Antonio Curry of NY2LA Sports did an exclusive interview with Royce White regarding his future and on his departure from DeLaSalle. The full text of the interview can be read here.
Royce is candid and classy in the interview and deserves lots of credit for acknowledging his mistake so publicly.
Week 15 Observations and playoff schedule
Scores around the metro from the end of the week.
- Hill-Murray rolls into the tournament with a 14 pt win at Richfield and they've played much better the last month of the season. I won't predict they win 4AAA, but I wouldn't be surprised if they beat Arlington and Johnson and then Mahtomedi to win the section.
- Jefferson wins at Eden Prairie in OT. The 2nd round game between these teams will be low scoring and war. EP won by 1 at Jefferson, Jefferson by 2 at EP during league play. Ethan Thomforde was back for Eastview's win over Rosemount.
- Prior Lake squanders 2 chances to win the Missota outright with losses at Red Wing and at home to Northfield. Now they have to open with an Edina team that beat them during the regular season.
- Roosevelt gets blown out at Washburn, 2 close wins and 2 losses to end their season. Tough matchup with SCL on Tuesday if Chris Breuer plays.
- Elk River blows out Blaine with no Kyle Kreklow in the lineup for Blaine. Elk River will host Maple Grove on Tuesday in a good 4 vs 5 game. These teams split their regular season matchups and were both 10-8 in the weak NW Suburban. Beware of #3 seed Buffalo in section 8AAAA. The defending AAAA champs finished 20-6 and gave #1 seed St. Cloud Tech a 3 pt game during the season.
- Stillwater shares the Suburban East title with CDH after beating Roseville. Mounds View defeats Forest Lake by 8.
- DLS clinched the Tri-Metro West with a win over St. Agnes on Thursday. Brooklyn Center lost to Maranatha and Minnehaha to finish 3-12 after starting 8-2.
- Evan McMillan had 43 for SPA in a win over Ascension. Columbia Heights finishes 500 with a win over Meadow Creek in one of the better turnaround stories in the metro. They finished 4-21 last year. Jordan beats CHOF in 2 OT. Speaking of Jordan, Jr PG Brittany Chambers scored her 2000th point this week on the women's side. The Jags take on Caledonia Wednesday morning at Williams Arena.
- I set my own personal record for games seen in a season this week surpassing last year's 122.
- And finally, congrats to La Crosse Aquinas on winning the Wisconsin Division 3 Championship and finishing 24-3 (should've been 25-2 as they blew a 7 pt lead in the last 2+ minutes at Winona Cotter). They lost 4 starters and a co-Mr. Basketball from last year's state runner up team and nobody expected this. Coach Rick Schneider and his staff did a terrific job with the team.
Monday: Section 4A play-in games, don't know if I'll find one worth attending or not
Tuesday: Everybody in playoff action except St. Thomas Academy. Best game of the night is Central at Tartan. I'll either be at Columbia Heights for the Chris Mullin (Calvin Walker) vs Jacob Thomas matchup or at Burnsville for that doubleheader to see Tarell Clark of the Blaze 1 more time along with a look at Charlie Baker and Jameson Parsons of Eagan. The doubleheaders at Shakopee and Eastview have the best potential for upsets and should be well worth it. Why see 1 game when you can see 2.
Wednesday: Waseca at STA is the only local game in a 1AAA quarterfinal. Don't know if I'll cover this or not.
Thursday: 4A and 4AA quarterfinals at the high seeds with good 6AAA semis at Concordia-SP. Too many good games to pick at this point.
Friday: Best games of the night are at Concordia-SP with the 4AAAA Semifinals. 3AAA in Osseo, 4AAA at Arlington. 3AAAA at St. Olaf, 5AAAA at Rogers, 6AAAA at Cooper, 7AAAA at Elk River. I'll likely be at Concordia-SP for those 4AAAA games or I'll be at Cooper to get another chance to see Hopkins and Minnetonka in action (separately before their showdown in Osseo on 3/18)
Saturday: Section 4A subsection finals at Spring Lake Park (1 and 3 PM) is where I'll be. 4AA semifinals at Holy Angels (1 and 3 PM)
YTD Stats
- 125 games (97 MN split 81 boys and 16 girls, 28 WI split 24 boys and 4 girls)
- 48 buildings
- 150 teams (118 boys and 32 girls, 107 MN teams split 84 boys and 23 girls, 37 Wisconsin split 29 boys and 8 girls, 6 outstate split 5 boys and 1 girls)
- 2 Genders
4A: 8 (Missing Rochester Mayo and St. Cloud Tech)
3A: 7 (Missing Mankato W, Willmar and New Prague)
2A: 3 (St. Bernard's and Concordia)
1A: 3 (MCA, Cass Lake-Bena and Bethlehem Academy)
Metro section previews Part 3 (Class AAAA)
Labels:
07-08 Playoff Previews
My previews of the metro area sections, this is part 3. We'll do Sections 2AAAA thru 7AAAA here.
Section 2AAAA:
Schedule
- Quarters: Tuesday 3/11 at Eden Prairie and Shakopee, 6 and 8 PM
- Semis: Friday 3/14 TBD
- Final: Tuesday 3/18 at St. Olaf, 8 PM
Eden Prairie, Shakopee, Prior Lake
Tough section here as 7 teams are at or above 500. EP had a tough game at Chaska but blew them out at EP. Kennedy beat Jefferson twice by a total of 10 pts so that game will be very interesting with the rivalry added in. Richfield got a very good matchup by drawing Shakopee. 2 small teams there with Richfield having plenty of guards and quickness to play with Shakopee. Shakopee will have to figure out how to deal with Renard Robinson. Edina beat Prior Lake 67-61 at Edina when these teams played Dec 14th. Good matchup of young guards in that game, Will Deberg vs Tor Anderson.
Predictions (for entertainment purposes only):
- Quarters: EP, Jefferson, Shakopee in a scare from Richfield and Edina
- Semis: EP in a low scoring close affair and Edina scares Shakopee again (lost 66-60 at Shakopee Jan 10th)
- Section Champion: Eden Prairie finally gets out of section play in a close and very well played game against Shakopee. How fitting would it be if it were an Ethan Wragge buzzer beater to do it since EP has gone out the last 3 years on buzzer beaters (2 from Blake Hoffarber and then Anthony Tucker knocked them out last year)
Schedule
- Quarters: Tuesday 3/11 at Burnsville and Eastview, 6 and 8 PM
- Semis: Friday 3/14 at St. Olaf, 6 and 8 PM
- Final: Tuesday 3/18 at St. Olaf, 6 PM
Burnsville, Eastview, Lakeville N
Rosemount gets a good draw with Lakeville N in the 1st round. Eastview has an interesting 2 vs 7 matchup with Park and Jake Lindstrom. Eastview can have trouble generating offense and if they don't shut Lindstrom down, this could be an upset.
