Minnehaha, De La Salle, 2nd verse like the 1st

The night session of this February Saturday takes me to the boys/girls doubledip at De La Salle with Minnehaha being the guests. The #6 DLS girls with a furious comeback from 12 down late to cut the deficit to 1 against the #4 Redhawks but Minnehaha holds on for a 60-55 win. Star center Katelyn Adams with 13 points, 11 rebounds and 5 blocks for Minnehaha. Rachel Hansen with 15 of her 18 in the 2nd half for the victors. Sophomore guard Tori Rule with 17 of her 23 in the 1st half as DLS got the last 9 of the half for a 33-24 halftime lead.

Interesting to see the DLS girls using all 5 players in shell drill during warmups, usually shell drill is a 4 on 4 drill. Nice job by the DLS band tonight with Crazy Train and When Doves Cry amongst the musical choices this evening. Coach Eric Schutte of Concordia and St. Anthony junior Josh Pratt amongst those watching tonight.

Jalen Jaspers with a couple of early hoops against David Burnham. 6-2 DLS 2 minutes in. Parker Hines with a 3, a tip in, an assist to Taylor Hanson as he slips a screen, then Hines with a steal for 2. Burnham concludes an 11-2 run with a layup after another DLS turnover. 13-8 Redhawks at 12:49 on an 11-2 run over 3:11. AJ Barker with a couple of hoops for DLS to cut the lead to 16-13 at 7:35. Jaspers with a 3 point play at 6:24, 18-16 Minnehaha. Burnham with a turnaround but then he picks up his 3rd foul at 5:11. Greg Meyer with a 3 point play and Taylor Sparkman with a layup after a DLS turnover. That forces a DLS timeout at 3:17 as the Minnehaha lead has ballooned to 25-16. Minnehaha goes 1-3-1 the rest of the half. DLS can't score the last 2 minutes against it and the Redhawks lead 29-18 at the half. Jalen Jaspers 12 for De La Salle. Nice balance for Minnehaha as Parker Hines has 9 and the wings David Burnham and Greg Meyer have 7 each. Only 2 free throws for DLS the rest of the half after the Jaspers 3 point play at 6:24. AJ Barker appeared to come down on someone's foot with 2:33 left in the half and he doesn't return for the Islanders.

Minnehaha decides to stay with the 1-3-1 in the 2nd half. Burnham with a silly reaching foul at 16:16 for his 4th and he has to sit. John Hertle with a bucket and then Melvin Collins puts back his own miss. 33-27 Minnehaha at 11:25. Hanson with a nice drive for 2 and then a 3 point play by Meyer push the lead back to 11 at 10:14. Burnham back in at 7:44 and fouls out at 4:53. Collins makes 2 free throws and its 39-33 Minnehaha. Greg Meyer with a layup and then he finds Lucas Taddonio at 3:15 for a 43-36 Minnehaha lead. Jaspers with his 1st field goal in over 13 minutes at 2:05, 43-38 Redhawks. Hanson makes a jumper on an assist from Hines, Jaspers misses and Meyer finds Sparkman for a layup with 46 seconds left to seal it. Minnehaha wins 48-40 after winning the 1st meeting 48-42 at home.

For De La Salle, the loss of AJ Barker with the injured left ankle was huge. When the only scorer on the floor is Jaspers its hard to generate any kind of offense. He finished with 20 points on 6 field goals and 8-9 FTs. Jonah Travis with 6 points and 12 rebounds despite sitting out the last 7 minutes of the 1st half with 2 fouls. It'll be interesting to see who steps up to fill the void left by Barker's absence if he's out for any length of time. This also hurts in the very difficult section 6 as they try to at worst maintain a home seed.

For Minnehaha, they're now 19-2 with the win and still trying to make a case for the #1 seed over St. Bernard's in 4AA East despite a head-head loss. Nice job with the 1-3-1 in recognizing who the scorers were and laying off those who aren't scorers. The zone also limits the cutting lanes for Jaspers who's very good slicing thru the lane in their motion offense. Greg Meyer big late. He and Taylor Sparkman lead the way with 11 points. Parker Hines with 9 points all in the 1st half. No Austin Brown tonight for the Redhawks.