Winding down the season

A pair of games in Moscow proper as I swap the usual Monday night TCAC action for Tuesday night.  Then a showdown for 2nd in the Minneapolis City Conference thanks to the real world jumping up and destroying a planned trip to the east side.  Bolshevik!  The British Empire shall fall for this!  But I do get high level entertainment and a walking taco out of it.  Never a bad thing.  Only lettuce for the walking taco (self administered I might add) but they smother it with the nacho cheese.  A rare and very pleasant find.

Tuesday: Cristo Rey 64 Christian Life 49
Cristo Rey playing without PG James Sommer due to a hand injury suffered last week in the win over St. Croix Prep.  They jump out to a 22-7 lead at the 10:40 mark thanks to 6 early triples.  Erick Burgess with half of those points and 3s.  But the rest of the half is sleepy for the Pumas.  Jacob Kyllo comes off the Christian Life bench and hits 3 triples of his own in the last 6 minutes to keep the Hawks within 7 at the break.  The Hawks start the 2nd half with another 3 and a runout for a layup.  34-30 Cristo Rey with 12:40 left.  But the defense for Cristo Rey would awaken again and trigger a 20-4 run that would put the game out of reach.  5 turnovers for 10 points plus a couple of And 1 chances for Erick Burgess during that spurt.  54-34 Cristo Rey with 8:25 left and the rest is cruise control.  Erick Burgess leads all scorers with 23 points.  Victory George adds 15, Derek Burgess 14 for Cristo Rey.  Jacob Kyllo 4 3s and 13 points off the bench to lead Christian Life.  Caleb Carlson with 12 and Brian Kindle 10 off the bench for the Hawks.  Cristo Rey hoping for some help to move up to the 3rd seed but likely they end up at 4.  While they have the tiebreaker with St Croix Prep, they don't have enough time to catch them for the 2 seed in 4AA.  Based on a head to head loss to Legacy, Christian Life looking at the 8 seed in section 4A.

Wednesday: Henry 78 Edison 72
Second place in the Minneapolis City on the line in this one.  Both teams also trying to hang on to spots in section seeds as well.  Tensions high on the evening.  Henry coach Jamil Jackson gets 1 T, then a 2nd T for continuing to argue and not sit down.  But somehow he's able to get it rescinded by claiming there was no chair for him.  So incredibly awful.  No chair was setup but he flat refused to sit and was rightfully tossed even if it was by an official who had no business coming over and getting involved to give the 2 techs anyway.  Henry sees a comfortable 14 point 1st half lead cut to 7 at the break.  Coach Jackson somehow doesn't get another T early in the 2nd half after arguing for more than a full timeout.  Once again refs totally unable to administer this.  But a Henry assistant will get a T out of the mess.

Meanwhile those free throws add up and Edison is within 2.  Then the teams get up and down and play a stretch of minimal defense.  Rashaud Rollins with a drive to put Henry up 2 as we go under 14 minutes.  Henry does get to the line but no FGs for almost the next 7 minutes.  After trailing by 5, its a 13-0 Edison run.  Tony Simmons with a kickout 3 and an assist to Jackson Rusnacko for a layup to tie it.  Rusnacko grabs his own miss for a free throw and the lead.  He'll add another bucket and Tenzin Oden with a right wing triple to end the run.  60-52 Edison inside of 10 minutes left.

Henry makes their comeback with Rollins at the line with 3 FTs.  Glentrell Carter converts a turnover and then buries a 3.  Rollins converts a turnover and Sam Charles for 3 in transition to put Henry back on top 66-65 with just over 5 minutes left.  Carter with a steal for 2 more and 2 more Tommies turnovers result in a tip in and a layup.  72-67 Henry with 2:50 left.  Simmons with a tough 2 but Rollins counters that with 2:05 left.  Charles runs the floor for another layup and the lead is 7.  Edison turns it over and they won't threaten again.  A late hard foul causes some hard feelings but somehow we get no technicals out of it which was also crazy.  Senior forward Tony Simmons was terrific for Edison with 31 points.  Great motor, worked hard inside and even hit a couple of 3s.  Jackson Rusnacko adds 11 for the Tommies.  Rashaud Rollins leads Henry with 26 points.  Glentrell Carter with a nice outing of 16 points.  Sam Charles comes up big off the Patriots bench with 14 points.  The game took almost 2 hours thanks to 74 FT attempts (I include 4 missed front ends).  Edison shoots 16-35 while Henry goes 21-39.  Edison finishes the Minneapolis City schedule 8-4.  That's more than the 7 league wins they have total in the previous 9 season.  Hands down winner of coach of the year award for Edison coach Ahmil Jihad.  Edison hanging on for the 3rd seed in section 4AA.  The loss hurts but since it a AAA opponent that will help.  Next up is a tough back to back with St. Paul Central.  Henry closes out the league slate with Roosevelt.  Henry's JV's won the JV game to also take 2nd on the JV side from Edison.