St. Bernard's pushes Hopkins to the end

Royce White

A big one in the Kingdom tonight as #1AAAA Hopkins makes the crosstown trip to St. Paul to face #1AA St. Bernard's. The place is filled with people standing on the ends and on the stage in addition to the full bleachers. Tri-Metro coaches out in force as coaches from Minnehaha, the not dapper tonight Eric Schutte of Concordia and a DLS assistant in the building. AAU represented with Willie Vang of the MN Heat, Tom Krosschell of the MN Pump N Run and of course, Rene Pulley.

No Trent Lockett tonight as he's serving back end of getting 2 techs in the Washburn game. DJ Peterson starts in his place and Moses Sundufu is in the rotation tonight. Ray Cowles gets the assignment guarding Jordair Jett. With the stands coming right down to the sidelines and all of the people, the sidelines are really treacherous tonight. Coach Novak even asked for play to be stopped to clean the sideline by the Hopkins bench and he was exactly right. This was after a stoppage for the other sideline. Jett with a quick 2 fouls in the 1st 4:15 and that hangs like a dark cloud. But he hits a hanging banker from the right side to give the Bulldogs 6 straight points and we're tied at 11 at the halfway point of the 1st stanza. Jordan Gittens with a layin at 7:40 to tie it at 15 and the crowd is really into it. Jett with a brief rest and Royce White gets a hoop at 5:45, but Jett comes back and gets 2 of his own and its 23-20 Bulldogs at 4:50. Royce scores 2 more, Brian Sandifer knocks down a 3 and Jett hits a pullup and we're at 28-24 with 3 minutes left in the half. Jett picks up #3 8 seconds later and has to sit. Averey Duncan with 2 buckets and Hopkins misses late free throws. 32-30 St. Bernard's at the break in an outstanding half. They really held their own on the boards, but suffered some late fouls due to their lack of size. Duncan 10 points, Jett 9. Hopkins not doing a good job of looking for their post people. Marcus Williams 7, Royce with 6.

In a major shock, Jett comes out guarding Royce to start the 2nd half. Mike Broghammer starts hot in the 2nd half. He gets a bucket, a block and then a high/low assist to Royce to break a 34 all tie. He then gets an offensive rebound on a free throw and puts it back. Cowles with a nice curl for a foul line jumper and DJ Peterson with a free throw. 7 straight for Hopkins, 41-34 they lead with 14 minutes left. Duncan with 5 in a row to bring SB back within 2. After Marvin Singleton scores on the block its 43-39 with 12:20 left. Jett then misses 2 FTs, but gets a layin via a great pass from Sandifer and then a sweet floater from left baseline. He then rebounds a Hopkins miss and returns the dime to Sandifer for a layin and SB leads 45-43 at 9:10. But once again, just as he gets hot and the Bulldogs are making a run, he picks up a foul. This one is his 4th (on a maybe questionable call on a blocked shot) and we still have 8:58 to play. How long will he sit? Singleton's free throws on the foul tie it at 45. Marcus Williams then gets called for a reach in foul and after OK initial displeasure, has a wrong word for the official and gets T'd up (correctly so for showing up the zebra). Trent Davis makes the free throws. But Bernard's turns it over on the possession and Royce has an And 1 on the other end. He finally makes a FT (1-6) and Hopkins leads 48-47 with 8:20 left. Coach Cassidy rolls the dice and goes all in as Jett returns at 7:52. Out of a time out at 7, Royce takes a turn guarding Jett. Jett promptly puts on the afterburners and gets a layup at 6:50 and we're tied at 49. But SB can't throw it in the ocean the rest of the way. Royce with an OReb 2 before trying to take Jett 1 on 1 in retaliation for the previous bucket. He puts up a bad jumper after pounding the ball for a while. Coach Novak immediately finds a sub. Marcus Williams also sits for an unknown reason (not playing reason, as he left the bench for something) and we have 5:30 left. Sundufu goes right by Jett, who doesn't want his 5th foul, for a inside bucket. 53-49 with 5 to play. Cowles knocks down a wide open triple with 4 to play and the lead is 7. Hopkins makes their free throws and SB only gets 1 field goal after that Jett blow by of Royce. 63-55 Hopkins wins a terrific game.

For St. Bernard's, Jordair Jett leads the way with 19 points. If he could have gotten a shot to fall in the last 5 minutes, this game would have gotten really interesting. Hopkins tried a bunch of different people on him and really didn't have a good answer. Ken Novak looking for a carry call on him all night. Averey Duncan kept SB afloat too as he had 17 points on the night. Nobody else with more than 4. Give Bernard's credit for a great battle as they did a pretty good job inside considering their lack of size against a couple of very good bigs.

For Hopkins, 4 players in double figures. Royce with 13, Broghammer with 12, Cowels 11 and Williams 10. Moses Sundufu gave them nice minutes off the bench as he saw signficant minutes guarding Jett. Marcus Williams is the glue that holds them together and he's guy who sees the least amount of rest. Royce is still struggling to find his role in the offense.

X and O of the Day
New set tonight from Hopkins on the baseline out of bounds. They went box set with Royce on weakside high post and then ran him to the weakside corner for a 3.

Royce White photo courtesy of MNPhotoNet.net