Predictions (for entertainment purposes only):
- Quarters: Burnsville, Eagan, Rosemount, Eastview
- Semis: Burnsville, Eastview
- Section Champion: Burnsville in what may be the best section final in the metro as these 2 have played 2 terrific games to this point.
Schedule
- Quarters: Tuesday 3/11 at High Seeds, 7 PM
- Semis: Friday 3/14 at Concordia-SP, 6 and 7:45 PM
- Final: Tuesday 3/18 at Concordia-SP, 8 PM
Cretin-Derham Hall, Sibley, Stillwater, Tartan, Central
Wow, you won't find 5 better teams at the top of any bracket. Central goes 21-6, wins their league and they get to go on the road in the 1st round and that's not poor seeding, the bracket is that tough. The Central at Tartan game on Tuesday has to be the game of the night. Tartan was at the Twin Cities game today watching so they know Larry Brown and Dylan Hale will be a handful. But Marc Sonnen is a handful for Central. Woodbury played Stillwater really tough in both Suburban East matchups so don't be surprised if Woodbury wins that 3 vs 6 game. The semis are monster games. CDH vs Tartan and a Stillwater vs Sibley rematch (77-69 Sibley at home Jan 28th), wow.
Predictions (for entertainment purposes only):
- Quarters: CDH, Tartan, Stillwater, Sibley
- Semis: CDH, Sibley in 2 great games.
- Section Champion: Sibley in a great game
Schedule
- Quarters: Tuesday 3/11 at High Seeds, 7 PM
- Semis: Friday 3/14 at Rogers, 6 and 8 PM
- Final: Tuesday 3/18 at Rogers, 7 PM
Osseo, Mounds View, Robbinsdale Cooper
No surprises here in the seedings. Cooper vs Park Center is a good rivalry in round 1, but Cooper should roll. Irondale at Champlin Park in a matchup to prove which league is more mediocre, the N Suburban or the NW Suburban.
Predictions (for entertainment purposes only):
- Quarters: Osseo, Champlin Park, Cooper, Mounds View
- Semis: Osseo, Mounds View
- Section Champion: Mounds View
Schedule
- Quarters: Tuesday 3/11 at Hopkins and Minnetonka, 6:30 and 8 PM
- Semis: Friday 3/14 at Cooper, 6:30 and 8 PM
- Final: Tuesday 3/18 at Osseo, 8 PM
Hopkins and Minnetonka
Armstrong vs North is an OK 4 vs 5 game, but this section is all about the rubber match between Hopkins and Tonka and settled on a neutral court which is only fitting.
Predictions (for entertainment purposes only):
- Quarters: Hopkins, Armstrong, Wayzata, Minnetonka
- Semis: Hopkins, Minnetonka
- Section Champion: Minnetonka, experience over youth, this is their year
Schedule
- Quarters: Tuesday 3/11 at High Seeds, 7 PM
- Semis: Friday 3/14 at Elk River, 6 and 8 PM
- Final: Wednesday 3/19 at Elk River, 7 PM
Forest Lake, Cambridge-Isanti and Blaine
No heavyweight team here so its wide open with only 2 teams above 500. Blaine went 7-3 down the stretch, beat Forest Lake early in the year and they have players (Kyle Kreklow if he plays, not in box score vs Elk River Friday, Billy Giddings and Dylan Rodriguez). Andover and Coon Rapids split 2 very close games in the regular season so their 4 vs 5 matchup should be close. Anoka beat Cambridge-Isanti Dec 18th so that 2 vs 7 game could be an upset. Forest Lake blew out Duluth East earlier in the year and I see that happening again in a battle of the resistable force (Forest Lake offense) vs the movable object (Duluth E defense)
Predictions (for entertainment purposes only):
- Quarters: FL, Andover, Anoka, Blaine
- Semis: FL, Blaine
- Section Champion: Blaine
Metro section previews Part 2 (3AAA, 4AAA, 6AAA)
Labels:
07-08 Playoff Previews
My previews of the metro area sections, this is part 2. We'll do the local AAA sections here (3AAA, 4AAA and 6AAA)
Section 3AAA:
Schedule
- Quarters: Tuesday 3/11 at High Seeds, 7 PM
- Semis: Friday 3/14 at Osseo, 6 and 8 PM
- Final: Tuesday 3/18 at Osseo, 5:30 PM
Spring Lake Park, Henry, Fridley
Very balanced section and lots of games that can go either way as I've discussed previously. I think Henry is the clear favorite here, but only if they actually guard somebody. Otherwise a team like Spring Lake Park can win this. The St. Anthony at Columbia Heights game will be one of the better 4 vs 5 matchups of the night (CH won 66-64 at SA on Dec 10, I think I got that right this time). Fridley vs TG is another coin flip as the teams split 2 close games during the regular season with each team winning on the road. Henry should blowout Chisago Lakes, but I won't be all that surprised if Josh Figini has a big night and they pull the upset.
Predictions (for entertainment purposes only):
- Quarters: SLP, CH, Fridley and Henry
- Semis: CH (split series with SLP and this section needs an upset) and Henry
- Section Champion: Henry, but I wouldn't mind seeing Alonzo Melton (Henry) vs Cory Polta (SLP) in the post as a matchup of BIG guys.
Schedule
- Quarters: Tuesday 3/11 at High Seeds, 7 PM
- Semis: Friday 3/14 at Arlington, 6 and 7:45 PM
- Final: Tuesday 3/18 at Arlington, 7 PM
Johnson, Como Park, Mahtomedi
Yuck! I don't like this section at all. 6 teams below 41 in the QRF. Johnson has managed to win with youth and no offense. Como Park couldn't win a big game all year and from Arlington on down you have all bad teams. Hill-Murray had a rough year but with Peter McKeown they have a big force down low which Johnson and Como Park don't have so I like how this bracket lays out for them.
