Sewer leads Richfield to opening round win

Prologue
To Richfield for the 6AAA 4 vs 5 game with the Spartans hosting Holy Family.  Holy Family 18-8, Richfield 12-14 but still got the home game.  Its how I would have seeded it but very tough to not give an 18 win team an opening round home game.  No Taco in a Bag tonight much to my horror but we do have the Otis Spunkmeyer cookies hot off the press, hmm gooey good.  Guard play the story of the night not only here but also in Waconia where the #2 seed went down again this year in the first round.  This time to Washburn and their guard oriented dribble drive motion.

Game Time
We have a technical for dunking in warmups for 2 Holy Family freebies, a 3 and then an easy inbound layup all by Curt Clauss.  Holy Family 7-0 and their outstanding student section (bigger than Richfield's) making this feel like a home game.  Richfield then heats up from 3, specifically Daron Garvis.  He nails 3 triples, then Jay Sewer with a steal for 2 and a triple of his own.  Ben Webster then finishes an 18-4 Richfield run on a sweet play.  Long lead pass almost goes out of bounds but its saved to Webster trailing the play for a layup.  18-11 Richfield at the 11:10 mark.  Richfield cools off but still has a 27-18 lead at the 8:45 mark before a Holy Family run.  12-2 Holy Family over 5:30 finished off by a Jeff Soule triple.  Garvis with another 3 before the half ends and Richfield leads 35-32 at the break.

Back and forth to open the 2nd half.  Big soph Ryan Dahl with a short jumper to draw Holy Family to a 41 all tie with 14:55 left.  Richfield then looks to pull away thanks to Sewer.  He finds John Johnson for 3 and Erik Jimson for a layup.  A Holy Family turnover gives Sewer 2 free throws.  Jared Etienne not known for his offense scores on the post to finish off an 11-2 run.  52-43 Richfield with 12:05 left.  Etienne nails a 3 and the lead is 10 with 10 minutes left.  Holy Family not going away though.  Clauss with a 3 point play off a scramble and a Mitch Mandel foul line jumper cuts the lead to 58-55 inside of 7 minutes to play.  Clauss with a bucket off another scramble.  Holy Family with some momentum but Sewer finds Ben Webster in the left corner for 3.  Dahl with a putback after 2 Soule free throws.  63-61 Richfield with 4:23 to play.  The next 2 minutes seal it.  Etienne with a putback, Mandel misses a front end, Sewer to Corey Fitzgerald for a layup.  Sewer then drives for 2 at 2:40 after a Holy Family turnover.  69-61 Richfield and Holy Family doesn't get any closer than 4 the rest of the way.  Sewer slams the door with the drive and tough and 1 seals it.  Richfield wins 81-72.

Holy Family finishes the season 18-9.  Curt Clauss leads the way with 20 points.  Jeff Soule 12 of his 18 in the second half but missed 4 straight free throws in the last 2 minutes.  Mitch Mandel 15 points and 10 rebounds on my sheet.  Ryan Dahl with 10 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocks.  Holy Family never really got comfortable in their offense.  That kept them from getting enough inside touches for Dahl and Mandel where they had an advantage.

Richfield moves on to play Benilde-St. Margaret's on Saturday in the 6AAA Semis.  Jay Sewer 27 points and 4 assists.  Holy Family had no answer for his quickness and ability to get to the rim.  When Holy Family made a first half run, that was when Sewer got cold and forced a couple of shots.  Big contributions from Daron Garvis with 4 triples for 19 points and Jared Etienne with 13 points.