2011 State Tourney Day 2 Class AAA

Class AAA Semifinals

Game 1: New Prague vs Columbia Heights 
Cale Girten 2 fouls vs Lofton at 13:24 1st half, sits.  Joe Hatch continued hot play with back to back 3s.  Heights starts 4-16 from the floor but has 8 offensive boards to stay close.  Then a pair of turnovers and Lofton converts those into 5 points.  That gets Girten off the bench at the 10:16 mark down 16-12.  7-0 Heights run and Lofton already with 10 points.  Middle of the Heights zone is wide open to exploit and New Prague not taking advantage.  2 late New Prague turnovers help Heights extend the lead to double digits.  30-21 Heights at half.  Lofton 18 points with 8-9 FTs.  Heights with 11 offensive rebounds on 24 misses.  Girten sat at the end of the half and when the lead got to double digits I would have brought him back (why not, you brought him back earlier) but the Trojans manage to stay within 9.

Jed Kreuser and Cale Girten with 3s as New Prague continues to hang around down 43-34 at the 8:30 mark.    Lofton with a tough finish and then a lob assist to Ben Glover.  49-34 Heights pulling away with 6:47 left.  Girten with 2 bombs and Luke Busch with another 3 for 3 straight Trojan 3s to cut the lead to 6 with 3 minutes left.  Over back on Heights and Kreuser for 3 with a minute left to cut it to 3.  Lofton drives and immediately scores going to the basket.  New Prague won't score again and Heights moves on with a 57-50 win.  Zach Lofton 31 points on 10-22.  Jordan Mills 10 points and 16 rebounds.   41-30 Heights wins the rebounding battle with 18 offensive boards for 18 2nd chance points.  Cale Girten 17 and 9 for New Prague despite first half foul trouble.  New Prague again shoots more 3s than 2s.  Teams combine to shoot 39-106 (36.8%) from the floor as neither team could break the 40% barrier.


Game 2: Orono vs Waconia
A interesting semifinal matchup between conference rivals.  Waconia won both meetings to win the Wright County.  Jeremy Borg guarding Shelby Moats is something to watch as he's had some success in the past.  Though Moats did have a 30-20 game against the Spartans earlier this year.  A pair of turnovers allow Waconia to take a 13-12 lead just inside the 8 minute mark. Teams shooting 9-28 to this point.  Back and forth as Orono would jump out to a small lead and Waconia would come back.  Smith's 3rd 3 is in transition leads Orono to a 25-19 halftime lead.  Smith with 13 in the half.  Moats with 7 points and 9 rebounds, 5 of 8 shot attempts from 3.   His last bucket at the 4:25 mark gave Waconia a 19-18 lead before giving up the last 7 of the half.

Moats has a couple of tough calls (a charge and no call on postup) go against him but Borg is doing nice work contesting him.  Waconia stays tough and scores the first 6 of the half to tie the game at the first TV timeout.  25 all with 14:01 left.   Al Sharpton with 3 or 4 straight calls against Waconia and then a make up call gets Moats to the line.  34-31 Orono with 10:30 left.  Then a bogus 5th foul on Ferron for ripping thru after getting mugged.  Then a Waconia player gets run over and no call.  Coach Hayes and the Waconia fans all over the officiating crew and its hard to blame them.  Brady Wohler hits a 3 to extend the lead to 7 but Waconia recovers to cut the lead to 3 before another Wohler 3 with 6:20 left.  43-37 Orono leading before Moats picks up a dicey 4th foul at the 6 minute mark for 2 Borg FTs.  Big moment when Borg puts back a 3rd chance with 3:45 left and the lead is back to 6.  Moats with a block on Borg with 2:30 to play and Alex Schmitt outhustles Orono for the rebound.  He's fouled for 2 free throws with 1:59 left.  47-45 Orono hanging on.  Borg grabs a miss and is fouled but misses both freebies.  Waconia takes time with a chance to tie and 1:32 left.  Kick to Ben Kortuem for 3 with 1 minute left and Waconia takes the lead 48-47.  Orono miss is tipped out with 30 seconds left and Jordan Smith scores with 20 seconds left.  Timeout Waconia down 49-48 with 17.8 to play.  Bronson Scheff drives off a high screen and gets mugged for no call.  Daniel Drew fouled with 7.8 left and makes 1 of 2.  Waconia takes last time out.  Alex Schmitt to the rim, loses the ball, gets it back and Borg swats his attempt out of bounds.  The refs will go to the monitor and set the clock to 1.6 seconds.  Waconia goes sucker play with 4 guys away and a back cut.  They don't get it and pass is tipped away.  With 1 second left, there's 1 last chance and Ben Kortuem's 3 is in and out at the horn.  Orono moves on with a 50-48 win.


Not a pretty game at all but with 2 teams who already played twice that makes offense harder.  Waconia shoots 15-44 (34.1%) with 20 turnovers, 14-21 FTs.  Orono 16-49 (32.7%), 14 turnovers, 11-22 FTs.  Jordan Smith 22 points and 6 rebounds to lead Orono.  Jeremy Borg 11 points and 7 rebounds along with nice work defensively on Moats.  Ben Kortuem 19 points to lead Waconia.  Shelby Moats 10 points with 14 rebounds.  4-12 FGs, 1-6 from 3.  Only 4 shot attempts for Moats in the second half.  Hard fought game and a great ending.