MLK Adventures 2021

Prologue
Great to see the return of MLK events to the local calendar.  This year the Minnesota Black Basketball Coaches Association put on the MLK Cultural Games.  This was scheduled to be 4 games at Macalester but ended up being 3 games at Benilde-St. Margaret's.  That took up the day session.  Then the night session for me was a battle of recent powers in the Skyline Conference.

Game 1: St. Paul Central 86 Cambridge-Isanti 77
Biggest story here was Central freshman Allan Langford.  He sliced thru Cambridge's porous defense for 27 points to lead all scorers in this one.  Kobe Karels and Braden Jones 21 points, Ethan Dee adds 20 for Cambridge-Isanti.  Central bench productive in this one.  Their use of THE WORLD'S WORST OFFENSE not so much with a couple of quick turnovers using it.  Cambridge-Isanti only 12-40 from 3 and with their long range style and poor defense, that's just not good enough.

Game 2: #1AAAA Park Center 76 Duluth East 29
Now we get to talk defense.  Park Center defensively took apart the Greyhounds in this one.  17-11 early before Duluth East goes almost 15 minutes with just 1 field goal.  28-5 run by the Pirates to start the 2nd half blows the doors off.  Duluth 19 turnovers and 13 shots in the 2nd half.  Overall 28 turnovers for 39 Park Center points.  Park Center only turned it over on their last offensive possession before holding it to run out the clock.  Duluth East unable to get into any kind of offense all day.  10 different Pirates end up scoring.  Cody Pennebaker with 19, Braeden Carrington with 12 to lead Park Center.  Isaac Nyakundi with 15 points to lead Duluth East.  When Park Center got a 2nd guy to him, then it got very difficult.

Game 3: #1AA Minneapolis North 84 East Grand Forks 33
The beatdowns will continue until morale improves!  This day was a blue wave, not a green wave sadly for East Grand Forks.  North uses a 24-0 run in the 1st half to blow the game open.  Mario Sanders taking advantages of turnovers on his way to a team high 15 points.  All of those in the 1st half.  22 Green Wave turnovers lead to 30 Polars plunges.  North's defensive pressure enough to not need Gani Stevens on the offensive end.

Game 4: Maranatha 64 St. Croix Prep 54
St. Croix Prep's 5 out pass and cut along with some curl actions saw some nice success in this one.  That gave them a 38-18 interior edge.  But timely 3s from Maranatha (12-25 on the night, 6-9 in the 2nd half) put them over the top.  Isaiah Bluford with 2 bombs in a stretch that pushed the lead to 19 in the 2nd half.  SCPA would rally to single digits but too big of a mountain to climb.  Jeremiah LaVelle with some timely late scoring to keep the lead for MCA.  He scores 17.  Big night for Bailey McDonald with 24 for the Mustangs with most of his damage in the 1st half and early in the 2nd half.  Peyton Gremmels with 14 of his 16 in the 2nd half for Prep as he led the Lions comeback attempt.  4 starters in double figures for Prep but no points from their bench.  Maranatha got 5 of their 12 3s from the bench.  Thanks to their 3s, they lose FG% but win EFG%   Maranatha's offense very 1 on 1 oriented but they have shot makers in LaVelle, McDonald and the Bluford twins.  St. Croix Prep 3-3 in the Skyline, all wins at home, all loses on the road.  Maranatha stays undefeated in the Skyline, 1 game ahead of New Life Academy and 1 loss ahead of Concordia.

Czar Insights
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