Predictions (for entertainment purposes only):
- Quarters: Johnson, HM (Arlington won the regular season matchup 78-77 at HM on Feb 9th), Mahtomedi, Como Park
- Semis: As much as I want to pick Hill-Murray here, Johnson has found a way to get it done all year and their D is too much in this game (think of their win over Sioux City Heelan as a comparison). Mahtomedi over Como Park in a rematch (CP won at home 70-67 Dec 18)
- Section Champion: Johnson
Schedule
- Quarters: Tuesday 3/11 at High Seeds, 7 PM
- Semis: Thursday 3/13 at Concordia-SP, 6 and 7:45 PM
- Final: Tuesday 3/18 at Concordia-SP, 5:30 PM
Benilde-St. Margaret's, Holy Angels, Orono
Insanely tough bracket. The DLS at Orono rematch from last year's tourney is going to be very close. Waconia at Washburn is also an upset waiting to happen. Any of the top 6 could come out of this bracket, but BSM is on a roll right now with 13 straight wins with only 2 of those close so they're the clear favorite.
Predictions (for entertainment purposes only):
- Quarters: BSM, Waconia, DLS, AHA
- Semis: BSM, DLS
- Section Champion: BSM
Metro section previews Part 1 (4A, 4AA)
Labels:
07-08 Playoff Previews
My previews of the metro area sections, we'll start with section 4A and 4AA.
Section 4A:
Schedule
West: Maranatha, SW Christian, PACT and Heritage
East: Minnesota Transitions, CHOF, St. Agnes, New Life Academy
In the east, throw away the 1st 2 days and go straight to the subsection semis. CHOF vs St. Agnes should be a very good 2 vs 3 game in a matchup of athletic teams. CHOF won at St. Agnes 95-85 on Dec 11th. MTS had to cancel their game vs NLA (NLA overscheduled, that's the 3rd instance of that this season alone I've heard of) but they're matched up with them in the semis.
In the west, it's more interesting. The West Lutheran vs Heritage game in the 4 v 5 matchup should be very interesting as Heritage won 2 close regular season matchups (5 pts at Heritage, 6 pts at MCA in the MCAA tournament). The old adage that its hard to beat a team 3 times holds true here. Heritage is dangerous with Stu Herman and John Hirte, especially if they get a fast pace but MCA is a bad matchup in round 2. PACT has solid PG play from Seth Mathis, a couple of solid wings in Joel Hedberg and David Wilkey-Johnson and 6'7 Matt Fridberg in the middle. Depth could be a problem for them though. SW Christian lurks as the 2 seed with Caleb Palkert. They lost by 16 at CHOF Dec 13 and by 7 at MTS on Jan 26 but they lost to MCA by 2 at home on Jan 17th before taking them out 45-42 to win the MCAA tournament on Feb 22nd. Watch for a possible SW Christian vs PACT matchup on Thursday. PACT took out SW Christian at PACT in OT in the season opener 67-59.
Predictions (for entertainment purposes only):
Schedule
West: Holy Family, Breck and Edison
East: St. Bernard's, Concordia and Minnehaha
The east is really tough with the top 2 Tri-Metro East teams and the West runner up. Minnehaha played Concordia and SB tough and Concordia and SB split their regular season matchups with road wins. The St. Croix Lutheran at Roosevelt 4 v 5 game will be good. SCL can win that game, but not without Chris Breuer who wasn't in the box score in last night's loss to St. Anthony. The bottom 3 teams don't pose a threat.
The west is bad. Holy Family is a respectable 1 seed, but Breck isn't the same team they were before the coaching change, Edison lost 7 of 9 down the stretch (with 1 of those wins being against a really bad SW team), BC finished 3-12 with none of those good wins. Blake, Trinity and Providence at the bottom are amongst the worst teams in AA. Jordan is hot right now winning 4 in a row including a 2 OT upset of CHOF last night and a win at BC on March 3rd.
Predictions (for entertainment purposes only):
Section 4A:
Schedule
- Play-in: Monday 3/10 at High Seeds, 7 PM
- Subsection Quarters: Tuesday 3/11 at High Seeds, 7 PM
- Subsection Semis: Thursday 3/13 at High Seeds, 7 PM
- Subsection Finals: Saturday 3/15 at Spring Lake Park (West 1 PM, East 3 PM)
- Section Final: Tuesday 3/18 at Holy Angels, 6 PM
West: Maranatha, SW Christian, PACT and Heritage
East: Minnesota Transitions, CHOF, St. Agnes, New Life Academy
In the east, throw away the 1st 2 days and go straight to the subsection semis. CHOF vs St. Agnes should be a very good 2 vs 3 game in a matchup of athletic teams. CHOF won at St. Agnes 95-85 on Dec 11th. MTS had to cancel their game vs NLA (NLA overscheduled, that's the 3rd instance of that this season alone I've heard of) but they're matched up with them in the semis.
In the west, it's more interesting. The West Lutheran vs Heritage game in the 4 v 5 matchup should be very interesting as Heritage won 2 close regular season matchups (5 pts at Heritage, 6 pts at MCA in the MCAA tournament). The old adage that its hard to beat a team 3 times holds true here. Heritage is dangerous with Stu Herman and John Hirte, especially if they get a fast pace but MCA is a bad matchup in round 2. PACT has solid PG play from Seth Mathis, a couple of solid wings in Joel Hedberg and David Wilkey-Johnson and 6'7 Matt Fridberg in the middle. Depth could be a problem for them though. SW Christian lurks as the 2 seed with Caleb Palkert. They lost by 16 at CHOF Dec 13 and by 7 at MTS on Jan 26 but they lost to MCA by 2 at home on Jan 17th before taking them out 45-42 to win the MCAA tournament on Feb 22nd. Watch for a possible SW Christian vs PACT matchup on Thursday. PACT took out SW Christian at PACT in OT in the season opener 67-59.
Predictions (for entertainment purposes only):
- Play-in games: Not posted on the state high school league site, but one that appears is available is Ascension at Spectrum and I'll take Ascension.
- Quarters: MCA, Heritage, PACT and SW Christian in the West. MTS, NLA, SA and CHOF in the East.
- Semis: MCA and PACT (MCA won at PACT 60-45 March 3rd), MTS and CHOF (MTS won 77-72 at CHOF Jan 15th)
- Finals: MCA and CHOF
- Section Champion: CHOF due to experience and MCA demonstrating they have a tough time on the road and their youth.
Schedule
- Subsection Quarters: Tuesday 3/11 at High Seeds, 7 PM
- Subsection Semis: Thursday 3/13 at High Seeds, 7 PM
- Subsection Finals: Saturday 3/15 at Holy Angels (East 1 PM, West 3 PM)
- Section Final: Tuesday 3/18 at Holy Angels, 8 PM
West: Holy Family, Breck and Edison
East: St. Bernard's, Concordia and Minnehaha
The east is really tough with the top 2 Tri-Metro East teams and the West runner up. Minnehaha played Concordia and SB tough and Concordia and SB split their regular season matchups with road wins. The St. Croix Lutheran at Roosevelt 4 v 5 game will be good. SCL can win that game, but not without Chris Breuer who wasn't in the box score in last night's loss to St. Anthony. The bottom 3 teams don't pose a threat.
