Stars and Lions punch their state tickets

Its 2 nights of section finals to close out the non-Target Center portion of the 2018-19 season.  First its section 3AAA final between St. Thomas Academy and one of the season's great surprise teams, Holy Angels.  Then the section 4A final at Anoka-Ramsey between top seed CHOF and 11 seed Hope Academy.  Though the seeding in 4A needs to desperately change as there was no way Hope was anything close to 11th (they beat the 5 on the road by 35 as an example).  Pepsi provided for the final night makes it all worthwhile.

Thursday 3AAA Final: 1 Holy Angels 85 2 St. Thomas Academy 78
Jack Thompson with 11 early points as St. Thomas Academy opens up a 26-18 lead at the 8:20 mark.  But Holy Angels counters that with a 2-3 zone and the top guards in that zone despite not applying a ton of ball pressure cause a ton of havoc deflecting passes.  Forward Aaron Engel off the AHA bench with a pair of hoops.  Matt Banovetz for 3 and 2 free throws as Holy Angels ties the game at 31 at the 5:51 mark.  Banovetz with the 3 point play attacking the hoop and why not from 3 in transition and he'll add a FT.  11-2 AHA run and that allows the Stars to build a 48-41 halftime lead.

Thor Holien dominating inside early in the 2nd half for AHA.  2 deep postups for easy hoops.  Run the floor for another easy score.  He'll add 3 FT and another hoop for a 62-52 AHA lead with 11:50 left.  Then St. Thomas Academy has their run.  Jack Thompson goes bonus free throws and later a steal for 2 FTs to put the Cadets ahead.  Soph Jamie Smith great bench minutes for the Cadets as well in the run with a couple of hoops and a free throw.  Thompson with a jumper to close the 20-6 run.  72-68 St. Thomas Academy ahead with 3:50 left.  Thompson backdoor off a set to keep the lead at 4.  Banovetz then steps behind a drive and behind the line for a 3 with 2:32 left to put AHA back on top. Frosh Emmett Johnson with a big time 3 with just over 2 minutes left for a 78-74 AHA lead.  STA scores and takes timeout.  Then the clock doesn't start out of the timeout.  Meanwhile the teams trade layups.  Somehow thru a long stretch of the clock not running, the officials only take 5 seconds off.  Holien with a layup and then AHA blocks a rim attack at the other end.  Emmett Johnson closes it with a free throw and layup.  Terrific night for the frosh Emmett Johnson with 28 points and he was a total nuisance on the defensive end too.  Thor Holien with 15 of his 23 in the 2nd half.  Jack Thompson with 21 points to lead the Cadets.  Charlie Fafinski adds 20 points for St. Thomas Academy.

Friday 4A Final: 1 CHOF 65 11 Hope Academy 50
CHOF boys trying to get a win in the section final that the girls couldn't get last week.  10-2 CHOF run to build a 19-9 lead midway thru the 1st half.  Hope sees the 3 ball start to fall with 3 those from Caleb Hoilien and 1 each from Elijah Wade and Kaleb Dube.  Its a 19-5 Hope run and they take the lead 28-24.  Wade gets in the post and adds 2 free throws for a 30-28 Hope lead at the half.

CHOF goes on a 16-0 run after Hoilien starts the half with a putback.  Drake Eckman off the CHOF bench with 7 in a row during the run.  Hope center and rebounding ace Samuel Ojebode sits with 4th foul during the run.  CHOF was tough crashing the glass all night vs the Hope 1-2-2 zone and Ojebode's foul trouble didn't help that.  3 putbacks for CHOF during the run.  44-34 CHOF with exactly 10 minutes left.  The lead grows to 11 but Hope has a late rally in them.  Its the freshman Wade with the jumper and a putback that he's fouled on.  He misses the free throw but Hope gets it back and he'll convert that too.  He adds another jumper for 8 in a row.  That cuts the lead to 50-45 with 4:47 left.

After a couple missed Hope triples, CHOF will take timeout and go 4 corners with 3:10 left.  Clay Bluhm with a layup, then an over and back call on Hope with 1:56 left.  A frustration kick of the ball to get the call and its a technical.  The rest is free throws.  McCaleb Alleman with 11 of his 18 in the 2nd half to lead CHOF.  Isaac Collins with 14, Preston Alleman with 10 of his 12 in the 1st half.  Caleb Hoilien with 22 points.  Elijah Wade with 17 points.  But those 2 had no help as the rest of the roster combined for 13. It will be very interesting to see where CHOF gets seeded.  On 1 hand you say their section was awful and therefore they get no seed.  But a deeper look reveals they play a mostly AA schedule that has inflated their QRF and they beat fellow tourney entrant Spring Grove head to head.