Centaurs win big conference seeding game

Prologue
Final game of the Tri-Metro regular season schedule before their tournament is St. Croix Lutheran at Brooklyn Center.  The Centaurs move to 3 with a win and fall to 7 with a loss thanks to tiebreakers.  St. Croix Lutheran also fighting for a seed.  3rd game in 3 days for the Crusaders.  A pair of bad officials do one of the worst jobs I'll see all season.  We start to get great music just before tip and after 5 seconds it gets chopped off.  BOO!

Song of the Day
Cuts Like a Knife - Bryan Adams

Total Beverage Consumption Counter: 1204 ounces  (104 games, 84 days)

• 12 oz 7 Up 
• 20 oz Barq's Root Beer
• 20 oz Mug Root Beer 
• 68 oz Sprite 
• 84 oz Dr Pepper
• 140 oz Red Powerade
• 192 oz Red Gatorade
• 184 oz Coke 
• 484 oz Pepsi

Game Time
St Croix Lutheran going with a very young roster.  Soph Aage Rovney was 1 of 5 sophs to play for the Crusaders tonight.  He buries a pair of 3s off inside out feeds from post Trenton Krueger and we're tied at 10 at the 11:30 mark.  But they would go ice cold after that.  Only 2 more field goals during the half.  Add in sloppy play with turnovers and it does amount to a Brooklyn Center spurt.  Tedkye Clark comes off the bench because of Senior night.  He scores a couple of early buckets in the run and then closes it with back to back buckets.  The run is 16-2 before a late Rovney bucket.  26-14 Brooklyn Center at the half.  St. Croix Lutheran 6-31 from the floor with 12 turnovers.

The 2nd half just gets worse for the Crusaders.  Clark runs for a layup to start the half and puts back a miss with 12:45 left.  32-17 Brooklyn Center at that point.  Rovney with a 3 and a pull up to break the drought.  3 field goals for the Crusaders in a 17 minute stretch.  Somehow with the cold shooting and 18 turnovers they're within 34-22 with 11:25 left.  Krueger picks up his 4th foul with 10:08 left in another turnover scrum and has to sit.  The Centaurs take a turnover for a bucket and Clark goes coast to coast twice.  Once for a bucket and then for 1-2 free throws.  42-22 Centaurs with 8:36 left.  But the big lead bugaboo returns.  They lost to Concordia after leading by 14 with 4 minutes left.  St. Croix Lutheran promptly goes on a 9-2 run, a major outburst on this night, and cuts the lead to 44-31 with 6:57 left.

Krueger returns to the lineup to make a final push.  Clark restores order with back to back baskets.  Krueger with bonus free throws and a block for a Rovney pullup.  Then Krueger puts back a free throw miss.  Lead is down to 48-37 with 4:40 to play.  Turnovers traded and the Crusaders miss a pair of free throws.  Brooklyn Center holds for the last 2:30 and there's not enough time for a comeback.  Brooklyn Center wins 52-41.

Post Game
St. Croix Lutheran with no answer for the 2-1-2 press and athleticism of Brooklyn Center.  30 turnovers on the night just won't do it.  3 games in 3 nights definitely showed but lots of ball toughness issues here too.  Sophs Aage Rovney and Trenton Krueger with 19 and 12 points respectively to lead the Crusaders.  Ade Lamu help to 1 point and no field goals.   They did get some good inside out action with Krueger and Rovney early but little after that.  They Crusaders had won 5 in a row coming in after losing 5 in a row.  Their record is now 13-10 and they end up 5-5 in the Tri-Metro.  They get the 7 seed in the league tourney as they lose the head-head tie breaker with Concordia.  That gives them a very winnable pair of games.

Brooklyn Center gets 27 points from Tedyke Clark and 11 from Sammy Watkins.  The Centaurs pushed the ball on offense and moved it reasonably well.  Its a style that teams in the league don't see so it can be difficult.  Expect seeding for them in 5AA South to be very interesting.  HLWW will get the top seed but after that Watertown-Mayer and Breck will make good cases to be ahead of them despite a higher QRF for the Centaurs.  Brooklyn Center now 12-7 and they finish 6-4 in the Tri-Metro.  That's a tie for 3rd with Blake and Minnehaha.  They get the 3 seed in the league tourney since they beat both during the regular season.  Blake gets the meaningless 4 seed due to their head-head win over Minnehaha.


Tri-Metro Tourney Brackets
Opening round on Fri
Round 2 on Tuesday
Round 3 and championship next Friday

All games are played at the site of the team who did not host the regular season meeting.  That's why the top 2 seeds open on the road.

Friday games
#1 De La Salle at #8 St. Paul Academy (DLS 85-47 on Tuesday)
#5 Minnehaha at #4 Blake  (Blake 62-52)
#6 Concordia at #3 Brooklyn Center (Concordia won 78-76)
#2 Breck at #7 St. Croix Lutheran (SCL won 71-67 at Breck on Monday)

Friendship Round Robin Division
Friday 
#12 Mounds Park Academy at #9 Providence
#10 St. Anthony at #11 St. Agnes

Tuesday
#11 St. Agnes at #9 Providence
#10 St. Anthony at #12 Mounds Park Academy

Friday
#10 St. Anthony at #9 Providence
#12 Mounds Park Academy at #11 St. Agnes