2014 Tartan and Augsburg Finals

Prologue
Back to back long championships days at Tartan and Augsburg mean plenty of Pepsi to stay awake.  But there's no finer way to ring in the new year.  Sights and sounds from all 8 games can be found below.

Number of Teams I've Seen: 96 (27 courts)

Beverage Consumption Counter: 684.9 ounces (42 days, 62 games, 2 scrimmages added on)

Pepsi: 432 ounces
Coke: 80 ounces
Dr. Pepper: 12 ounces
Sprite: 32 ounces
Barq's Root Beer: 20 ounces
A&W Root Beer: 12 ounces
Red Powerade: 60 ounces
Red Gatorade: 20 ounces
Water: 500 ml

Hot Dog Counter: 6

Song of the Day
Auld Lang Syne

The Blowouts
Glencoe-Silver Lake blew out Prairie Seeds Academy 87-50 in the Tartan 7th place game.  Center Garrett Ober 23 points in the loss  Mason Goettl adds 21.  Prairie Seeds throws in a enough 3s to avoid running time until 3 minutes left.  Ober with a nice game knocking down numerous jumpers.  He had Hamline and UW-River Falls watching him.

Henry Sibley hung with Andover for most of the 1st half.  But a 16-4 Huskies run to end the 1st half put the game out of reach.  Nick Eliason with a back breaking 3 at the halftime buzzer to end that run.  Andover would add the 1st 7 of the 2nd half to stretch the lead to 50-26.  Andover cruises from there 86-55 to win the Augsburg 7th place game.  Sibley with only 1 senior on the roster so they're building for next year.  Junior Corbin Johnson 19 points off the Andover bench.

Then another surprising blowout loss for Minneapolis North as they lost 69-37 to Wayzata in the Augsburg 5th place game.  The proverbial not enough basketballs to go around problem is really hitting North hard right now.  The individual offense leads to lazy defense both in the full court and the half court.   North went the last 8:25 of the 1st half without a field goal and Wayzata closed the 1st half on a 17-1 run to open a 16 point halftime lead.  A late 10-0 run would complete the blowout and clear the benches.  Tyler Johnson 11 points to lead north.  Jamil Jackson continues to struggle as he had another off night of 6 points with ice cold shooting.  Wayzata gets 5 in double figures with Jack Sowada's 13 leading.  Wayzata with 3 sophomores contributing to a roster of all juniors. 

The other close games before titles
#9AAA Chisago Lakes held off Spring Lake Park 57-52 in the Tartan 5th place game.  Spring Lake Park would be within 6 with 7:41 left before a 7-0 Chisago Lakes run put the game out of reach.  A couple of late 3s cut the final margin.  Lots of high/low action from Chisago Lakes.  That helped Dylan Wood lead all scorers with 18 points.  Zach Ojile 13 points to lead Spring Lake Park.  But I liked junior post Carter Duncan and junior point guard Ethan Hickcox for Chisago Lakes.  They combined for 17 points.  Duncan is mobile and solid inside.  Hickcox is a sound PG who is big at 6'3".

Forest Lake defeated Columbia Heights 56-51 in the Tartan 3rd place game.  Connor Knutson fairly quiet for Forest Lake but he held Heights star Jarrett Baptiste without a field goal. He also switched over onto Montroy Scott after Scott took over in the 2nd half and held him down.  Ernest Dixon with a 3 off of 2 extra passes for a 49-39 Heights lead with 7:20 left.  But Heights would not score another field goal.  Forest Lake ends the game on a 17-2 spurt to win.  Heights tried to play keep away down the stretch and lost their aggressiveness.  Forest Lake made clutch shots and clutch free throws to steal the victory.  Montroy Scott finishes with 22 points to lead all scorers.  Noah Alm 5 points in the final run to finish with 15 to lead Forest Lake.  Connor Knutson and Brent Kinder with 12 each.

#2AAA St. Paul Johnson defeated Chanhassen 86-75 in the Augsburg 3rd place game.  Johnson looked like they would put the game away but a foul for free throws and a technical on top of it would allow Chanhassen to draw within 70-69 with 4:39 to play.  Johnson would score the next 7 points thanks in part to a pair of putbacks.  Joey Witthus would bury back to back 3s to cut the lead to 2 with 2 minutes left.  But the last 9 points of the game go to Johnson.  Jalen Mobley with a clutch 3 point play followed by a pair of layups would put it out of reach.  Joey Witthus with 7 3s and 29 points to lead all scorers.  Jalen Mobley 23 points, 16 after half, to lead 5 Govs in double figures.  Justus Murphy 14 points off the Govs bench.  Lake Region in the house to watch the Govs play.

The Championship Games
In the Tartan championship game, Tartan defeated Centennial 68-63 in a very entertaining game.  Tyler Peterson worked a ton in the post and also outside for Centennial.  Tartan struggled containing him inside for a large part of the game.  Combine that with early Jordan Horn foul trouble and Centennial would have a 5 point lead before a Horn 3 beat the halftime buzzer.  Horn would then completely control the 2nd half and coach Klingsporn ran lots of iso and double high ball screen action for him.  Horn would start with a pair of assists for Jake Lyle 3s to put Tartan back on top, then Horn for 3 on the iso for a 5 point Tartan lead early in the 2nd half.  Soph Alex Facon with some very good minutes for Centennial off the bench as well.  Peterson would foul out on a dicey charge call with Tartan up 1 and 1:19 left.  Tyler Peterson 22 points on 9-23 shooting with 7 rebounds and 5 assists on my sheet.  Alex Facon with 16 points for the Cougars.  Have to like the potenial of the lanky lefty.  Jordan Horn 21 points and a bunch of created offense for others.  Joevon Walker added 18 points.   Big effort from DaNario Jackson of Tartan fighting Peterson inside most of the night.

In the Augsburg Championship game, #10AAAA Hopkins def Eastview 70-55.  Eastview had a hot shooting first half with 8 3s, 4 from Drew Guebert to take a 33-22 lead to halftime.  The second half saw Hopkins turn up the defensive pressure and John Warren come to life.  Eastview ran their stuff easily in the first half but the pressure turned them over in the 2nd half.  Warren asserted himself on offense for 23 of his 31 points.  Hopkins holds Eastview to 6 field goals in the half.  They win the 2nd half 48-22.  Guebert's last 2 3s would lead a 8-0 run to put Eastview on top 45-44 with 9:18 left but all Hopkins after that.  John Warren leads all scorers with 31.  Ishmael El-Amin adds 12 and Vinnie Shahid 14 for Hopkins.  Drew Guebert with 6 3s and 18 points for Eastview.  But he never got a post touch.  Keegan Dickson adds 13.  He had Hamline looking at him today.



Tartan All-Tournament Team
Keaton Anderson - Glencoe-Silver Lake
Ethan Hickcox - Chisago Lakes
Zach Ojile - Spring Lake Park
Montroy Scott - Columbia Heights
Noah Alm - Forest Lake
Connor Knutson - Forest Lake
Tyler Peterson - Centennial
Theo Johnson - Centennial
Alex Facon - Centennial
Joevon Walker - Tartan
Jake Lyle - Tartan
Jordan Horn - Tartan

Augsburg All- Tournament Team
Johnny Beeninga - Wayzata
Joey Witthus - Chanhassen
Jalen Mobley - Johnson
Drew Guebert - Eastview
Xavier Johnson - Hopkins
John Warren (MVP) - Hopkins