Late Season AAA battles

Prologue
Its a Saturday of class AAA importance.  In my opener Blake visited Richfield with major seeding impact on section 6AAA in that one.  Then a quick trip to the island for a showdown of Tri-Metro division leaders as St. Anthony visited De La Salle.

Game 1: Blake at Richfield
The first 4 points of the game go to Richfield before Blake goes on an 8-0 run to take the lead.  Richfield would bounce back to take a 4 point lead behind the play of Deshawn Jones.  23-19 Spartans at the 5:12 mark.  Blake would go on a 15-6 run for most of the rest of the half thanks to 3s from John Veil and Paul Blake.  6'6 F Blaine Crawford off the Bears bench with a pair of baskets in that stretch as well.  36-31 Blake at the half.  The Bears come out hot in the 2nd half with Kebu Johnson driving, Veil with a 3 point play, Kebu with another bucket, Paul Blake with back to back bombs, back up center Alex Smith with a pair of jumpers.  55-36 Blake with 11:34 to go.  Its a 19-3 run that forces a pair of timeouts.  Shawn Bear with a pair of free throws and a 3 as Richfield cuts the lead to 63-52 with 7:05 left.  A JR Bascom 3 on the extra pass before the teams trade baskets.  68-54 Blake with 5:39 left.  Then Bear goes off with 3 3s and a pair of free throws to cut the lead to 71-66 with 1:43 left.  Marcellis Beard for 3 before Veil misses a 3 with a minute to go that Bascom thankfully grabs for 2 free throws.  75-69 before the teams trade jump balls. . Then a Blake turnover and Beard buries another 3.  Blake makes 1 of 2 free throws and gets the ball back on the missed freebie with 25.2 left and a 76-72 lead.  Kebu Johnson makes 2 free throws before another Beard 3 with 15 seconds left. Blake misses 2 freebies and back comes Richfield with a chance to tie.  Bear gets a look at an NBA length 3 that's no good and Blake hangs on 80-75.  Shawn Bear with 4 3s and 25 points.  17 of those in the 2nd half.  Kebu Johnson 17 points to lead Blake.  This makes the case for moving Blake down much harder but don't be shocked if they still end up at 5.  If Holy Angels beats Richfield on Wednesday night then AHA has a great case for 3, Chaska would make a case for 4 thanks to their head-head win over Blake, Blake 5 and Richfield 6.

Game 2: St. Anthony at De La Salle
The DLS chemistry teacher is back with his saxophone for the national anthem and that's always a special treat.  St. Anthony begins in zone but they can't find sniper Luke Scott and he makes them pay 3 times from deep for an 11-0 run.  11-2 DLS 4 minutes before St. Anthony goes man.  That ignites a 14-2 run with Anthony Brama getting going.  Nice call by St. Anthony to go to a quick trap after a DLS timeout and Brama got a steal for a layup out of it to close the run.  18-16 Huskies at the 9:30 mark.  Jarvis Johnson with no look assists that lead to layups for Tyler Moore and Ross Barker.  Inbetween he goes up high for the pass from Reid Travis and throws it down with ease.  St. Anthony's other leader Dustin Iannazzo keeps the Huskies close with 4 free throws and a drive.  Brama scores a pair of late buckets and we're tied at 30.  Reid Travis with 3 free throws in the last 1:35 and a St. Anthony fan getting tossed finish the half.  33-30 DLS at halftime.

Travis with 3 quick buckets to start the 2nd half.  That forces a St. Anthony timeout as the DLS lead has grown to 43-36 with 13:54 left.  Travis inside again, Scott with another bomb off the BLOB and James Lawson with a layup as the buckets are coming easy and the lead is now double digits.  Huskies not going away yet as Brama gets a pair of buckets.  52-44 DLS with 10:25 left.  A turnover leads to a Travis dunk, Jarvis Johnson to the rack for 2, Travis with 1 free throw and puts back the miss of a Tyler Moore freebie on a 3 point play attempt.  Scott with back to back 3s and Travis pitches ahead and trails the break.  He's rewarded for running as he gets it back for the layup and the foul. 69-50 DLS with 4:40 left.  Brama would knock down 3 late 3s (including a 4 point play on 1 of them) as St. Anthony almost made it interesting.  DLS wins 82-69.  Reid Travis leads with 24 points, Luke Scott with 6 3s and 20 points.  Anthony Brama goes for 33 and 4 3s.  Dustin Iannazzo with 24.