The Trojan Horse strikes again

Prologue
To Osseo for the 6AAAA championship game.  Its a 1 vs 2 seed rematch of last year's game between Wayzata and Hopkins.  Last year Wayzata played about a perfect a game as you can expect and pulled the upset.  Is that in the cards again?  Hopkins won both regular season meetings including the last one at Wayzata 89-63.  That was a game that Wayzata had a 9 point lead in before Hopkins blew them out.  Both bands on hand but disappointing student sections.  Jet's Pizza and Pepsi to fill the long pregame wait.

Game Time:
Three combined triples start the scoring in this one.  Then a 6-0 Hopkins spurt.  Anthony Davis converts a turnover and puts back a free throw miss for a bucket during that run.  14-7 Hopkins looking to pull away early.  But then the always deadly Wayzata shooting heats up.  Drew Galinson and Jacob Beeninga with bombs.  Dane Zimmer with back to back hoops for a 21-13 lead inside the 9:30 mark.  Then a long Wayzata possession results in an Anthony Davis steal for a 3 point play.  Akeem Woods adds a reverse layup.  That's a 10-2 Hopkins run.  26-15 Royals at the 7:03 mark and Wayzata needs a timeout.  That timeout works as the rest of the half is all Wayzata.  They go on a 19-5 run over a 4 minute stretch and is all of the scoring for the rest of the half.  Five Wayzata threes in the run.  Beeninga with 3 of those and a layup during the run.  Kerwin Walton all of the Hopkins offense in that run.  34-31 Wayzata at the break.  Beeninga with 4 3s and 16 points in the half.  Kerwin Walton with 12 points to lead the Hopkins offense.  Wayzata with 8 makes from the deep beyond in the half.

Beeninga pivots and buries another bomb.  Galinson adds a difficult 2 and a short jumper over Joe Hedstrom.  41-32 Wayzata just under 2 minutes into the 2nd half.  Hopkins comes right back.  Zeke Nnaji with 2 inside buckets in a 9-0 run and we're tied at 41 with 12:56 left.  Nnaji with an elbow jumper.  Beeninga counters with a 3 point play. Then a tie up which leads to a shove and a Hopkins technical for 2 Beeninga free throws.  48-43 Trojans with 8:56 left.  Wayzata very patient in their possessions and not risking anything against the bigs inside.  Plenty of dribble weave like action with kickouts.  Luke Paulson with a tough lefty finish at the 3:25 mark and the lead is 6.  The rest of Wayzata's points are at the charity stripe. They go 8-8 including all 3 front ends in the last 1:03.  They would need all of them.  Zeke Nnaji and Kerwin Walton with late 3s.  Anthony Davis straight to the rim and the lead is 1 with 6.1 left.  Beeninga makes the last 2 free throws with 5.3 left and Wayzata smartly fouls in a Foul or Defend situation with 2 seconds left.  Anthony Davis makes the 1st, intentionally misses the 2nd.  Nobody gets the board.  Wayzata wins 63-61.

Post Game:
Hopkins finishes the season 26-2 with the only losses in their first and last games.  Kerwin Walton with 4 triples and 18 points to lead the Royals.  Zeke Nnaji adds 16 and was also on the glass.  Anthony Davis with 14.  The 3 Hopkins bigs combined for 51 points in the last meeting.  They combined for 21 points in this one.  This opens up a seed for Section 1, 2 or 5 as it looked like there would be only 2 seeds available for those 3 section winners (assuming CDH, AV and Hopkins took the top 3 seeds).  Eden Prairie, Park Center and the winner of Lakeville North and Rochester John Marshall would take the other 3 spots.  Now if Edina and/or Osseo win their finals on Friday, then the discussion for the 5th seed could get interesting.  Edina would definitely have a leg up though.

Wayzata moves on to state for the 2nd straight year.  Jacob Beeninga absolutely outstanding with 30 points in the win.  He knocked down 5 treys and was 11-11 FTs.  He absolutely would not let the Trojans lose.  After the Hopkins 9-0 run to tie the game, he had a laser assist for a layup then 5 points in a row as the Trojans built a lead they would not relinquish.  Then he was 6-6 from the foul line in the last 1:03 including the last 2 clutch ones with 5.3 left to force the Foul Or Defend situation at the end.  Drew Galinson adds 12 points.  Nobody else more than 5.  But the Trojans stayed very composed.