Cooper pours it on late

I stay on the north side tonight as Cooper comes calling at Minneapolis North.  A respectable crowd in the building for a city game.  The first official Rene Pulley sighting of the season and Columbia Heights coach Willie Braziel joins him.  At least tonight had Fruit Punch Gatorade to go with the so so hot dog unlike that nasty orange melon stuff from last night.

Song of the Day
Why can't we be friends - War

Game Time
Terrance Averyheart with 4 quick points at Cooper starts the game up 6-0.  He adds a jumper and a layup off a turnover, then frosh Rashad Vaughn goes to the reverse layup to finish a 10-2 run.  16-6 Cooper at the 9:22 mark of the first half.  Vaughn with 2 offensive boards for easy buckets.  20-12 Cooper at 6:15.  Malik El-Amin keeps North in this one as he converts a pair of drives and a free throw in the last 4:25.  28-22 Cooper at the break.

North scores the first hoop of the second half and then Cooper spurts.  Raheem Tyner with a putback and then runs the floor and is rewarded.  He finishes with the 1 handed flush.  Then an offensive rebound for a free throw and a big block results in a Handful Pour triple.  40-24 Cooper with 14:20 and the rout should be on.  El-Amin again carries North.  He nails a jumper to stop the run and then a long bomb.  Then a tough pullup and a steal for 2 more.  Its a 10-0 where El-Amin scores 9 of the points.  40-34 Cooper with 10:56 left and we still have a game.  Cooper breaks the run and then uses their 4th timeout with 10:25 left.  I never understand that.  Cooper's previous coach Kurt Pauly was notorious for that too.  Not only does it kill the momentum you just got back, but it was the 4th time out with 10+ left.  Didn't like that move at all.  Shondale Strickland off the inbounds for hard 3 point play to cut the Cooper lead to 46-42 with 6:06 remaining.  Then Charles Williams fouls out and the lead is 2.  Now you wish you had that timeout.  Strickland then has the 1 and 1 to tie it thanks to starting PG Leroy Taylor fouling out but he misses the front end with 4:54 left.  Handful Pour makes North pay.  2 hard dribbles to his right and he raises up and nails the foul line jumper.  Next time down he runs from the right corner to the ball at the top of the key.  He drains the triple and finds Averyheart running out for a layup with 3:24 left.  Timeout North.  53-44 Cooper leads after a 7-0 run and that's your ballgame.  Cooper wins 56-49.

Post Game
For North, they fall to 0-1.  Malik El-Amin leads the way with 19 points on 8-17 shooting.  Charles Smith 15 points.  North has athletes but if you get them in a halfcourt game they'll really struggle to score if you keep them in front.  Granted that's easier said than done.  But most of their halfcourt points game from drives to the basket.  While this was a good warmup, it doesn't get any easier as Johnson comes calling on Friday night.  That's a rematch of last year's Twin Cities Game that Johnson won 92-67 at Johnson.

Cooper starts 1-0.  Terrance Averyheart 18 points and 8 rebounds leads the Hawks.  7-16 from the floor.  Freshman Rashad Vaughn 10 points and 8 rebounds in significant minutes.  Nice to see a freshman play with poise and not at 1000 miles an hour.  Post Raheem Tyner with a double double with 11 points and a truckload of rebounds.  He didn't convert some good looks inside but he's definitely a factor there as Cooper goes 3 out or 4 out on the offensive end.  Handful Pour finishes with 11 points on 3 triples to give the Hawks 4 players in double figures.  With their length (see Charles Williams and Vaughn just to name 2), they can influence plenty of shots on the defensive end.  Though I didn't like putting all their size on top of the 3-2 zone they showed.  They travel to Benson this weekend for a tournament where they could get the 10th ranked team in class A, MACCRAY and Seth Hinrichs in the championship game on Saturday.