The west is bad. Holy Family is a respectable 1 seed, but Breck isn't the same team they were before the coaching change, Edison lost 7 of 9 down the stretch (with 1 of those wins being against a really bad SW team), BC finished 3-12 with none of those good wins. Blake, Trinity and Providence at the bottom are amongst the worst teams in AA. Jordan is hot right now winning 4 in a row including a 2 OT upset of CHOF last night and a win at BC on March 3rd.
Predictions (for entertainment purposes only):
- Quarters: HF, Jordan, Edison, and Breck. SB, Roosevelt regardless of Breuer status, Minnehaha, Concordia
- Semis: HF, Breck (despite a 58-49 loss to Edison Dec 14th), SB, Minnehaha in a classic
- Finals: SB (in another good game) and HF
- Section Champion: St. Bernard's. They've only lost on a 3 late in OT and on a buzzer beater tip over Christmas to a top 5 D3 Wisconsin team so I can't pick against them.
Twin Cities Game Observations
So we have the annual regular season finale with the Twin Cities Game. This year the game has Central vs Henry which is the 14th straight year that Henry or North has represented Minneapolis (North Side Era). Minneapolis leads the all-time series 58-21. Minneapolis is 10-3 in the North Side Era with Johnson beating Henry by 2 last year in a very good game. Only 2 of the games in the last 10 years have been decided by more than 10 points so this game usually is very competitive.
Washburn wins the Freshman game 59-45 over Johnson. Henry defeats Como Park 71-59 in the JV game. Henry used varsity starter Evan Gray for the 1st half and then Louis Cox (significant varsity reserve) played in the 2nd half and led them with 12 points. Not against any rules, but I wish this type of thing wouldn't happen as it just doesn't seem to be in the spirit of the game. CP got to within 5 and had momentum with 6:30 to play but Cox hit 2 FTs and had an assist to Dennis Joiner and CP never got closer than 6 the rest of the way. CP has 2 nice sophomores, Joe Conley on the wing with 22 and lefty Reggie Ray in the middle with 17, who could turnout to be nice players for them in a couple of years, especially Conley. He was 9 for 10 from the stripe in the game.
To the main attraction, Henry gets out to a quick 7-0 lead @ 16:22 thanks to a Jerome Vaughn putback and 5 in a row from Mandela Jackson. Larry Brown stops the run with a 3 pt play at 16:10. After Brown turns it over, Jackson takes it the other way and goes for a dunk and gets absolutely stoned by Dylan Hale. Great block. Hale promises to be a real monster for Central next year. Jackson is on fire as he gets a 4 pt play at 15:24 and then hits a 3 @ 13:30 to make it 14-7 Henry. Jordan Larson gets a layin off a nice pass from Brown to start a 9-2 Central run that ends with Larson returning the favor off a Henry turnover at 11:55. Jordan Hughes with a baseline J and Jackson with a 12 ft pullup to make it 20-18 Henry with 11 minutes to play and the pace is fast and furious. Hale knocks down back to back triples, Brown puts a shake on for a layup on the left block and Hale with a 2 handed dunk to end a 10-0 Central run. Central leads 28-20 with 8:20 left in the half. Jackson has been quiet from the field during this time, but he gets 2 straight buckets inside of 5 minutes to make it 38-31 Central with 4:30 left in the half. Hale knocks down another 3 and gets a layup and its out to a 43-31 lead with 3:38 left in the half. Hale picks up his 3rd foul @ 1:41 as he fell asleep on an inbounds play that allows Hughes to catch the ball in front of the rim. Hughes makes both FTs to make it 43-38 Central. Michael Frelix comes in for him and promptly takes a bad shot but he gets a bucket and 2 FTs on a nice basket cut. Brown has a 3 pt play. Alonzo Melton's putback at the horn for Henry makes it 52-42 Central at the half. Whew! Breathe. Jackson with 21 in the half for Henry. Hale with 17, Brown with 12 and Larson with 11 for Central. Henry is on the offensive glass, but their defense yikes.
Jackson starts where he left off with a pullup right out of the gate. Hale hits another 3 and Jackson counters that with a bucket to make it 55-46 Central and we're still not out of the 1st minute of the half. After a Larson bucket, Gray hits back to back 3s, Jackson scores again and all of a sudden its only a 3 pt game with 15:10 to go, 57-54 Central. Its a 10-2 Henry run over 2:15. As Clark Kellogg would say, spurtability. Larson comes back with a bucket and Hale hits a 3 to push the lead back to 8. Jordan Hughes gets a steal and 2. Jerome Vaughn makes 1 of 2 and Gray gets the miss and is fouled. He makes 1 of 2 and its 66-62 Central with 12:03 to go. On Henry's next trip down the floor, Hale gets a dumb reach-in foul and that's his 4th with 11:13 to go. To the bench he goes. After a LeDarian Horton bucket, Vaughn makes 2 FTs, Hughes hits a 3 and Gray makes 2 FTs via an offensive rebound to give Henry their 1st lead since 10:50 of the 1st half, 69-68 Henry after an 11-2 run. Mandela Jackson to the bench for rest around this time. Brown finds Larson for a bucket @ 9:14 to give Central the lead back and Larson hits a jumper @ 8:40 and its 72-69 Central. Jackson right back in the game which is a nice move by Coach Williams. Larson gets another 2 on a offensive rebound @ 7:25. For some reason, Jackson gets T'd up at this point which is his 4th foul. Brown makes the 2 technical FTs and its back out to a 7 pt game, 76-69. Jackson stays in the game which is kinda suprising. He immediately scores and its only a 5 pt game with 6:55 to play. Larry Brown counters with a bucket, Frelix hits 1 of 2 FTs, Taylor Smaller gets a bucket and Horton hits 1 of 2 FTs to end an 8-2 Central run. 82-73 Central with 4:55 to go. Brown makes sure the game doesn't get away. He gets fouled in the post and makes 2 FTs, he gets a defensive rebound and gets a score on the other end. Then a block and another defensive rebound. All of this in about 90 seconds. Gray gets an offensive rebound for 2 to make it 86-75 with 2:45 to go, but the damage has been done. Brown gets a bucket, Hale knocks down a 3 and then the exclamation point on a dunk with 25 seconds left to end the day. Central wins 93-81.
