Pirates battle Islanders for number 1

Prologue
Thank you downtown flood for an absolutely miserable trip to the island.  Its #1AAAA Park Center visiting #1AAA De La Salle for the title of the state's best overall team.  Standard issue hot dog and a Sprite on the concessions menu.  A sellout crowd with Northern Iowa and Western Michigan looking on.

Game Time
Reid Travis starting out strong with a dunk off a high/low feed.  Quinton Hooker not to be out done for Park Center.  A steal for 2 and then a chance at  3 point play off another Islanders turnover.  Hooker knocks down a jumper and shakes for 2 more.  Luke Scott off a set flare screen knocks down his 3rd 3.  17-12 De La Salle at the 9:50 mark.  Hooker on the drive for 2 and a kickout to soph Arione Farrar for 3 and a drive off a ball screen for 2 more.  Travis back to back buckets inside.  27-24 De La Salle holding on to the lead at the 4:15 mark.  Isaiah McKay with a pair of freebies and a inbounds triple.  Scott another 3, Travis again on the post.  Hooker another assist off a screen and roll.  He adds a tip at the buzzer for a 38-34 Park Center lead at the break.  Hooker 14 points and 3 assists.  Reid Travis 11 and 4.  Scott 4 bombs for 12 in the half.

Big dunk by Travis to open the half and a 6 -0 run to put the Islanders on top.  Travis with a 3 point play and an old DLS inbounds set for a Luke Scott 3.  Travis on the offensive glass for 2 free throws.  The Islanders run is 16-3 to start the half.  50-41 De La Salle with 13:30 to play.  Josh Matthews with a bucket to cut it to 7.  Park Center would have a couple of layups missed thanks to challenges at the rim.  That puts them on a 6 minute drought from the floor.  Travis dominating inside as he scores the next 6 for a 60-47 lead inside of 6 to play.  Travis with 4 more as he gets a putback and a nice feed from Geno Grandall.  That opens up a 66-49 lead and ends a 12-2 that officially puts this one out of reach.  Travis with a spin and exclamation point dunk with a minute left for the icing on the cake.  De La Salle wins the battle of number ones 74-60.

Post Game
For Park Center, Quinton Hooker finishes with 24 points.  A quiet 2nd half as he missed 6 of his 1st 7 shots of the half on my sheet.  Without him to carry the offense, the Pirates couldn't keep up.  Treyton Daniels with 11 but too litle too late.  Isaiah McKay and Devin Buckley 8 each. Its the Pirates 1st loss of the season, they fall to 9-1.  A tough back to back at home against 7-0 Elk River awaits.

For De La Salle, Reid Travis takes over and dominates in the 2nd half.  He finishes with 36 points and I had him for 12 rebounds.  25 and 8 in the 2nd half alone.  They get 5 3s from Luke Scott and a total of 19 points.  De La Salle ran Sacar Amin, Trey Shepherd, Geno Crandall and Luke Scott at Hooker on the defensive end.  With Hooker going all 36 minutes, having the fresh defenders definitely helped.  Islanders only used a 7 man rotation.  Lots of ball screen and high low looks out of their offense.  Islanders get yet another premier team from another state when they play Blue Valley NW (Overland Park, KS) in the Timberwolves Shootout on Saturday (see my preview here).  Then trips to St. Croix Lutheran and Moorhead next week.