Cowles right off the opening tip. Broghammer on Dower as expected. John Rowland for 3 and Osseo leads 3-2. No goofy game plan for Osseo. Royce thru Dower and tips in his own miss. Rowland again, this time with the turnaround at 16:40. 5-4 Orioles. Bobby Fischer for 3 and a Hopkins turnover. Dower inside and fouled for a pair of FTs at 16:10. He makes 1 of 2 for a 9-6 Osseo lead. White for a layup from Marcus Williams and he'll shoot 1. No good but Broghammer tips it in. Can't have that. Another Osseo turnover but White with another forced shot. Rowland around and out as he gets another look. Hopkins not converting the turnovers. DJ Phillips with a carry for the 4th Osseo turnover. TV timeout at 13:49, 10-9 Hopkins leads.
Bobby Fischer for 3 at 13:10 to put Osseo back on top 12-10. Moses Sundufu in the game and he crashes the glass for FTs at 12:49. Can Phillips and Fischer can keep Hopkins off the offensive glass? Osseo being very patient on offense with no gimmicks. Hopkins not as patient. Aaron Anderson drives and has a nice dropoff to Jayvin Reynolds for a layup. 14-11 Osseo leads as we go to the TV timeout at 10:55. Royce White with 6 points already. Bobby Fischer and John Rowland with 11 of the 14 Osseo points.
Lockett with another Hopkins offensive board for 2. Reynolds back on the other end. Offense coming from the unlikely sources for Osseo. Lockett rebounds, a nice low crossover and spin for freebies at 9:47. 1 of 2 for Lockett. 16-14 Osseo leads. A feed to Dower results in a turnover. Lockett and Broghammer with misses but white draws the 3rd quick foul on Reynolds at the 9:26 mark. White airballs a step back jumper and then reaches around as he didn't get out to Rowland. DJ Phillips spins, avoid a steal and throws in a short shot. 18-15 Osseo. Cowles banks home a 3 at 7:45 to tie it. Lockett grabs another offensive board but turns and goes thru the d for his 2nd foul outside of 7 minutes. Singleton with a bucket and an Osseo turnover. That takes us to the 6:24 TV timeout. 20-18 Hopkins. They already have 8 offensive rebounds which makes up for 8-23 shooting. Osseo 7-16 but 8 turnovers.
Cowles with another Hopkins offensive board at 5:35. That gives him 2 FTs and gives Hopkins a 22-20 lead. Broghammer pushing Dower out but he fouls Dower for his 2nd with 5:22 left. The bonus freebies tie the game at 22. Cowles for 2, Williams for 2 on a turnover. Dower inside and dunks to stop some bleeding. Cowles gets a great look after the 10th offensive board of the half but its up and over with 4:22 left. Phillips great feed to Djerf backdoor, Dower with a block but Phillips can't finish. 26 all at the 3:46 TV timeout.
Hopkins can't convert 2 more offensive rebounds as Osseo is just tipping the ball, not grabbing it. DJ Peterson does convert an Osseo turnover at 3:05 for 2. Dower inside misses a short jump hook over Royce. Dower smacks a Marcus Williams layup off the board for a nice block. Peterson drives on Rowland and Dower doesn't help and Hopkins gets the layup. John Rowland with another 3 and Osseo is within 1, 30-29 at 1:20. Osseo takes time and holds for 1 shot but Phillips turns it over for a Royce dunk. Djerf misses a triple, White with the long outlet to Williams who finds Singleton who'd fouled at the horn. He makes 1 of 2. 33-29 Hopkins at the break. Bad last minute for Osseo. Hopkins 13-39 shooting but they have 12 offensive rebounds (25-18 total advantage on the glass) and have forced 12 turnovers (4 by Osseo PG DJ Phillips). Royce started hot but he's only 4-11. Cowles and Royce have 9 points each to each Hopkins. John Rowland leads Osseo with 8 points. Sam Dower 1-5 with 6 rebounds, 2 blocks and a total of 5 points. Osseo's 4-7 shooting from 3 helping to keep them close. Oustanding performance by the Alexandria Aces at the half with their hoops tricks. Great way to end the season with the best halftime entertainment of the year.
My Class AAAA All-Tournament Ballot
Ellis Libby and Moses Alipate - Jefferson
Mike Bruesewitz - Sibley
Nate Wolters - St. Cloud Tech
John Rowland, Aaron Anderson and Sam Dower - Osseo
Royce White, Ray Cowles and Mike Broghammer - Hopkins
To the last half of the season we go. Osseo looks for another backdoor Djerf and a post up for Dower but they turn it over. Broghammer with great position on Dower and can't convert. He then blows the dunk on a follow-up. Royce bumps Dower to gain space and banks it home. Osseo misses and a kickout to Royce equals 3. Timeout Osseo at 16:25 with Hopkins leading 38-29. Lockett poaches a passing lane and finger rolls for an 11 point lead. The pressure adding up now. Rowland with a big 3 at the 15 minute mark to keep Osseo within 8. Then he strips Lockett and Dower converts for an And 1 on the other end. 14:34 left with Hopkins leading 40-34 after the missed FT. Reynolds gets posted by Royce and has to mug him to save an easy hoop. That's his 4th with 14:15 left but White misses both. Djerf drives and pulls up at 13:50 to cut the lead to 4. Broghammer steals a pair of offensive boards for FTs. Another reason why Reynolds is sorely missed as he's a top rebounder. Broghammer's 2 FTs extend the lead to 6. Royce helping on Dower and Rowland buries another triple at 12:25. 42-39 Hopkins.