Henry gets 31 from Mandela Jackson, 18 from Evan Gray, 13 from Jordan Hughes and 11 from Jerome Vaughn. They can score with just about anybody, but they really have to tighten up the defense if they want to make noise in the tournament. With their talent, they shouldn't be this poor defensively. Last year they gave up 64 pts a game, this year almost 73 a game. When you don't have dominant inside play (and they don't), this will really put pressure on their outstanding guards to make shots. They open up 3AAA play on Tuesday at home vs Chisago Lakes.
Central gets 3 guys over 20. Dylan Hale with 28, Larry Brown with 24 and Jordan Larson with 21. Henry made runs at them and they got thru it. Hale was huge, Larson had the 6 straight pts in the final run that put the game out of reach for good and Brown made sure of that. Its a shame that their bracket is so tough. Their 4AAAA opener at Tartan on Tuesday in the 4 v 5 game may be the best game of the night.
Washburn wins the Freshman game 59-45 over Johnson. Henry defeats Como Park 71-59 in the JV game. Henry used varsity starter Evan Gray for the 1st half and then Louis Cox (significant varsity reserve) played in the 2nd half and led them with 12 points. Not against any rules, but I wish this type of thing wouldn't happen as it just doesn't seem to be in the spirit of the game. CP got to within 5 and had momentum with 6:30 to play but Cox hit 2 FTs and had an assist to Dennis Joiner and CP never got closer than 6 the rest of the way. CP has 2 nice sophomores, Joe Conley on the wing with 22 and lefty Reggie Ray in the middle with 17, who could turnout to be nice players for them in a couple of years, especially Conley. He was 9 for 10 from the stripe in the game.
To the main attraction, Henry gets out to a quick 7-0 lead @ 16:22 thanks to a Jerome Vaughn putback and 5 in a row from Mandela Jackson. Larry Brown stops the run with a 3 pt play at 16:10. After Brown turns it over, Jackson takes it the other way and goes for a dunk and gets absolutely stoned by Dylan Hale. Great block. Hale promises to be a real monster for Central next year. Jackson is on fire as he gets a 4 pt play at 15:24 and then hits a 3 @ 13:30 to make it 14-7 Henry. Jordan Larson gets a layin off a nice pass from Brown to start a 9-2 Central run that ends with Larson returning the favor off a Henry turnover at 11:55. Jordan Hughes with a baseline J and Jackson with a 12 ft pullup to make it 20-18 Henry with 11 minutes to play and the pace is fast and furious. Hale knocks down back to back triples, Brown puts a shake on for a layup on the left block and Hale with a 2 handed dunk to end a 10-0 Central run. Central leads 28-20 with 8:20 left in the half. Jackson has been quiet from the field during this time, but he gets 2 straight buckets inside of 5 minutes to make it 38-31 Central with 4:30 left in the half. Hale knocks down another 3 and gets a layup and its out to a 43-31 lead with 3:38 left in the half. Hale picks up his 3rd foul @ 1:41 as he fell asleep on an inbounds play that allows Hughes to catch the ball in front of the rim. Hughes makes both FTs to make it 43-38 Central. Michael Frelix comes in for him and promptly takes a bad shot but he gets a bucket and 2 FTs on a nice basket cut. Brown has a 3 pt play. Alonzo Melton's putback at the horn for Henry makes it 52-42 Central at the half. Whew! Breathe. Jackson with 21 in the half for Henry. Hale with 17, Brown with 12 and Larson with 11 for Central. Henry is on the offensive glass, but their defense yikes.
Jackson starts where he left off with a pullup right out of the gate. Hale hits another 3 and Jackson counters that with a bucket to make it 55-46 Central and we're still not out of the 1st minute of the half. After a Larson bucket, Gray hits back to back 3s, Jackson scores again and all of a sudden its only a 3 pt game with 15:10 to go, 57-54 Central. Its a 10-2 Henry run over 2:15. As Clark Kellogg would say, spurtability. Larson comes back with a bucket and Hale hits a 3 to push the lead back to 8. Jordan Hughes gets a steal and 2. Jerome Vaughn makes 1 of 2 and Gray gets the miss and is fouled. He makes 1 of 2 and its 66-62 Central with 12:03 to go. On Henry's next trip down the floor, Hale gets a dumb reach-in foul and that's his 4th with 11:13 to go. To the bench he goes. After a LeDarian Horton bucket, Vaughn makes 2 FTs, Hughes hits a 3 and Gray makes 2 FTs via an offensive rebound to give Henry their 1st lead since 10:50 of the 1st half, 69-68 Henry after an 11-2 run. Mandela Jackson to the bench for rest around this time. Brown finds Larson for a bucket @ 9:14 to give Central the lead back and Larson hits a jumper @ 8:40 and its 72-69 Central. Jackson right back in the game which is a nice move by Coach Williams. Larson gets another 2 on a offensive rebound @ 7:25. For some reason, Jackson gets T'd up at this point which is his 4th foul. Brown makes the 2 technical FTs and its back out to a 7 pt game, 76-69. Jackson stays in the game which is kinda suprising. He immediately scores and its only a 5 pt game with 6:55 to play. Larry Brown counters with a bucket, Frelix hits 1 of 2 FTs, Taylor Smaller gets a bucket and Horton hits 1 of 2 FTs to end an 8-2 Central run. 82-73 Central with 4:55 to go. Brown makes sure the game doesn't get away. He gets fouled in the post and makes 2 FTs, he gets a defensive rebound and gets a score on the other end. Then a block and another defensive rebound. All of this in about 90 seconds. Gray gets an offensive rebound for 2 to make it 86-75 with 2:45 to go, but the damage has been done. Brown gets a bucket, Hale knocks down a 3 and then the exclamation point on a dunk with 25 seconds left to end the day. Central wins 93-81.
Henry gets 31 from Mandela Jackson, 18 from Evan Gray, 13 from Jordan Hughes and 11 from Jerome Vaughn. They can score with just about anybody, but they really have to tighten up the defense if they want to make noise in the tournament. With their talent, they shouldn't be this poor defensively. Last year they gave up 64 pts a game, this year almost 73 a game. When you don't have dominant inside play (and they don't), this will really put pressure on their outstanding guards to make shots. They open up 3AAA play on Tuesday at home vs Chisago Lakes.
Central gets 3 guys over 20. Dylan Hale with 28, Larry Brown with 24 and Jordan Larson with 21. Henry made runs at them and they got thru it. Hale was huge, Larson had the 6 straight pts in the final run that put the game out of reach for good and Brown made sure of that. Its a shame that their bracket is so tough. Their 4AAAA opener at Tartan on Tuesday in the 4 v 5 game may be the best game of the night.
