Championship Day at Edina Tourney

The evening session takes me to Edina for the finals in their tournament. Much of the offense on display rivaled the ineptitude of my playing career (which, like my waistline, is enormous).

Game 1: Kennedy vs Chaska
The first half of this one was all about fouls. Chaska's Jake White out at 11:28 with 2, Bronson Byrne out with 2 at 5:17. Kennedy's 1 star Deron Murphy out with 3 at 4:47. 15 fouls on 7 Kennedy players in the half. Ryan Vikesland with a triple to beat the 1st half buzzer. 35-30 Kennedy at the break. Tyler Goetz with 2 early triples and another later for a total of 11 points. Byrne with 7 and very effective inside. Murphy with 8 when he was in there along with 4 steals all on the ball, not poaching passing lanes.

Murphy with a charge at 15:55 for #4 and he has to sit again. Byrne with the 1st 6 inside for Chaska for the lead. White with a sweet baseline spin on the left block for 2 and Eric Wenz with a layin for a 10-0 Chaska run. 40-35 Chaska at 10:45. Murphy back at 9:24. White commits a foul then picks up a strange T at 9:07. Murphy makes the FTs for the 1st 2 Kennedy points of the half. Josh Nance with 2 FTs at 8:38 for the 1st points generated by the Kennedy offense in the half. He then puts back a miss at 6:48 for the 1st Kennedy FG of the second half. Despite the drought of 11:12 from the field for the Eagles, Chaska only leads 44-41. White makes a jumper and Byrne with a spin of his own pushes the lead to 52-42 at 3:35. Murphy with a tough hoop for the 2nd Kennedy FG of the half 10 seconds later. Vikesland with his 4th triple of the night cuts it to 54-49 at 1:50. Murphy finally fouls out at 1:33. Wenz with 1 of 2 FTs countered by 2 Vikesland FTs, 55-51 Chaska at 1:23 as White fouls out. After 2 Andrew Webber FTs, Tim Brown with a 3 cuts it to 3 with 1 minute left. He makes another 3 with about 20 seconds left to cut it to 61-59. Wenz makes 1 of 2 again but gets a steal and 2 FTs to seal the 64-59 Chaska win.

For Kennedy, Vikesland with 16, Murphy with 15. They fall to 0-7 and things can only get better. But that's not just cliche. The rumor mill has word that Carlos Emory may be available for them next week. I stress the rumor mill portion of that. But if that's true, they're only 0-3 in the Lake (this game was non-conference) so all isn't lost. He was behind the bench and in huddles tonight.

For Chaska, a disappointing tournament with the loss to Waconia and this close win. They have Lakeville North and Apple Valley in conference play next week. Bronson Byrne very nice game inside controlling the paint with 15 points. All of Tyler Goetz's 11 points were in the 1st half.

Game 2: Waconia vs Edina
Jim Hill with 4 quick points and Ben Biewen and Will Deberg with buckets for a 12-5 Edina lead. Waconia star soph Shelby Moats with a bucket and then 1 of 2 FTs. 17-13 Edina at 2:24. Edina gets 7 of the last 9 for a 24-15 halftime lead. Hill with 9, Biewen with 6, Deberg with 5. Moats with 6. Waconia only plays 6 guys and they are VERY deliberate on offense. Nice move to try and trap Deberg late in the half when he was the only real scorer Edina had on the floor.

Waconia then starts to knock down some threes. Tom Kortuem with 2 triples, Danny Fischbach with 1 and Ben Kortuem with 1 (7th guy in) to cut the Edina lead to 31-29 with 12:30 to play. Then Waconia's offense decides the night is too cold and decides to migrate south for the winter. Matos with a layin, Deberg with a bucket, Biewen with 2 free throws and Hill with a jumper. 39-29 Edina with 2:40 left and the lead feels like 25. Tom Korteum finally makes another triple at 2:30 for the 1st Waconia points in 10 minutes. But the lead is only 7 for Edina. 43-34 Edina wins their own tournament.

For Edina, Will Deberg leads with 12 points and was named tourney MVP. Jim Hill 11, Ben Biewen 10. For Waconia, Tom Kortuem's three triples leads the way with 9 points. Shelby Moats with 6 (0 in 2nd half) as Zach Matos did a nice job on him. A very tough game to watch with the slow pace. Waconia is a tough team, they're patient and very scrappy. To stay in a game like this, they played the way they needed to play. They just couldn't get it done in the last 12 minutes.