Prologue
Its an early trip to Hopkins as I got a chance to see the quality youth for both squads. But as you all know, the real reason is that I was there for the Walking Taco. Looked like it would be great and felt warm enough but tasted cold throughout. I must have mixed it wrong (always a critical component). Hopkins would pull away late in all 3 games I saw, but some noteworthy points anyway. Since it was played in 2 buildings today and mentioned by a loyal twitter follower (and if you're not following me there, shame on you do it now! You're missing plenty of good stuff that you don't get here), here's our
Song of the Day
Space Jam Theme
Game Time
Jamal Davis comes off the bench in this one for Hopkins. Ibrahim Cisse unavailable for Armstrong and he's one of their few "big" guys. Armstrong gives up the first 4 as scoring is hard to come by for both sides early. Then the Falcons put up 10 quick ones thanks to back to back Nick O'Hara 3s, a SLOB jumper and a pair of free throws from versatile soph Nobel Fahnbulleh. 10-4 Falcons at the 13:38 mark. 14-11 Falcons when their star junior Konner Goettsche goes down with a knee injury. He did not return. Fahnbulleh with a foul line pullup before Hopkins explodes. Siyani Chambers on the offensive glass for 2, Nick Jorgensen with a putback of a free throw miss. Another Hopkins missed free throw results in a Royals 3 point play from Stahl. Demetrius Martin with a drive and then a tough 3 where he though he got fouled. Its all part of a 20-1 Hopkins run in just over 3 and a half minutes. 31-17 Hopkins at the 7:33 mark. Mitchell Biewen with 7 in a row for the Falcons and his 3 cuts the lead to 42-31 with 3:40 left in the half. Hopkins scores the next 9 before an Armstrong tip ends the half. 51-33 Hopkins at halftime.
Armstrong trying to hang around with Fahnbulleh tipping in a miss and driving. Then a Nick O'Hara 3 to cut the lead to 16. 61-45 with 14:30 to play. One more Hopkins run puts it away. Jamal Davis runs for a layup and buries a 3 from Chambers. The rest of the run is layups. Andre McDonald finishes a 16-2 spurt for the biggest lead of the night 77-47 with 7:22 to play. Coach Novak can start going deeper into the bench at that point and the Royals win 90-68.
Post Game
For Armstrong, Nobel Fahnbulleh leads the way with 21 points. Got on the glass, played a little bit in the post, played point guard. Kind of a jack of all trades. Nick O'Hara 3 3s for 13. Mitchell Biewen 3 3s for 11. Armstrong started 4 juniors and the sophomore Fahnbulleh. Add in a good class of freshmen (Evan Nolan 1st off varsity bench and Jerome Dixon got garbage time minutes along with 4 other freshman playing soph or JV regularly) and the future is bright. The Falcons fall to 2-7 (1-5 in NWSC). They are at Centennial on Thursday. Cougars upset Maple Grove tonight thanks to a hungry KuckyMonster (Mitchell Kuck's twitter handle) putting up 40.
Hopkins with 5 in double figures including 17 and 6 from Zach Stahl. Demetrius Martin 14, Nick Jorgenson and Siyani Chambers 12, Andre McDonald with 10. Fun to watch 8th grader Amir Coffey be the best player in the sophomore game as well. Wouldn't shock me to see him with Pulley (betting odds, don't gamble kids) or PNR 15s this spring. Hopkins is now 12-1 and they're off until they play Johnson next Friday night at Johnson in the East Metro Showcase.
I enjoy seeing the results of these games as I don't really have access to them where I live, other then the shootout. The only question I have, is how can people be a fan of Hopkins? I hate the fact that Novak gets away with recruiting his players like he does.
ReplyDeleteCoffey has been playing up two grades since 3rd grade and has been Minneapolis Select's leading scorer playing up with the 2015's for the last three seasons. Great shooter with a quick release and a nose for the ball. You have made an extremely safe bet on him playing for Pulley this spring.
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