Bearish defensive wins the day

A combined Friday and Saturday post here.  We hit each side of the metro with this.  Quality hot dog on 1 side and a good walking taco on the other.  Schools from all 4 classes included in the viewing party.  Great music as well.

Friday: Blake 65 Mounds Park Academy 52
Story here was Mounds Park Academy's Yahya Madar off the bench.  He comes in and promptly banks 2 triples and converts a 3 point play.  Panthers up 12-8.  Blake does lock down and they add the last 4 of the half for a 6 point halftime lead.  Madar with 2 quick hoops early in the 2nd half to keep the margin at 36-33.  But Blake holds the Panthers to 1 FG over the next 12+ minutes.  The freshman backcourt gets hot with a couple of 3s.  Then that leads to a couple of dump offs for layups inside.  No drama at the end.  Freshmen Gabe Ganz with 18 and Jasper Liu with 17 lead the Blake scoring.  Yahya Madar with 24 points to lead Mounds Park.  Nick Guiang with 10 was the only other help. A quality bit of music with Purple Rain, Love Shack, No Diggity, Happy and a double dose of Michael Jackson.  Once solo and with the Jackson 5.  But the best moment was during a 2nd half time out, when the PA played the Vikings radio call of the Diggs game winner last week.  Then the Blake students lead the entire crowd in a Skol cheer.

Saturday
Game 1: St. Paul Johnson 69 St. Croix Prep 59
To the east side for the always quality walking taco.  A good challenge here for St. Croix Prep (one of the 4AA teams looking to be the 2 seed) against a more athletic Johnson team.  Story here was soph guard Daniel McCarrell for St. Croix Prep.  He knocked down 10 3s and the Lions had Johnson in their sights.  47-40 St. Croix Prep leading with 9:35 left after their 13th 3 of the afternoon.  Their 2-3 zone and Euro ballscreen offense really keeping the pace of this one slow.  But Johnson's pressure just wears on teams and it did here.  The Governors go on a 21-2 run in 6 minutes.  2 Keylon Jackson buckets inside and 2 Kyle Lee hoops get it going.  Lamont White also controlling the paint for Johnson.  A very thin bench for St. Croix Prep and no Jayton Metcalf in the lineup.  2 freshman guards off the bench also played 1 half of JV.    The 3s stop falling until a meaningless one late and Johnson found McCarrell and took him out of it.  He went scoreless for the last 11:55.  Lamont White with 17 points to lead Johnson.  Guards Kyle Lee and Shemar Tucker-Adams add 14 and 13 points for the Govs.  Johnson has won 5 out of 6 and has 3 winnable conference games before the big rematch with Central in 2 weeks.  After the game a youngster breaks out in song on the piano in the Johnson lobby.  Excellent pop music choices plus he threw in some Beethoven

Game 2: Edina 75 Minneapolis Washburn 47
With 2 previous starters out of the Washburn lineup, this had trouble written all over it.  Edina jumps out to a 21-4 lead.  Anders Nelson with 15 of those points and and assist for 2 more.  He ends up with 22 points in the 1st half as Edina builds a 24 point halftime lead.  Washburn starts the 2nd half strong as they do manage to cut the lead to 17.  But Nelson with 3 assists and a tough bucket of his own and Washburn never gets any closer.  Anders Nelson finishes with 28 points.  None of the other 9 scorers for Edina in double figures.  Luke Glenna with a couple of 3s ends up with 9 points.  Jack Middleton with 8.  Terrell Adams leads Washburn with 22 points. Charles Cook-Gordon adds 11.  Edina has now won 7 in a row.  Now they get Orono, at Wayzata, Eden Prairie, Hopkins and at Prior Lake after a 10 day break. Washburn has lost 6 out of 8.