St. Bernard's vs Minnehaha, the replay for subsection gold

The final in the East Subsection of 4AA featured the expected matchup of St. Bernard's and Minnehaha. Much to my horror, Randy and Chris Breuer come in and it looks like they're going to sit right in front of me. Not a personal thing, you have to understand that the height difference between Randy and I is measured in feet, not inches. Fortunately they sat down the row so I still could see.

Minnehaha tries to face guard Jordair Jett with Greg Meyer. The same 1 on 1 matchup as the 1st meeting. Interesting that St. Bernard's is not using Averey Duncan on Parker Hines to disrupt the Redhawk offense. Trent Davis gets that task. We're back and forth early. Brian Sandifer with a triple and a Minnehaha turnover for a Duncan layup. 7-4 Bulldogs at 15:50. Hines and David Burnham with jumpers for Minnehaha around another Duncan bucket. 9-8 Bulldogs at 14:30. Taylor Sparkman with a ticky-tack 2nd foul at 14:25. Trent Davis stops a 6-0 Minnehaha run with a triple at 13:10. We're tied at 12. Another call against Minnehaha and coach Johnson is not at all pleased and I can't say I blame him. Both games of this night were not playoff quality officiating. Jett then gets it going. A triple at 12:10. A lefty floater from the post at 9:15. He takes a rebound coast to coast for a layup at 7:59, a steal for 2 and then a mid-air catch and all in 1 shoot and bank. 28-19 Bulldogs with 7 minutes left in the half. 16-4 Bulldogs run over 5:10. St. Bernard's now playing a 1-3-1, very interesting new twist. Burnham with a couple of triples but that's the extent of the offense against the zone. 37-27 Bulldogs at the break. Jett with 13 and 9 rebounds. Duncan with 14 points. Burnham with 10 points for Minnehaha. Overall, not a good half at all for the Redhawks.

St. Bernard's showed some 1-2-2 late in the 1st half and they're back in it to start the 2nd half. Duncan playing the top of it and he gets a steal for a 2 handed dunk and the 4 point awkward landing. 41-27 Bulldogs. But the Redhawks are finding a huge gap at the FT line in the zone. Burnham with a triple, Hines with a hoop, Taylor Hanson drives from the foul line for 2 to force a St. Bernard's timeout. Hines then with a triple against the 1-3-1. 46-41 Bulldogs with 12:30 to play and this one is back to being a game. Burnham with a layup countered by a Trent Davis scoop. Burnham then executes a pretty give and go for 2. Greg Meyer with a steal and Hanson is left all alone for an easy layin. 50-47 Bulldogs after a 16-4 Redhawks run over 4 minutes. Jett misses a 3 but Austin Brown misses a tough shot that would have cut the deficit to 1. Jett with a pullup jumper countered by a Brown bucket. Trent Davis with a jumper on a screen/roll. 54-49 Bulldogs with 8:25 left. Minnehaha tries some 1-3-1 of their own, but the Bulldogs hold for a minute. They go man and St. Bernard's holds for another minute before Jett finds Duncan for a layup with 5:40 left. Jett picks up his 4th 15 seconds later and goes to the bench with the Bulldogs leading by 6.

But Minnehaha can't make a run. Davis comes right back with a 3 point play to push the lead to 9. The Bulldogs spread the floor with 3:50 left. When Jett comes back with 2:49 left, the game is already in hand. The Bulldogs make late free throws for a 73-59 win.

For Minnehaha, David Burnham was the only consistent offense as he finished with 19 points. Greg Meyer with a quiet 14 points. No real answers for the St. Bernard's 1-3-1 which was surprising since Minnehaha plays plenty of 1-3-1 of their own. The Redhawks finish a terrific season 26-3.

For St. Bernard's, who else. Jordair Jett with 26 points and I had him for 17 rebounds. Despite being 6'1 he played bigger than everybody on the floor. More than once he went up over a crowd to grab a rebound. Averey Duncan with 14 of his 18 in the 1st half.