A hot winter Saturday

Prologue
One of the great joys for me is a Saturday where I can bounce from place to place and see many teams in many places.  Today was one of those days.  We start with a morning opener in a full day event.  Then one appointment viewing games of the season for the matinee.  Then a season wouldn't be complete without a Saturday game at the Target Center.

Game 1: St. Agnes 76 Metro Schools College Prep 65
This was the 1st varsity game of the day as part of the event held at Hiawatha.  Brian Sandifer putting on the games. That means 2 things.  1st is a camo outfit.  Check!  2nd is Walking Tacos.  You know I'm all about devouring one of those.  This one was a struggle.  MSCP would make 6 timely 3s to drive their offense.  St. Agnes couldn't take advantage of 18 1st half MSCP turnovers.  But the Aggies would score the last 5 points of the half to knot the game up at 35.  They continue that momentum with the 1st 3 buckets of the 2nd half for an 11-0 run to take the lead for good.  They were to attack the rim at will for easy points.  De'Vaun Simmons leads the Aggies with 22 points.  Paul Plasch adds 18.  No roster available for MSCP.

Game 3: Two Rivers 63 St. Francis 49
We'll comeback to the big afternoon session in a minute.  The night session was a nice turnout at Target Center for the end of a full day of hoops there.  Two Rivers using a 12-3 first half run to take a 6 point lead to the break.  They'd extend that to double digits in the 2nd half.  But 6 triples from the Saints would cut that margin to 7 midway thru the half.  But only 1 FG the rest of the way for St. Francis.  8 turnovers a big part of that.  They couldn't get anything in the paint where Two Rivers ended with a huge advantage.  Jaden Morgan with 12 of his 17 in the 2nd half.  Matt Bothun 14 of his 18 in the 1st half for St. Francis.  Derek Stone 4 of his 5 3s in the 2nd half to try to keep the Saints close.  He finishes with 17 points.  But only 14 points from the rest of the roster.

Game 2: #2AA Caledonia 68 #1AAA Totino-Grace 67
Now to one of the biggest games of the season as Caledonia makes the trip north.  TG gets off to an 11-4 lead thanks to a pair of Taison Chatman triples.  Caledonia claws their way back to 14 all with a couple Jackson Koepke bombs.  Chatman sits at the 9:15 mark with his 2nd foul and won't return for the rest of the half.  TG goes on a huge run with out him to break open a 3 point game.  Patrick Bath working inside for 3 hoops along with a couple from Ahjany Lee.  Eli King with only 1 FG in the stretch as TG goes on a 25-8 run over the last 7:59.  50-30 TG up at the break.

Caledonia regroups and scores the 1st 7 of the second half to stay within striking distance.  Demarion Watson with a bucket to keep the lead at 13 with 11 minutes left, 58-45.  Caledonia for 3 to cut the lead to 60-51 with 9:23 left and we have a MoKiller timeout.  To this point Eli King not shooting well and only 8 points.  But this was his time to shine and did he ever.  He'll score to cut the margin to 7.  Totino-Grace then gets super sloppy and turns it over on 9 of their next 10 trips.  King dunks 2 of those.  Then he gets blocked trying to convert another of those.  While still in the air on the attempt and falling out of bounds, he saves the ball back in.  He'll get it back for a left corner 3.  Warriors all the back as that triple puts them ahead 64-62 with 3:45 left.  That's a 19-4 run over 7:15

Tie game at 64 as we get get very late.  The teams trade turnovers before King is fouled and makes both ends of the bonus with 56.7 left.  Chatman right back for TG as he goes strong for 2 and the foul with 45.8 left. He'll make the free throw for a 67-66 TG lead.  Caledonia goes iso for King who gets stopped and smartly gives it up.  The weak shot attempt is blocked and TG has it back.  But they miss a front end with 26.3 left.  Caledonia will go right away.  Its King with a ridiculously tough left wing fade away for the lead with 12 seconds left. WOW!  (The highlight is in my twitter feed, thanks to my fellow Bill Walton idolizer for that).  TG will go right away too and not take a timeout.  Chatman drives and kicks to Demarion Watson in the right corner for a 3.  Its around and out, Ahjany Lee's tip at the buzzer won't go in.  Warriors hold TG to 17 points in the 2nd half and pull off the improbable comeback to win by 1.  They never had more than a 2 point lead.  Eli King had a poor shooting day but scored 13 of his 21 points in the last 9 minutes.  He added 9 rebounds and a handful of assists on my officially unofficial sheet. Jackson Koepke adds 3 triples and 13 points for the Warriors.  Demarion Watson 14 of his 20 points and all 4 triples in the 1st half to lead TG.  Taison Chatman adds 13 but overall was very quiet with 6 of those right off the bat and the late 3 point play.  TG 15 TO for 18 points in the second half while shooting 33.3% in the half.  TG only converts 1 of the 8 Caledonia TO in the 2nd half into points.  Will be hard not to vote for this as the best game I saw all season when its all said and done.

Czar Insights
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