Opening the New Year Right

Prologue
What a wonderful way to ring in the first Saturday of the new year.  A top ranked city rivalry, an important section matchup with a high major recruit and one of the state's best teams testing itself against a top Midwest program.  That's my kind of day.

Game 1: #1AA Minneapolis North 91 #2AAA De La Salle 76
North breaks open a chippy affair in the 2nd half.  Soph PG Datrell McCrimmon off the bench his all 4 of his 3s and scores 14 of his 18 points in the 2nd half to help the Polars pull away.  Unlike the other 3 games I've seen, the Polars shoot 7-15 from 3.  That helps overcome Gani Stevens foul trouble.  He sat the last 15 minutes of the first half with 2 fouls.  He also got a long rest early in the second half.  Willie Wilson scores 19 points and wins the point guard battle with Cash Chavis.  Nasir Whitlock scores 21 of his 27 for De La Salle in the 2nd half but a majority of those were after the outcome was already determined.  Kyle Johnson with 20 points and 4 3s.  The Islanders played without soph guard Randy McClendon.  Not like an Islanders team to give up 60 points in a half.  That's what North put up in the 2nd half today.

Game 2: Edina 70 Bloomington Jefferson 57
Back and forth first half in this game too as I arrive midway thru the half to see The Scribe and Charlie Murphy working.  But fear not my loyal peasants, the Czar's vast wealth gets the video so you have Czar Insights below.  Edina sees a double digit lead close to 2 with about 3 minutes left.  With Sammy Presthus out, soph Kole Hanson takes on an even bigger role and he's handling it well.  20 points for him today.  He makes 6 free throws and a clutch 3 as a big piece of slamming the door.  The Hornets score 15 of the last 19 points of the game.  Too much Brady Helgren with 13 points in each half for 26 total.  Daniel Freitag leading Jefferson with 17 points.  Another solid outing for Hayden Holland with 16 points.  Edina big advantages at the charity stripe and on the offensive glass.

Game 3: #5 4A Chicago Whitney Young (IL) 75 #1AAA Totino-Grace 67
Now a fun regional showcase with Chicago Whitney Young and star forward AJ Casey (Miami commit) making the trek north.  TG shoots 8-13 from 3 in the 1st half.  That includes 5 makes in the last 6+ minutes to break open a tie game.  Demarion Watson with 4 of those in the best shooting performance I've seen from him.  AJ Casey out the last 4:14 with a cut on his head.  Junior guard Dalen Davis picking up the slack with 14 first half points including 8 of the last 9 for the Dolphins.  Patrick Bath with a tip finish off a BLOB just before half.  Totino-Grace up 38-28 at the half.

Watson 2 more quick triples and he'll add a finish at the rim.  52-40 TG keeping the lead at double digits with 12:20 to play.  Whitney Young counters with points on their next 7 trips for a 14-4 run.  Davis 2 buckets in that spurt.  TG lead is cut to 56-54 but Watson answers with another 3.  59-54 TG with 7:40 left.  Davis converts a turnover and the lead is down to 1 to force a TG timeout.  Out of the timeout, its a feed inside to Bath who converts another post bucket.  63-60 TG 5:23 left.

This is another game that ends with a 15-4 and this time its for the road team.  TG misses a front end and then the next 2 possessions are turnovers that become layups.  Davis converts the 2nd for a 64-63 Whitney Young lead with 3:50 left.  After a Taison Chatman bucket puts TG back ahead, Northern Illinois commit Xavier Amos counters with 2 putbacks.  Ahjany Lee keeps TG within 1 with a putback of his own.  Its Casey on the drive, he kicks to the corner and its the extra pass that finds Davis for a right wing 3 with 1:27 left.  71-67 Dolphins and TG doesn't score again.  He adds 4 bonus free throws to close it out.  Dalen Davis steals the show with 31 points, 17 in the 2nd half and 7 in the last 90 seconds to close it out.  Xavier Amos with 14 points, AJ Casey adds 12.  Demarion Watson leads Totino-Grace with 23 points and 7 3s.  Patrick Bath with an effective 14 point game.  Taison Chatman adds 12.  After starting 10-16 from 3, TG missed 10 of their last 11 3s over the last 12+ minutes.  TG got some very good things when they went to Euro ballscreen offense.  But they had plenty of 1 on 1 quick midrange shot moments too that weren't effective.  Whitney Young scored on their last 7 trips before holding the final possession.

Czar Insights
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