Falcons fly past Hawks

Prologue
The thrill, the passion, the desire of section 4A playoff basketball.  After missing the scintillating (cough) 36-32 North Lakes upset (only win all year) on Monday night against AFSA, let's make up for lost time with Humboldt vs FAIR.  It may be FAIR Downtown (and that's Falcons not Skyscrapers), but their regular home gym is the lower school campus in Crystal (meth).  Tonight the game gets moved to Prairie Seeds Academy.  We learned from our opening game visit what a Lycan is and certainly a Lycan would eat either of these mascots for lunch.  I smuggled in a beverage fearing that there's be no concession stand but hot dogs and gatorade available tonight, though I did resist that temptation.  Humboldt shows up at 6:50 for a 7:00 tip (and the 20 minute warmup clock is supposed to start at 6:35, do you hear me Cooper and White Bear Lake).  So we finally get tip at 7:20.  So its clear tonight is an adventure, that leads us to this classic for today's music.

Song of the Day
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Run Through The Jungle
CCR leader John Fogerty got sued for plagarizing himself and this was the tune that he was sued for stealing in 1994.

Game Time
FAIR begins the night opening a 7-4 lead in the 1st 3:40 only to seem Humboldt counter with an 11-1 run.  Dashwan Wright with a pretty spin move for a layup and Chino Garcia converts a turnover into another layup to end the run.  15-8 Humboldt at the 11 minute mark.  FAIR's defense generating offense as the Falcons come back with a 12-2 run.  Falcons star Darrion Scott starts the run with a 3 and ends it with a layup converting a turnover.  20-17 FAIR just inside 7 to play in the half.  The rest of the half is Humboldt.  6 free throws lead to 8 in a row.  The Hawks end the half on a 14-4 run for a 31-24 halftime lead. 

Scott is the outside force for the Falcons.  6'4 Desmond Williams is the inside force and he comes out dominating in the 2nd half.  On the post for 2 free throws and a basket.  Then he gets a steal and scores again in the post.  Addison Hill coast to coast and he'll finish the 3 point play as FAIR explodes out of the halftime break.  Williams to the reverse layup for 2 more.  Humboldt needs time as its an 11-0 FAIR run.  35-31 FAIR with 14:39 left.  Williams with 8 of the 11 in the run.  FAIR gets more chances but Scott misses 4 FTs in a row.  Humboldt makes 1 free throw before a Scott putback ends the 13-1 run at the 12:10 mark.  Humboldt finally gets their 1st field goal of the 2nd half after 6 minutes.  Scott to the rack for 2 and Hill stops and pops in the lane.  44-37 FAIR with 9:45 left.  Humboldt finally getting back into the half and they nail back to back 3s to cut the lead to 1 in a blink of an eye.  Then Wright with 2 free throws and a layup via turnover.  Humboldt back on top 49-48 with 5:45 to play.  55-53 FAIR with 3:35 to play.

It all falls apart for Humboldt at this point.  Crazy sequence with Darion Schington turning it over and then getting the steal back on the other end.  He converts that into a bucket.  Humboldt turnover and Williams scores inside. Humboldt turns it over again but they get a tieup and the arrow goes their way.  On the possession, its an airball just inside of 2 minutes and only down 6.  Williams runs the other way and gets himself another bunny.  Then another Humboldt miss and FAIR runs that the other way for a layup at the 1:20 mark.  63-53 FAIR after the 8-0 run.  After a Humboldt 3, Scott makes a pair of freebies and Hill seals it with a 3 point play.  FAIR wins 72-58

Post Game
For Humboldt, they finish the season at 8-16, 1-9 in the St. Paul City.  Not much coming back next season, hard to see much of note on the horizon for the Hawks.  Dashwan Wright 11 points.  Keith Jackson and Chino Garcia 10 points.

For FAIR, 4 players in double figures. Darrion Scott finishes with 20 (22.2 avg).  Akil England 14 (10.9 avg) and Addison Hill 11.  Post Desmond Williams sat the 1st 9:05 of the game and didn't score in the 1st half.  He came out and dominated in the 2nd half scoring all 16 of his points to almost reach his 16.9 average.  FAIR will stay in the west metro as they'll visit Maranatha on Saturday.  MCA moving on with an 88-9 win over #18 seed North Lakes tonight.  FAIR beat North Lakes 97-30 earlier in the year.  FAIR isn't deep as they really only play 6 guys but only 1 of them (Hill) is a senior.  They have some length and athletes and I liked that they played some 1-3-1 with their people.  I'd like to see them be far more active in it though.  FAIR now 18-8 on the season.