Tri-Hawks use late rally for section 4AA win.

Another trip to the not so ergonomically correct Ergotron gymnasium on this quiet President's day schedule. St. Paul Humboldt makes the trip south to Trinity for a matchup of subsection bottom feeders in section 4AA. Humboldt #115, Trinity #117 in the current QRF. Enough said.

First half is back and forth and ugly. Tied at 10 at 10 and Humboldt has 3 guys with 2 fouls. Keith Larocque with a triple at 6:25 that gives Humboldt a 19-14 lead. Dominic Capillo with a prayer to extend it to 26-20 at 1:20. Mark Olander with a late triple and Trinity goes to halftime down 26-23. 9-3 on the 1st half fouls. Olander 5 points on 1-5 shooting on my sheet. Aaron Gregg leads Trinity with 10, Tony Kuplic with 6 and 6. Josh Titus with 8 points and 4 boards to lead Humboldt.

Kuplic breaks a 29 all tie with 2 free throws at 13:15. Humboldt counters with a 7-0 run over the next 5:30. Melvin Dees with 5 points in the run and he finishes it with a putback at 7:45. 36-31 Hawks lead. Olander then comes to life. He ties it with a 3. Then a free throw followed by a steal for 2 at 5:05 to give Trinity the lead. Titus gone with his 5th foul at 4:43. Humboldt gets a pretty pick and roll but Dallas Jackson misses the easy layin. Trinity with the 2nd pass out of the baseline double team and it finds Olander for another 3 at 3:40. Timeout Humboldt down 43-38. Olander then puts drives home the dagger with another triple on the next Trinity possession. A Humboldt turnover leads to 2 Kuplic free throws and a then a Hawks miss results in 2 more Olander free throws with 1:36 left. The run is 22-3 over 6:45 before Humboldt finally breaks a field goal drought with 1 minute left. Olander with 15 of the points in that run. But the damage is done as the run gives Trinity a 14 point lead. The rest is free throws. Trinity wins 58-45.

For Humboldt, Dominic Campillo with 14 points but questionable shot selection. The Hawks are now 1-17 and have lost 17 in a row after an opening night blow out of Great River. They have Mounds Park Academy at home on Tuesday before a trip to Como Park on Friday. That starts a stretch of 5 St. Paul City games to end their regular season. Despite 3 starters returning next year, not much in the way of prospects for Humboldt's future. The Mounds Park game should determine the #8 seed in 4AA east.

For Trinity, they improve to 7-15 after an 0-8 start and they've been competitive against good teams in that stretch. Nice job really packing in their man-man defense for most of the night and really daring Humboldt to make anything outside fo 15 feet. This was the classic 1 guy on the ball, 4 guys with a foot in the paint defense. Mark Olander with 19 of his 24 points in the 2nd half. The future is brighter for the Tri-Hawks too. Sophomore point guard Tony Kuplic with 19 points and 14 rebounds tonight on my sheet. He's their leading scorer on the season. Another sophomore, Aaron Gregg, gives them a nice inside presence. He had 12 points tonight. With the exception of Olander, the entire rotation returns next season. They could sneak into that 6 seed and surprise Brooklyn Center in the 1st round of the weak 4AA West Subsection.