Lakers beat the buzzer

Prologue
Off to Prior Lake to see the Lakers host the opening round 4 vs 5 game against Chaska in section 2AAAA.  No concessions despite an early arrival as the concession stand wasn't open at the start of warmups.  Ah the shame.  With top seed Shakopee getting a battle, Kennedy just hanging on and Jefferson upsetting the 2 seed Chanhassen, you have to think something good will happen here and this one didn't disappoint.

Song of the Day
Rock N Roll Part 2 - Gary Glitter

Total Beverage Consumption Counter: 1348 ounces  (114 games, 98 days)

• 12 oz 7 Up 
• 20 oz Barq's Root Beer
• 20 oz Mug Root Beer 
• 80 oz Sprite 
• 84 oz Dr Pepper
• 160 oz Red Powerade
• 232 oz Red Gatorade
• 184 oz Coke 
• 520 oz Pepsi

Game Time
Its a miserable start for Prior Lake.  After scoring off the opening tap, the Lakers don't find the basket until the 12:05 mark.  Chaska gets an easy bucket off the BLOB using THE WORLD'S WORST OFFENSE cut and another BLOB layup.  Freshman Myles Hanson knocks down a 3 and its 13-7 Chaska at 9:20.  Forward Connor Bair with a pair of buckets and a Kevin McKiernan 3 in transition from Jon Sobaski.  Peyton Sanders keep Chaska up with 3 of 4 free throws.  McKiernan coast to coast for 2 free throws and another bomb.  Jason Faul cuts for a layup to tie at 27 before another McKiernan 3.  Chaska counters with a long Eric West 3 and Myles Hanson beats the halftime buzzer for 3.  33-30 Chaska at the half.

Hanson again for 3 to start the 2nd half and a Sanders tip and the Chaska lead is 8.  Sobaski a pair of steals for layups, Bair on the pick and roll for 2 free throws, Sobaski coast to coast to give Prior Lake the lead.  Sobaski adds a fading floater in the lane to conclude the 16-2 Prior Lake run.  46-40 Lakers with 10:25 left.  Jacob Hansen then heats up.  He hits a pair of 3s that sandwich a 3 from Bair. Sobaski to Bair for a layup and Faul scores to forces a Chaska timeout.  57-50 Prior Lake leading with 6:08 left.

West off the bounce and Hansen pulls up in transition to cut the lead to 4.  Sobaski drives before Hansen counters with a back cut and crazy tough floater on the left baseline.  McKiernan with his only points of the 2nd half with a 3 point play at 4:19.  63-56 Prior Lake.  Hansen still has it going with a 3.  Bair scores but countered by a controversial overrule that results in an And 1 for West.  It was the 4th time in the game where there was a valid question of whether the player was shooting or not.  Hansen follows that with another bomb and its 65 all just inside of 3 minutes left.  McKiernan to Bair for a layup countered by Hansen with 2 free throws.  Prior Lake holds but takes a bad 3 with 1:05 left, Chaska goes quick and misses a tough shot with 52 ticks left.  Prior Lake holds for the last shot.  Sobaski takes it and goes with 10 seconds left and his pass is tipped out of bounds with 6.4 left.  After a Prior Lake timeout, its Sobaski off the quick hitting screen and roll.  Shot no good, Bair no good, 3rd time no good, Faul with the putback as the horn sounds.  Did it beat the horn?  Referees huddle and YES the basket counts.  Prior Lake wins 69-67 at the buzzer.

Post Game
Chaska finishes their season at 16-10 with a solid 9-5 finish in the final season of the Missota Conference.  They'll move to the new Metro West Conference next season.  Jacob Hansen with 18 of his 27 points in the second half.  That included 4 of his 5 3s.  Not a good job of finding him by Prior Lake.  Eric West, Peyton Sanders and the freshman Myles Hanson all with 12 points.  Have to like Hanson's upside as a 6'3" athletic wing.  With him, Hanson and Sanders and guard Colby Murphy returning next season, the Hawks do have some nice pieces to build around.

Prior Lake improves to 16-11 overall.  Connor Bair with 15 of his 23 in the 2nd half.  Kevin McKiernan 11 of his 14 in the 1st half.  Not a great game early but Jon Sobaski scores 11 of his 13 in the 2nd half with some critical plays.  Coach Rubishko won't be happy with the 10 3s Chaska hit, especially with the quality of those looks.  Nice minutes off the bench from soph Jack Kortes but he was their only scorer off the bench.  Next up for the Lakers is 1 of 2 quality rivalry games in the 2AAAA semis at Apple Valley Saturday night.  Kennedy vs Jefferson in 1 semifinal while Prior Lake gets old rival Shakopee in the other semi.