Fridley at St. Anthony Thriller

Josh Pratt

Prologue
A fun evening tonight with the big (and outstanding) St. Anthony band. Band of the year to this point (3 seen so that's cheating). We have the St. Anthony girls team all decked out in santa hats in the very vocal and supportive St. Anthony student section.  Can't leave out the concessions either.  Hot chocolate, cider, and The Czar's trifecta of Pizza, Popcorn and Pepsi.  High quality operation by the St. Anthony boosters.  Thanks to all of them and the rest of the St. Anthony crew for all of their hospitality tonight.

Game Time
The first half was a struggle to find offense.  9-8 St. Anthony at the 9:55 mark before St. Anthony star guard  Josh Pratt gets on the board from the post via a nice high/low feed.  Ericson Saye banks in a triple at 4:20 to tie the game at 15.  Pratt with a baseline jumper, a drive for 2 and then a rebound and long outlet for a Karuza Cooke layup for.  21-19 St. Anthony.  Jimmy Mireri with a bucket and a buzzer beater around another Pratt hoop.  24-23 Fridley at the half.

The offenses pick up in the 2nd half.  After Fridley gets the first basket of the half, St. Anthony counters with 7 in a row for a 30-26 lead at 16:25.  Fridley's leading scorer Jordan Halvorson held to 5 points in the first half, but he has a free throw and a pair of drives to the rack.  Then Saye with the standard 3 point play off a turnover.  36-34 Fridley at 13:41.  Then St. Anthony gets the high pick and roll going.  Pratt finds Derek Jahner on the roll with a bullet pass for a 3 point play.  Jahner on the post for 2 and 2-4 free throws.  Pratt then nails an NBA 3 to conclude a 10-0 Huskies run.  Halvorson breaks the run with free throws and Mireri nails a 3 at 10:20.  44-41 St. Anthony.  Graig Weber for 3 to tie the game at 48 with 7 minutes left.  Halvorson for 2 at 5:20  Then lefty athlete Devin Hemmerich nails a pair of jumpers.  Jahner sandwiches those jumpers with a pair of free throws and a putback.  56-54 Fridley with 1:53 left.  Mireri with a dangerous drive for 1 free throw with 1:15 left.  Pratt counters with 3 from the top to tie the game at 57 with 55 seconds left.  Fridley goes quick and misses a tough shot with 35 seconds left.  St. Anthony takes time and Fridley attempts to trap out of the timeout.  St. Anthony solves it and Pratt has the ball all alone on top with 20 seconds left.  But the call is to give it up for him to get a pair of screens.  He never gets it back and Aaron McCrossan has to take a tough shot at the buzzer.  We'll go to overtime.  Interesting that the Huskies took the timeout and that they had the chance to go 1-4 low with Pratt and chose not to.

In the OT, Ryan Jenkins nails a 3 and Hemmerich finds a loose under the rim and turns it into a 3 point play.  63-57 Fridley with 2:27 to go in OT.  St. Anthony not going away.  Pratt floats for 2, Halvorson travels and Pratt spins and banks one home with 1:35 left.  63-61 Fridley.  Jenkins makes 1 of 2.  Pratt finds Jahner for 2 with 1 minute left.  Fridley holds and Halvorson takes a tough baseline shot with 35 seconds left that's no good.  On the other end, a loose ball finds Jahner and he's fouled with 19.5 to go.  After a Fridley timeout, he calmly makes 2 FTs to give St. Anthony a 65-64 lead.  Fridley misses but Mireri gets bumped on the loose ball and he'll shoot 2 with 5.4 to play.  Tough call as it wasn't much of a bump but probably the right call.  Mireri makes both and back comes Pratt on the inbounds.  He dribbles up the left sideline, gets to the top of the key area and can't get planted.  His shot falls short enough that it looks like a last second pass.  Fridley wins an overtime thriller 66-65.

For St. Anthony, Pratt finishes with 23 and 13 rebounds on my sheet with 10-20 shooting, 3 triples.  Derek Jahner with a big 2nd half inside.  He finishes with 21 points and 9 boards on my sheet.  Aaron McCrossan now plays off the ball after playing point guard before this season.  With the transfer of Marcus Nolen to Washburn, that takes another ball handler out of the equation.  The Huskies had success with Pratt and Jahner on the high screen/roll midway through the 2nd half, but never came back to that pair despite running the set later in the game.  Huskies 11-26 from the foul line counting the missed front ends of the bonus.  Ouch.  St. Anthony moves on to the Bethel tournament where they open with Champlin Park.

For Fridley, Jordan Halvorsen finishes with 16 pts and 7 boards on my sheet.  Devin Hemmerich clutch in the last 5 minutes of regulation.  He finishes with 11 points.  2 other Tigers also make double-figures. Coach McDonald will want to work on end game execution with his kids.  Fridley host their holiday tournament next Tuesday and Wednesday.

Josh Pratt photo courtesy of MNPhotoNet.net