St. Thomas at DeLaSalle down to the wire
Wasn't I just here. I think I left my cot in the upper deck. Where's my sleeping bag? These teams had a classic 2 years ago when STA came to the island. Bryce Webster had a monster 1st half to give STA a 20 pt halftime lead, but Cameron Rundles brought DLS back for a 5 pt win. DLS then won by 19 in the state semis before beating Cory Johnson and Duluth East 65-47 to win the state title. My 1st chance to see St. Thomas Academy this season. They come in at 18-6 and ranked #5 this week in 3A. Their 6 losses are 2 pts at home to Armstrong in their opener (a game they were leading by 15 at the half), 7 pts to Cretin-Derham Hall, 12 pts to Hopkins in the Joe Hutton title game at Hamline, and then league losses at Simley, Sibley and Tartan. Something has to give in this game. STA comes in averaging 67.1 PPG (13th in AAA), DLS only allows 54.2 (5th in 3A). STA #7 in that category only allowing 55.9 PPG. That's a +11.3 differential for STA, #6 in AAA.
Danny Traeger puts STA on the board at 13:40 and its 4-2 DLS. Jalen Jaspers from Jeremy Randle at 11:40 to give DLS a 10-7 lead. Mike Ratelle with a 2 at 10:50 to cut it to 10-9. Jaspers picks up his 2nd foul at 10:02 and goes to the bench at 9:36 for the rest of the half with DLS still leading 10-9. AJ Barker with a tough runner to give DLS a 14-10 lead with 7:35 to go in the half. STA can't make a shot. Fritz Valdvogel gets a steal and hits a 3 @ 6:17 to cut the lead to 1. 1st STA FG in 4:33. Alex Schneider picks up his 2nd foul with 4:56 to go in the half and he'll sit. Jake Szymanski hits a 3 @4:15 to give STA their 1st lead of the night at 16-14. After the teams trade 1 of 2 FTs (Barker and Ratelle), Jeremy Randle hits 3 tough buckets from 2:15 to :54 to give DLS a 21-17 lead. Mike Fitzgerald gets his only points of the half with a tough layup after a backdoor cut with 40 seconds to go in the half. DLS with a 21-19 lead going to halftime. Jeremy Randle with 10 as his late 6 points keep DLS above water with Jaspers out with fouls. Tom Anderson with 5 points to lead STA. Valdvogel (avg 10.9) 3, Fitzgerald (avg 14.9) has 2 and big man Alex Schneider (avg 17.4) goes bagel. Great defense on both sides. Tim Swords is doing a great job on Schneider and Tim O'Keefe is holding down Fitzgerald. Valdvogel is really hounding Randle despite the 10 points.
Schneider doesn't start the 2nd half as Anderson is in for him. Bobby Knight thought process there as a bench player who plays well in the 1st half (Anderson) starts the 2nd half. Jaspers with a bucket to extend the lead to 4 @ 16:30. Anderson responds with a bucket with 15:45 left. Schneider returns to the lineup at the 15:08 mark. Jaspers gets a 3 pt play on the block to give DLS a 26-21 lead with 13:15 to play. Bryce Hawkins rolls back to the ball on an inbounds for his 1 FG of the night and its 28-21 DLS with 12:40 left. After more than 4 minutes without a score, Mike Ratelle gets a bucket after a steal with 11:15 remaining. 28-23 DLS. Anderson gets another score to cut it to 29-25 DLS @ 9:40. AJ Barker with a tough baseline pullup at 7:06 for a 31-25 DLS lead. Ratelle rebounds his own missed 3 and puts it back for a 3 pt play at 6:44 and Schneider gets his only points of the night on a bucket at 5:22. After 2 Bryce Hawkins FTs at 4:55, Ratelle hits a 3 from Schneider at 3:40 to tie it at 33. DLS turns it over on 2 straight possessions and Schneider commits an offensive foul at 2:19 (his 4th). Barker has a 3 ball go in and out from the corner with 2 minutes left. Schneider misses 2 FTs with 1:44 to play. Barker comes back and makes 1 of 2 to give DLS a 34-33 lead with 1:22 to play. Swords is back in for Hawkins for defense on Schneider (great move by Coach Thorson). Schneider does get it off the right block and goes baseline but gets nothing due to good DLS help so he kicks it cross court and then its immediately kicked to Fitzgerald in the left corner. It's not the 1st pass that beats the defense, its the 2nd one. He's got a great look and misses, but Swords runs thru him rushing out to challenge the shot. He make calmly knocks down all 3 FTs to give STA a 36-44 lead with 58.1 to play. Randle hits a jumper in the lane to tie it with 42 seconds to go. STA no timeout comes back and turns it over with 30 seconds to play. DLS back with no timeout. STA looks like they're trying to foul. Really strange as DLS was in the 1 and 1. But no call and Barker takes a FT line J with about 11 seconds left. STA rebounds and away they go. They kick it up the sideline and Ratelle knocks down a left wing 3 with 5.2 to go to give STA the lead. After a DLS timeout, Randle gets the ball at his own foul line and takes to the top of the key and misses a 3 at the buzzer. 39-36 STA wins an exciting defensive struggle.
Mike Ratelle with a big 2nd half. He finishes with 15 points to lead STA. Tom Anderson with 9 points off the bench. The trio of Valdvogel, Fitzgerald, and Schneider got a total of 10 points vs their average of 43.2. Tim Swords did a great job fronting Schneider and O'Keefe did a great job on Fitzgerald with the entire DLS team doing a great job of back side help. I would have liked to seen more aggression from Schneider throughout the game. He really wasn't aggressive until the last 4 minutes or so. But they're probably the 1 seed in 1AAA but could have an interesting game with New Prague in the section final (which unfortunately is in Rochester). They'll open the playoffs at home on Wednesday night against Albert Lea or Waseca (if they get the 2 seed) before trips to Rochester.
As to DLS, great defense as mentioned and they were balanced again like last night. Randle leads the way with 13, but only 3 in the 2nd half. Jalen Jaspers with 9 and AJ Barker with 8. They're playing really well right now defensively so don't be shocked if they end up seeing Benilde-St. Margaret's again in the section final. They start that quest in Orono on Tuesday.
