Seeing Red in St. Paul

Its the 1st Saturday of the season without some local notable event.  So its a day of running around St. Paul.  First its a walking taco at Central with the always wonderful and hard to find A&W root beer.  Then hustling into St. Agnes for their section 4AA matchup with St. Paul Washington.  Thankfully no time to try to configure the mountaineering gear to ascend the bleachers.

Game 1: St. Paul Central 96 Henry Sibley 63
Sibley would get off to a solid start behind Malik Spearman.  He scores 8 points as Sibley opens as 14-10 lead.  Central counters with a 15-2 run.  Spearman adds a post bucket and a tip in to cut the lead to 4.  But the last 3 minutes of the first half are a disaster for Sibley as they give up a 18-3 run to close the half.  The second half is all Central.  Too much rebounding and too much Daveonte Davis for Central all day.  Davis ends up with 32 to lead the Minutemen.  The rest of the starting lineup knocks down 7 3s and all finish in double figures.  Malik Spearman very effective with 22 to lead Henry Sibley.  Rieshaun Satar with 21 but 17 of those and 5 triples in the 2nd half.

Game 2: St. Agnes 69 St. Paul Washington 61
A young group for Washington with 3 starting sophomores and an 8th grade reserve.  Only 2 seniors in the 8 man rotation.  Only 2 seniors in the St. Agnes rotation as well.  Washington would open a 17-12 lead midway thru the 1st half.  Then a 19-2 St. Agnes run for a response.  Marcus Johnson 6 points in that run. Washington replies with an 8-0 run and we're tied at 33 going to halftime.

The Aggies come out of the gate with a 13-4 run with 3 triples from Norman Strickland.  46-37 St. Agnes with 14:15 to play.  Marcus Johnson with 2 hoops and 2 free throws in an 8-0 run and all of a sudden the lead is 15.  56-41 St. Agnes with 8:20 left.  Washington trying to stay close with a pair of triples from forward Jackson Carver.  But too much Johnson and Strickland.  Strickland 3 free throws, Johnson bonus freebies and runs the floor for a layup plus another hoop.  That gets the lead back to 15 inside 4 minutes left.  St. Agnes out of danger from there.  Marcus Johnson leads St. Agnes with 31 points and surprisingly without a single 3.  19 of those points in the 2nd half.  Norman Strickland with 20 points, 12 of those in the 2nd half including 3 of his 4 threes.  Only 2 other Aggies buckets in the 2nd half as they carried the load.  Great discipline to close the game out.  Sophomore Kshui Harris-McCalister with 16 points to lead Washington.  He did that despite foul trouble which did lead to some St. Agnes momentum.  Fellow soph Zaveon Smith with 14.  Jackson Carver 3 triples and 11 points.