemount at 1 point. This allows Rosemount to get out to a 29-19 halftime lead. HP doesn't threaten in the 2nd half. Laurie Tyson is too much inside with 21 points. The Irish roll to a 60-42 win.

Game 2: Centennial vs Central
Now to the 1st of 2 big games of the day. Nice Centennial crowd on hand for this one. The Cougar guards doing a nice job of not turning the ball over vs the Central pressure. Fouls a factor here as Megan Waytashek and Megan Nipe both pick up 3 in the 1st half for a not deep Cougar squad. But Central can't take advantage as they get only 1 FG in an 8 minute stretch that overlapped the bench time for the Megans. Bridget Schuneman was a force inside with 14 points (despite 4-11 FT) to push Centennial to a 37-26 halftime lead. Iowa recruit Theairra Taylor only 3-14 shooting for 10 points.

In the 2nd half, Centennial went to a 1-3 with Schuneman in the middle of the triangle and the 5th player guarding Taylor man-man. Centennial uses this to maintain a 46-36 lead with 12 minutes left. Sam Robinson-Ricks back at the 11 minute mark with 4 fouls and she immediately sparks a run. She gets a putback for a 3 point play followed by a steal for another 3 point play. Kiana Johnson then makes a three and Central is only down 49-47 with 9:30 to play. That concludes an 11-3 Central run over 2:15. Megan Nipe breaks the run with a bucket and then Schuneman takes over. She gets a post 2, kicks the ball out for a 3 and then scores again on the block for a 7-0 Centennial run over 1:24 and Central doesn't threaten again. 60-49 Centennial with 4:09 to play and they go on to an impressive 68-56 win. Central did a poor job on offense in the 2nd half of settling for outside shots instead of penetrating the big gaps in the Centennial 1-3. Schuneman finishes with 23 points. Theairra Taylor with 19 but she only shot 6-24 from the field. We will see this theme again later.

Alonia Chess of HP, Laurie Tyson of Rosemount, Theairra Taylor and Jen'Von'Ta Hill of Central, Megan Nipe and Bridget Schuneman (MVP) made the all-tournament team for the east bracket.

Game 3: Andover vs North
North struggled early in this one as Andover got out to a 19-6 lead at the 10 minute mark after an 11-0 run. North fights back to be down 33-29 at the break. After a back and forth 2nd half, Andover gets out to a 67-60 lead with 2 minutes left after a 4 minute North drought with no field goals. Briana Edwards makes a 3 to cut the deficit to 4. Angelic Moore with a runner to cut to 2 with 90 seconds left. 8th grader Allina Starr gets a stl for a 3 point play and North now leads 68-67 with 1:15 left. Tyseanna Johnson gets a layin with 31.2 left to push the lead to 5 after an Andover turnover and miss. North outscores Andover 14-2 in the last 2 minutes to steal one 74-69. Briana Edwards was all everything in this game for North. 19 in the 2nd half, 32 for the game to keep North in it until the final run. Elle Abeler with 16 for Andover.

Game 4: Hopkins vs South
In what might be a state championship preview, South took on Hopkins. No Tyisha Smith again for South. This game was a major disappointment. Tayler Hill finally scores at 9:30 to get South on the board after Hopkins got the 1st 18 points of the game. 38-11 Hopkins at the half. Hill with 9 of the 11 points on 3-18 shooting. Hill then goes alone for a 15-3 South run over the 1st 5:20 of the half to cut the lead to 15 but the outcome was never in doubt. Hill gets the 1st 17 South points of the 2nd half. Only 8 points for South besides the 29 from Hill. Hopkins in a 55-37 blowout that wasn't as close as the final score looked. 10-34 shooting for Tayler Hill and 20-25 of those shots could be called bad shots. A nice moment for Hill as they awarded her the game ball for scoring 3000 career points, but they awarded it at 2998 according to my math. Oh well.

All tournament team for the west bracket. Briana Edwards of North, Elle Abeler of Andover, Tayler Hill and Jenny Houle of South (I would have taken Allina Star of North instead of Houle), Binghamton recruit Kara Elofson and soph Brianna Williams (MVP) of Hopkins.

X and O of the Day
This one is easy. We have to look at Centennial's 1-3 zone vs Theairra Taylor. Small guard on top, 2 wings and a post player in the middle of the 3. The middle post player guards the lane. The wings have everything below the foul lines on their side and the point has everything above the foul line from sideline to sideline. Centennial didn't really do much to deny Taylor the ball either. Hubie Brown would tell you to have that star use the back of the zone as screeners to get open on the baseline. You can also use this defense against a post player by having a guard play a big man on man and always front since there's always a big post patrolling the lane.