Danny Traeger puts STA on the board at 13:40 and its 4-2 DLS. Jalen Jaspers from Jeremy Randle at 11:40 to give DLS a 10-7 lead. Mike Ratelle with a 2 at 10:50 to cut it to 10-9. Jaspers picks up his 2nd foul at 10:02 and goes to the bench at 9:36 for the rest of the half with DLS still leading 10-9. AJ Barker with a tough runner to give DLS a 14-10 lead with 7:35 to go in the half. STA can't make a shot. Fritz Valdvogel gets a steal and hits a 3 @ 6:17 to cut the lead to 1. 1st STA FG in 4:33. Alex Schneider picks up his 2nd foul with 4:56 to go in the half and he'll sit. Jake Szymanski hits a 3 @4:15 to give STA their 1st lead of the night at 16-14. After the teams trade 1 of 2 FTs (Barker and Ratelle), Jeremy Randle hits 3 tough buckets from 2:15 to :54 to give DLS a 21-17 lead. Mike Fitzgerald gets his only points of the half with a tough layup after a backdoor cut with 40 seconds to go in the half. DLS with a 21-19 lead going to halftime. Jeremy Randle with 10 as his late 6 points keep DLS above water with Jaspers out with fouls. Tom Anderson with 5 points to lead STA. Valdvogel (avg 10.9) 3, Fitzgerald (avg 14.9) has 2 and big man Alex Schneider (avg 17.4) goes bagel. Great defense on both sides. Tim Swords is doing a great job on Schneider and Tim O'Keefe is holding down Fitzgerald. Valdvogel is really hounding Randle despite the 10 points.
Schneider doesn't start the 2nd half as Anderson is in for him. Bobby Knight thought process there as a bench player who plays well in the 1st half (Anderson) starts the 2nd half. Jaspers with a bucket to extend the lead to 4 @ 16:30. Anderson responds with a bucket with 15:45 left. Schneider returns to the lineup at the 15:08 mark. Jaspers gets a 3 pt play on the block to give DLS a 26-21 lead with 13:15 to play. Bryce Hawkins rolls back to the ball on an inbounds for his 1 FG of the night and its 28-21 DLS with 12:40 left. After more than 4 minutes without a score, Mike Ratelle gets a bucket after a steal with 11:15 remaining. 28-23 DLS. Anderson gets another score to cut it to 29-25 DLS @ 9:40. AJ Barker with a tough baseline pullup at 7:06 for a 31-25 DLS lead. Ratelle rebounds his own missed 3 and puts it back for a 3 pt play at 6:44 and Schneider gets his only points of the night on a bucket at 5:22. After 2 Bryce Hawkins FTs at 4:55, Ratelle hits a 3 from Schneider at 3:40 to tie it at 33. DLS turns it over on 2 straight possessions and Schneider commits an offensive foul at 2:19 (his 4th). Barker has a 3 ball go in and out from the corner with 2 minutes left. Schneider misses 2 FTs with 1:44 to play. Barker comes back and makes 1 of 2 to give DLS a 34-33 lead with 1:22 to play. Swords is back in for Hawkins for defense on Schneider (great move by Coach Thorson). Schneider does get it off the right block and goes baseline but gets nothing due to good DLS help so he kicks it cross court and then its immediately kicked to Fitzgerald in the left corner. It's not the 1st pass that beats the defense, its the 2nd one. He's got a great look and misses, but Swords runs thru him rushing out to challenge the shot. He make calmly knocks down all 3 FTs to give STA a 36-44 lead with 58.1 to play. Randle hits a jumper in the lane to tie it with 42 seconds to go. STA no timeout comes back and turns it over with 30 seconds to play. DLS back with no timeout. STA looks like they're trying to foul. Really strange as DLS was in the 1 and 1. But no call and Barker takes a FT line J with about 11 seconds left. STA rebounds and away they go. They kick it up the sideline and Ratelle knocks down a left wing 3 with 5.2 to go to give STA the lead. After a DLS timeout, Randle gets the ball at his own foul line and takes to the top of the key and misses a 3 at the buzzer. 39-36 STA wins an exciting defensive struggle.
Mike Ratelle with a big 2nd half. He finishes with 15 points to lead STA. Tom Anderson with 9 points off the bench. The trio of Valdvogel, Fitzgerald, and Schneider got a total of 10 points vs their average of 43.2. Tim Swords did a great job fronting Schneider and O'Keefe did a great job on Fitzgerald with the entire DLS team doing a great job of back side help. I would have liked to seen more aggression from Schneider throughout the game. He really wasn't aggressive until the last 4 minutes or so. But they're probably the 1 seed in 1AAA but could have an interesting game with New Prague in the section final (which unfortunately is in Rochester). They'll open the playoffs at home on Wednesday night against Albert Lea or Waseca (if they get the 2 seed) before trips to Rochester.
As to DLS, great defense as mentioned and they were balanced again like last night. Randle leads the way with 13, but only 3 in the 2nd half. Jalen Jaspers with 9 and AJ Barker with 8. They're playing really well right now defensively so don't be shocked if they end up seeing Benilde-St. Margaret's again in the section final. They start that quest in Orono on Tuesday.
La Crosse Aquinas advances to D3 title game
Since I covered the La Crosse Aquinas vs Eastview game in the East Metro Showcase and the Whitefish Bay Dominican at DeLaSalle games (in addition to 2 other Dominican games at Christmas), I figured it would be worth posting that Aquinas beat Dominican 68-58 this afternoon at the Kohl Center in Madison. A game log of that game can be found here on the WIAA site. They'll play against stud Mike Griffin of Iola-Scandinavia in the D3 (MN AA) title game on Saturday night at 6:35. Good Luck Blugolds!
Also interesting to note that I saw 3 of the 4 state finalist in D1 (MN AAAA) over Christmas. John Benkoske and David Anderson of Oshkosh West vs Jeronne Maymon of Madison Memorial will be fun in the 1st D1 semifinal tomorrow. The main issue will be if West can handle Memorial's pressure D.
Wauwatosa East beat star soph Evan Anderson and Eau Claire North so they'll play Bayport in the other semifinal. Expect Tosa East to roll in to a terrific final vs Madison Memorial. Give me Tosa East in another state tournament classic.
Also interesting to note that I saw 3 of the 4 state finalist in D1 (MN AAAA) over Christmas. John Benkoske and David Anderson of Oshkosh West vs Jeronne Maymon of Madison Memorial will be fun in the 1st D1 semifinal tomorrow. The main issue will be if West can handle Memorial's pressure D.
Wauwatosa East beat star soph Evan Anderson and Eau Claire North so they'll play Bayport in the other semifinal. Expect Tosa East to roll in to a terrific final vs Madison Memorial. Give me Tosa East in another state tournament classic.
St. Agnes at DeLaSalle Observations
A chance to see St. Agnes for the 1st time tonight. They're very young with only 2 seniors in their top 8 and they have some athletes so they can be very good down the road. They have some long athletic kids on the JV squad too.
