Hawks soar to triple digits

Prologue
To Cooper for a North Suburban showdown against Irondale. Its a chance to see 3rd place Irondale's sharpshooter Bryan Sprang.  A much better than usual hot dog on the Cooper menu and 32 oz of Fruit Punch Powerade to keep players and fans alike running all game.  Irondale holding a 1/2 game lead for 3rd in the league standings coming in while Cooper was tied for 5th.  A great night of offense leads us to this music selection.

Song of the Day
Burning down the House - Talking Heads

Game Time
Star frosh Rashad Vaughn not in the starting lineup for Cooper but he enters at the 14:37 mark.  Sprang comes out hot as Cooper surprisingly goes zone against the small Irondale lineup.  Sprang nails a pair of 3s and has a 3 point play for the first 9 Knights points of the night.  His last 3 and a pair of Vince Calistro buckets are a 7-0 run.  13-11 Irondale at the 12:15 mark.  Cooper right back with 8 in a row with Raheem Tyner for 3 and a layup and Handful Pour's 2nd 3 of the night.  Terrance Averyheart for 3 and a quality no look passing to a running Tyner for a layup.  Tyner adds a post jumper as Cooper pushes the lead to 28-16 via a 17-3 run over 3 minutes.  Sprang with back to back 3s to conclude a 9-2 run that cuts the lead to 5.  Vaughn with a steal of a standard WORLD'S WORST OFFENSE pass and he takes it the other way for a dunk and the lead is back to 10.  Right before the end of the half its Tyner again inside with a pair of buckets including 1 via a nice spin.  Charles Williams takes a steal for a dunk and Vaughn ends the half with a lob for a layup.  48-40 Cooper in a fast faced first half.

Averyheart with a 3 to start the half and the lead is 11.  Irondale cuts the lead to 5 before Handful Pour nails his 3rd 3 of the night.  Calistro with a great hustle play on the floor leads to him making a jumper as the lead stays at 6.  Sprang with a putback at the 12:05 mark to cut the Cooper lead to 62-56.  Then the roof falls in.  Pour for 3, Averyheart for 3, a turnover for a Williams layup, Pour off the high screen and roll and its his 5th 3, Averyheart with a pullup and a 3 as Cooper reverses the ball for a wide open look and a Vaughn layup.  Irondale can't buy a bucket for 5 minutes, its an 18-0 run before Irondale scores.  Pour with a jumper and his 6th 3 of the night followed by Vaughn with a steal and the reverse dunk.  89-58 Cooper with 5:50 left.  Cooper goes to the deeper part of the bench and they give up a 13-0 run over 2 minutes to force the starters back into the game.  Cooper wins 100-82.

Post Game
For Irondale, Bryan Sprang with 21 of his 27 in the first half to lead the Knights.  17 of those in the first 12 minutes, mainly vs zone.  Mark Stasson with 13 points, 12 of those in the late spurt to make it respectable.  But Irondale had the cold stretch in the 2nd half and for the entire game just couldn't get a stop.  Irondale falls into a 3rd place tie in the North Suburban with Columbia Heights at 10-5.  After winning 10 in a row, they've now lost 2 straight.  They host St. Francis to end the regular season on Friday.  As to section 5AAAA play, they appear to be locked into hosting the 4 v 5 game against Spring Lake Park who they've defeated twice this season.

For Cooper, they finish North Suburban play at 10-6, a half game in front of Totino-Grace for 5th (TG has 1 league game left).  They're looking at the 3 seed and a home game vs Mounds View or Park Center in the opening round.  Great balance for the Hawks tonight as they get 5 players with at least 14 points.  Handful Pour with 6 3s, Terrance Averyheart with 4 3s as both finish with 24 points.  Rashad Vaughn 15 points, Charles Williams 14 from the wing spots.  Raheem Tyner 19 points and 8 rebounds on the inside and he also hit a 3.  That's a total of 11 3s for the Hawks and 96 of the 100 points from the base lineup (I'm including Vaughn there since he normally starts).  Cooper finishes the regular season with a tough home game against Buffalo.  Buffalo had a chance to clinch the Mississippi 8 but was upset by Big Lake tonight.  St. Michael-Albertville can tie for the M8 crown with a win Friday at Rogers.  STMA has won 8 in a row since losing 68-65 in OT to Rogers at the end of January.