Minnehaha grinds out win against De La Salle

Game 2 of the rare Tuesday night double-dip takes just down Lake Street to Minnehaha Academy for their Tri-Metro West game against De La Salle. This was the 2nd half of a boys/girls doubleheader with the Minnehaha girls (also very good) winning 49-37. Minnehaha trying to stay undefeated in league play and push DLS 2 games back.

No Greg Meyer in the starting lineup for Minnehaha but he's on the exercise bike just to my left. Minnehaha with the 1st 4 and then another 2 before DLS finally gets a FG, a Jalen Jaspers triple, 4 minutes in. 6-4 Minnehaha. Meyer makes his 1st appearance at 13:04. Back and forth til the 10 minute mark and we're tied at 10. 5 in a row for Minnehaha culminated with a nice backcut by Taylor Sparkman for 2 at 8:30 and its 15-10 Minnehaha. Timeout De La Salle. Minnehaha only gets 2 more FGs the rest of the half as the DLS D cranks up. But their offense continues to be methodical to say the least. They only get 5 points the rest of the half. 19-15 Minnehaha at halftime. Oof! Jaspers with 8 and 5. Sparkman with 7. Taylor Hanson 6 points and 5 boards.

AJ Barker finally starts to get it going for DLS after a very cold (with some forces) 1st half. He nails a 3 with 15 minutes left. He counters a David Burnham spin for 2 with a layup off poor defense and its 23-22 Minnehaha with 14:25 left. DLS gets the ball back down 1 and Jaspers makes 1 of 2 to tie at 23 with 13:30 left. They get it back tied and Barker misses a quick 3. Minnehaha gets the next 9 thanks to 2 Austin Brown buckets and a nice kickout to Parker Hines for a triple. 32-23 Minnehaha at 9:40. Barker with 2 free throws after being fouled on a inbounds jumpshot (never foul a jump shooter!). 32-27 Minnehaha. Taylor Sparkman taking advantage of a matchup with John Hertle. He gets a layup on a high/low look then 4 bonus free throws after 2 questionable holding calls on Hertle. He adds on a drive at 5:25 and then counters a Barker jumper with a big 3 at 4:25. 43-33 Minnehaha. DLS won't go away as Jaspers makes 2 FTs, Meyer misses the front end of the bonus, Barker nails a J and its 43-37 Minnehaha with 3:35 left. Sparkman has a triple go in and out but Walter Franklin turns it over. DLS has it back with under 2 to play and Barker gets called for the charge at 1:47. Brown then misses a pair of bonus free throws. Jaspers then with 2 and a tick-tack touch for the and 1. 43-40 Minnehaha with 90 seconds left. Brown with 1 of 2 with 1:04 left. Interesting to me that DLS didn't go with a set play for Jaspers or Barker here. Just base offense. Walter Franklin with a hesitant miss, but Jonah Travis grabs it. He makes 1 of 2 FTs with 48.7 left, 44-41 Minnehaha. Meyer gets the bomb on the inbounds and lays it in to ultimately seal it. Minnehaha wins a war 48-42.

For DLS, Jalen Jaspers with 18 and 9. AJ Barker with 16 and 6 despite a cold 1st half. Barker is their only real shooter and he was cold in the 1st half. Their other guys to their credit understand this so they're VERY patient in their motion offense. I'd like to see more post ups out of Jaspers and Jonah Travis. Not enough touches on the box for these guys. Most of their stuff tonight was 4 out motion with the 1 playing the foul line area. Defensively, they are as good as anybody in their man defense. Extremely sound, they don't foul, they help.

For Minnehaha, Taylor Sparkman was a matchup problem for DLS. I had him for 18 and 11 tonight. Only 8 points combined from Greg Meyer and David Burnham, but Austin Brown gave them that great stretch midway through the 2nd half. I was surprised that after seeing what DLS did against zone D (Redhawks go zone on underneath out of bounds plays), they didn't play more of it.