Broghammer posts Dower and scores over him lefty at 12:11. Dower guarding Royce now and he immediately gets posted and picks up another foul. Royce gets lost on an inbounds for an easy dunk at 11:10 and the lead is 7. Danger zone here. TV Timeout at 10:30 with Hopkins leading 46-39.
Djerf with another Osseo 3 at 10:10 and they continue to hang around. Lockett posts DJ Phillips and converts a jump hook. Phillips misses a floater and Williams pulls up for a medium range jumper. DJ Peterson with another Hopkins offensive board at 8:58 for 2. Reynolds will come back in for the Orioles. That's the 19th offensive rebound for Hopkins. Dower scores at the 8 minute mark and Peterson puts back another miss. Rowland with another triple and Osseo takes time with 7:44 left. 54-49 Hopkins leads. Hopkins still cold as they're 9-22 shooting this half.
Broghammer misses a bunny but comes back with a tip away from Dower and then a 17 footer from the high post. 56-49 Hopkins leads. Another entry pass where Dower gets mugged and no call and Hopkins gets possession. Royce guarding Dower now with Broghammer on the bench. Reynolds up high for a tip in at 5:45. Marvin Singleton with a tough finish over Dower who stayed straight up. Dower over Broghammer and gets a putback. Royce over Dower on the other end with a floater. Phillips with a turnover and marcus Williams smartly pulls the ball back. Timeout Hopkins wiht 3:26 left and a 60-53 lead. Osseo with 4 turnovers since the last TV timeout.
Lockett to the basket and Dower gets that one. Dower grabs an offensive rebound at 2:45 and fades for 2. Osseo still within 5. Royce strong and converts at 2:30. With Osseo's big lineup (Reynolds and Rowland together), Cowles guards Rowland so no free looks from 3 against Royce. Broghammer with 1 FT at 2:07. Now Reynolds and Rowland alternate offense for defense. Cowles fouled at 1:06 and he makes 2 freebies and the lead is double-digits, 65-55. Hopkins makes their free throws for a 69-59 win.
Hopkins is the third undefeated team today to come in and leave with a title. Royce White finishes with 20 points, 7 rebounds for the game and no meltdowns for the season. Mike Broghammer with 11 points and 13 rebounds. John Rowland with 17 points including 5 triples. Hopkins with 21 offensive rebounds and they forced 21 turnovers. That offsets 37.7% shooting. Sam Dower finishes his career with 15 points and 16 rebounds.
The Class AAAA All-Tournament Team
Nate Wolters, Alex Hanks - St. Cloud Tech
Royce White, Mike Broghammer, Trent Lockett - Hopkins
Moses Alipate, Ellis Libby - Jefferson
Sam Dower, Aaron Anderson, Nick Djerf - Osseo (no Rowland is a mistake by the voters)
Less than 65,000 people attended the tournament compared to 90,000 in Wisconsin. A simple way to address budget issues, fix the schedule so more fans can attend by having the big schools play the primetime games.
Tc hoops,
ReplyDeleteWhat about having the semi's and finals at Williams?? I think that williams is a lot easier to get to for people than getting to Target center. Also, I think Williams would provide a better environment than TC does. Just my opinions.
I'm a big of that. I'd like to have the entire tournament at the U. I'd like to cut back to 4 teams from AAA, AA and A so that you could use 1 building for 3 days and be done. That would decrease costs (1 building) and draw more fans as you'd give AAAA the prime time games.
ReplyDeleteI am trying to understand how you would pick Roland over Djerf, but I realize that you probably only have based your opinion off of offensive production and only offensive production in the last game.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, Djerf has had a kidney problem since he went into the ER early Wednesday morning which definitely showed on the offensive end in the last two games, before that he was a solid production scorer who can drive, shoot the three, and has a mid range pull up jumper that he showed against Hopkins.
Now on the other end of the floor Djerf had the fun task of trying to stop Royce, which he actually did pretty well when he was guarding him, but they had to switch him off to D up some of the guards. He is also one of the best defenders in that state which is almost completely overlooked in high school. For instance he has shut Rodney Williams Jr. down for only 6 points both times he's had to guard him. Also this was All-Tournament not All-Championship game selection and if you watched the Apple Valley game Djerf was the only reason they even made it out of the first round. Maybe you should consider the whole meal not just the last bite.
Peter, I know you're president of the Nick Djerf fan club but relax.
ReplyDeleteFor the record the media gets their ballots at the start of the championship game and turns them in at halftime. I actually had Rowland decided for my ballot without factoring in his championship game. His shooting in the title game earned him a spot.
I can tell you I wasn't the only guy who didn't vote for Djerf. I don't have a problem with him making it and I thought I may have blown it once I saw the final list. I'd agree that his play (the bit of that game I saw) in the Apple Valley game alone earned him legit consideration.
That said, I'd have to look at the tape, but I don't recall very many possessions where Nick got the assignment on Royce.
I hated voting for 4 guys from any 1 team which is why I voted for Brueusewitz.