Edina secures a top seed

Prologue
Off to Hopkins for their parents night and end of regular season matchup against Edina.  Thanks to the Royals loss on Tuesday vs Minnetonka and Edina's win, Edina had already locked up the conference championship.  But there was a chance that the top seed was still on the line as the coaches chose to use the computer seeding rather than coaches vote.  The usually outstanding Walking Taco was dreadful as Sun Chips were used in place of Doritos.  Epic Fail.  Yuck.  Needed all of my 20 ounces of Coke to wash out the foul taste.  Much to my surprise a full house on hand for the game including the student sections (Edina's is notoriously awful).

Game Time
Start point guard Graham Woodward with 6 of the first 8 for Edina.  8 all at 13:15 when we get a spurt of action.  Reggie Lynch for 2, Jamal Davis counters with a mean 1 handed tip dunk.  Back the other way and Lynch turns inside and throws one down.  Davis right back from deep for 3.  13-12 Hopkins at 11:55.  Lynch with another dunk but Hopkins only down 23-21.  Then an 8-0 Woodward run with a pair of 3s and a bucket on the break.  Timeout Hopkins down 31-21 with 5:47 left in the half.  Very rare to see coach Novak take a first half timeout.  Lynch sits at 3:12 with his 2nd foul on an illegal screen.  Then Hopkins out on the break, Jake Wright up for the layup and an Edina defender gives the backboard an excessive smack and the layup is no good.  Mark Handberg back the other way with a putback.  A huge 4 point swing in Edina's favor as that should have been a no brainer technical by rule.  Usually I see that called incorrectly the other way (a goaltend rather than an incorrect no call).  Just the worst call in a night of bad officiating from an non-descript 3 man crew.  Then right before half, a loose ball and Woodward picks it up and knocks it in from the volleyball line just before the buzzer.  38-28 Edina at the break.

Lynch with a layup and then impressive denial of Jamal Davis on the break.  40-31 Edina at the 15:42 mark.  Lynch inside for 2 and then Woodward handfights with Kamali Chambers and gets loose for 3.  49-38 Edina with 11:10 left.  Hopkins counters with 7 in a row as Chambers makes 2 free throws. Stephon Sharp takes a steal for 2 and Jake Wright knocks down a 3.   49-45 Edina with 10:22 left.  They continue to cling to the lead but Lynch working inside.  He scores on the post and grabs an offensive board for 2 free throws.  Sharp with a 3 on a nice inside out look.  55-54 Edina with 6:20 to play.

Hopkins can't get over the hump.  Lynch gets the iso on the left block and scores 2 easy buckets going to the middle (had a dropstep dunk going baseline if he wanted it on the 2nd).  Another Edina offensive board for a free throw then Lynch finds Mark Handberg on a nice back cut down the lane for 2 free throws.  Handberg got away with a walk on the catch.  Dane Tueteberg setting the flare screen for Woodward and a nice slip to the rim and finish.  Its a 9-0 run for a 64-54 Edina lead with 3 minutes left.  The rest is Edina closing it out at the charity stripe.  Edina wins 72-64.

Post Game
Hopkins finishes the regular season 20-6, 4-4 for 3rd in the Lake Conference.  Jake Wright leads the Royals with 17 points and 3 triples.  Stephon Sharp with 15 points off the bench, 11 of those in the 2nd half but nost of those in the last minute.  Jamal Davis scored 14 points.  Hopkins showing that a lack of an inside presence is a major factor for them against teams like Edina and Minnetonka who have bangers.  Hopkins likely looking at the 3 seed in section 6AAAA and a 1st round game with North Suburban runner up St. Louis Park.

Edina closes at 19-7 and wins the Lake at 7-1.  They've won 19 of 22 after a 2nd straight year of an 0-4 start.  Graham Woodward with 17 of his 29 in the 1st half to lead all scorers.  3 of his 4 3s in that first half as well.  Reggie Lynch with 14 of his 24 in the 2nd half in a trend we've seen earlier this year where he goes big after halftime.  He had to have been close to a double-double.  Hopkins didn't have a good answer for him inside.  They will play one of the Minneapolis City Conference co-champs (South or Southwest) in the 1 vs 8 game in 6AAAA.