And Then There Were Three

(microphone emoji) I will, follow you will you, follow me.  All the, days and nights that we, know will be (/microphone emoji).  The title is such a fantastic Genesis album with that hit Follow You Follow Me.  Its a race to see all 62 teams in class AAAA this season.  So that drives most of this week's schedule as I cross 2 more off the list on back to back nights.  That gets me down to 3 AAAA teams left to see.  Tuesday was a trip to Tartan for a 2nd place Metro East showdown with Hastings.  Then a Wednesday trip to see the snow makeup game in the NW Suburban between Elk River and Spring Lake Park.  Hot dogs in each location.  No fruit punch sports drink so that means a treat of A&W and Pepsi for beverages.

Tuesday: Tartan 65 Hastings 56
The winner of this one would stay 1 game behind North St. Paul for the top spot in the Metro East.  Tartan's hot shooting threatens to blow the game open early.  Dorian Singer 2 bombs.  Broderick Binns and Joe Kearney from deep.  Soph wing Marko Vuckomanovich off the bench with 2 treys as well.  Those 6 makes allow Tartan to open up a 25-13 lead at the 5:52 mark.  Hastings claws their way back with their own shooting.  Devon Haraldson for 3 and a scoop for 2.  Then a couple more Hastings triples to close the gap to 32-27 at the half.

Kearney with another triple with 16:40 left to push the lead to 7.  But that's the last Tartan triple of the night.  The rest of the night is a defensive, foul shooting slug fest.  Izzy Arnold up and under for 2 plus another Haraldson 3 in an 8-2 Raiders run.  37-36 Tartan with 13:40 left.  Tartan's defense then holds Hastings without a FG for more than 11 minutes.  Tartan takes advantage 18-7 during that 11+ minutes to go up by 12.  Haraldson finally breaks the run with a 3 with 2:30 left.  He scores 10 points in that last 2:30 but the margin is too big.  That's half of his 20 points for the game.  That leads all scorers.  Langston Binns only 3 FG but 9 FTs for 17 points.  Dorian Singer with 14.  Joe Kearney adds 3 triples and 11 points.  Hastings rebounded nicely from this loss with a quick turnaround home win over South St. Paul.

Wednesday: #6AAAA Spring Lake Park 91 Elk River 49
Elk River with a huge roster of 6'8" and 6'9" varsity starters plus 7 foot and 6'8" on the JV.  Note to self: I need some of whatever is in the water.  Story of this one was Elk River turnovers and too much SLP firepower.  Spring Lake Park uses a 10-0 run with a Gabe Myren steal for a dunk and then another steal for an assist on a Jacob Say layup.  During the run Myren sits with 2 fouls.  Elk River gets 6 in a row to cut the margin to 36-23 which gets a coach Guzy timeout.  Myren returns out of that timeout after a 4 minute break and he dunks 2 more turnovers.  The rout is on from there.  Full 9 minutes of running time in this one after SLP leads by 25 at halftime.  Spring Lake Park has 4 starters reach double figures.  Gabe Myren 18, Blake Remme 17, Jacob Say and Kaleb Skelly 14 each.  Skelly with 12 of his 14 in the 1st half when the Panthers had Myren and Remme with 2 fouls.  Alex Eng with 10 to lead Elk River.