Sabers slowdown to share

Prologue
Off to Holy Angels where Shakopee comes to town for a critical Missota Conference game.  Holy Angels could clinch outright with a win while Shakopee would tie for 1st with a win.  A respectable hot dog and a rare Dr Pepper (12 oz) on tonight's concessions menu.  U of St. Thomas looking on with a good Shakopee crowd and not the greatest AHA crowd.  No Charlie Koontz for Holy Angels due to injury which could be a factor against the big Shakopee lineup

Game Time
Delshon Strickland with a steal and throwdown to open the scoring for Holy Angels.  Forward Tyler Weiss with the 1st 6 of Shakopee's points.  His putback of his own miss puts the Sabers up 6-5 at the 13:20 mark.  But we won't see much more of him in the half as a flop gets the call and that's a charge for the 2nd on Weiss.  That sits him down for the last 11:20 of the half.  John Burlager with a 3 point play to conclude a 10-1 Shakopee run.  Holy Angels goes scoreless for 6:40 and without a field goal for almost 9 and a half minutes.  10-5 Shakopee at the 9:04 mark.  Shakopee then switches to a 2-3 zone.  That really slows the pace of play to their favor.  The scoring is basically even the rest of the half.  John Burlager with the last basket of the half to put Shakopee up 20-18 at the break.

The Sabers stay with that 2-3 but Holy Angels has early answers with Strickland for 3 and then over the top of the zone for the lob dunk.  25-23 Shakopee at the 14:10 mark.  Then a critical moment.  Its the same lob play for Strickland who fumbles it.  He comes down and grabs it, up and no good and we have a scrum.  2 more AHA chances and those are swatted away.  AHA still has it and misses and it becomes a jump ball to Shakopee at the 13:23 mark.  A patient possession is converted by Burlager inside for the Sabers lead.  The run is underway.  Weiss with a jumper, Frosh Steffon Mitchell with a putback.  34-25 Shakopee with 11:30 left.  Its an 11-2 run over 2:40.  Holy Angels gets the next 4 but Weiss with back to back buckets to start 6 in a row the other way.  40-29 Shakopee with 9:25 left.   Burlager strong play inside down the stretch to offset some offense from Jordan Dembley.  Holy Angels doesn't get any closer than 6 the rest of the way.  Shakopee goes on to win 56-48

Post Game
For Holy Angels, Delshon Strickland with 17 and Jordan Dembley with 16 points.  Only 15 points from the rest of the starters and nothing from the bench.   Besides the 2 lob plays and some drives, no good offensive looks for the Stars against the zone.  The Stars fall to 18-7 overall, 10-3 in the Missota.  To keep their share of the league crown they need to win at Chanhassen on Friday.  I still see Holy Angels getting the top seed in 6AAA especially after Blake's loss at Minnehaha tonight.  That close head-head win at Blake without John Veil looming larger everyday.  But a possible second round game against Chaska or Holy Family is an attention getter. 

For Shakopee, John Burlager with 12 of his 18 in the 2nd half.  Tyler Weiss adds 10 of his 16 in the 2nd half.  Without Koontz, the size of the Sabers was definitely a factor inside.  Shakopee was bothered by some of the Holy Angels aggressive defense but managed not to hurt themselves too badly.  The Sabers are now 15-10 and also 10-3 in the Missota.  They close with Farmington at home on Friday.  As to their place in section 2AAAA, they looked locked into the 3 seed.  That could mean the sleeper game of the year in the 1st round against Jefferson (I give Kennedy 5 for being 1 game ahead and then Jefferson beat Lakeville South twice to earn 6).  First one to 25 wins that game which could be the slowest paced metro game of the year.  Then a rivalry game against Prior Lake could be on deck in the section semis.