Soph star Jalen Jaspers has really started to come on lately averaging 14 pts a game over his last 4 games and looks like a go to player. He starts tonight's player references with a post up for 2 to tie it at 4 at 14:10. He hits a bank shot and Jeremy Randle has a steal for a layup to tie it at 10 with 12 minutes to go in the 1st half. Joe Costanzo with a couple inside buckets on the offensive glass during this time for SA. The other stud soph for DLS, Bryce Hawkins shows great hustle to track down a loose ball at half court and take it for a layup to give DLS a 14-10 lead at 10:45 to conclude an 8-0 DLS run. Talented junior Leevon Perry breaks the run with a bucket for St. Agnes. Randle with 2 and then Hawkins has another hustle layup to give DLS a 18-15 lead at 8:05. After a St. Agnes bucket inside of 8 minutes, Hawkins hits a FT line jumper, Jaspers gets a bucket, AJ Barker hits a jumper and DLS leads 24-17 with 5:30 to go in the half. Al Green hits a 3 to try and keep it close for the Aggies, but Hawkins gets 3 pt play down low at 2:26 to make it 30-20 DLS. After 2 Ray Goines FTs for SA, Jaspers goes strong from the corner and Jeremy Randle feeds AJ Barker for a J to end the half. 34-22 DLS leads. Great balance for DLS. Barker and Hawkins with 9, Jaspers with 8, Randle with 6. Perry has 6 to lead St. Agnes. The Al Green 3 is the only SA field goal in the last 7+ minutes of the half and no FGs in the last 5 minutes. DLS finishes the half 16-5 and 10-2 in the last 5 minutes.
Barker hits a 3 to start the half. Hawkins gets a bucket, and Jaspers a 3 pt play on an offensive rebound and the rout is on. 46-26 DLS with 14:17 to go. Green hits another 3 before a Jaspers bucket. Then Hawkins sets a totally moving cross-screen for Randle on an inbounds and rolls back to the ball for a layup at 11:30 and DLS is up 50-29. Jaspers with 2 FTs with 8:54 to go and its 54-31 DLS. Costanzo with a couple more inside buckets before Randle and Barker score to make it 58-35with 6:40 to go. Same score with 5:46 to go when DLS empties their bench. The bench lets SA make the score look respectable as Darry Jones gets all 11 of his points during garbage time, but no danger for the Islanders. DLS wins 62-51.
Besides Darry Jones' 11 irrelevant points, Al Green and Leevon Perry with 10 each for St. Agnes. They're a formidable 3 seed in section 4A and will give CHOF a good game next Thursday night at the SAL. CHOF won the 1st matchup 95-85 at St. Agnes on Dec 11th. Ray Goines with 22 for St. Agnes and Nick Butler with 31 to lead 5 CHOF players in double figures in that 1st matchup.
For DLS, AJ Barker and Jalen Jaspers with 15. Bryce Hawkins with 13 and Jeremy Randle with 10. Great balance and when they have it, they're still very dangerous. In the 2nd half, DLS ran a lot of set plays and a couple of new wrinkles instead of their motion. Hawkins is a bull in a china shop, but when him and Jaspers are on the floor, Hawkins has played outside which really limits him. But Jaspers gets in done down low so its a tough situation. But Jaspers has better perimeter skills so I'd like to see him outside and Hawkins in the post in that 4 out - 1 in scenario. Their 3 v 6 game at Orono on Tuesday should be a good game, especially with the Jeremy Randle layin with 3 seconds left in last year's tournament opener to knock Orono out at DLS still in the memory bank.
Soph star Jalen Jaspers has really started to come on lately averaging 14 pts a game over his last 4 games and looks like a go to player. He starts tonight's player references with a post up for 2 to tie it at 4 at 14:10. He hits a bank shot and Jeremy Randle has a steal for a layup to tie it at 10 with 12 minutes to go in the 1st half. Joe Costanzo with a couple inside buckets on the offensive glass during this time for SA. The other stud soph for DLS, Bryce Hawkins shows great hustle to track down a loose ball at half court and take it for a layup to give DLS a 14-10 lead at 10:45 to conclude an 8-0 DLS run. Talented junior Leevon Perry breaks the run with a bucket for St. Agnes. Randle with 2 and then Hawkins has another hustle layup to give DLS a 18-15 lead at 8:05. After a St. Agnes bucket inside of 8 minutes, Hawkins hits a FT line jumper, Jaspers gets a bucket, AJ Barker hits a jumper and DLS leads 24-17 with 5:30 to go in the half. Al Green hits a 3 to try and keep it close for the Aggies, but Hawkins gets 3 pt play down low at 2:26 to make it 30-20 DLS. After 2 Ray Goines FTs for SA, Jaspers goes strong from the corner and Jeremy Randle feeds AJ Barker for a J to end the half. 34-22 DLS leads. Great balance for DLS. Barker and Hawkins with 9, Jaspers with 8, Randle with 6. Perry has 6 to lead St. Agnes. The Al Green 3 is the only SA field goal in the last 7+ minutes of the half and no FGs in the last 5 minutes. DLS finishes the half 16-5 and 10-2 in the last 5 minutes.
Barker hits a 3 to start the half. Hawkins gets a bucket, and Jaspers a 3 pt play on an offensive rebound and the rout is on. 46-26 DLS with 14:17 to go. Green hits another 3 before a Jaspers bucket. Then Hawkins sets a totally moving cross-screen for Randle on an inbounds and rolls back to the ball for a layup at 11:30 and DLS is up 50-29. Jaspers with 2 FTs with 8:54 to go and its 54-31 DLS. Costanzo with a couple more inside buckets before Randle and Barker score to make it 58-35with 6:40 to go. Same score with 5:46 to go when DLS empties their bench. The bench lets SA make the score look respectable as Darry Jones gets all 11 of his points during garbage time, but no danger for the Islanders. DLS wins 62-51.
Besides Darry Jones' 11 irrelevant points, Al Green and Leevon Perry with 10 each for St. Agnes. They're a formidable 3 seed in section 4A and will give CHOF a good game next Thursday night at the SAL. CHOF won the 1st matchup 95-85 at St. Agnes on Dec 11th. Ray Goines with 22 for St. Agnes and Nick Butler with 31 to lead 5 CHOF players in double figures in that 1st matchup.
For DLS, AJ Barker and Jalen Jaspers with 15. Bryce Hawkins with 13 and Jeremy Randle with 10. Great balance and when they have it, they're still very dangerous. In the 2nd half, DLS ran a lot of set plays and a couple of new wrinkles instead of their motion. Hawkins is a bull in a china shop, but when him and Jaspers are on the floor, Hawkins has played outside which really limits him. But Jaspers gets in done down low so its a tough situation. But Jaspers has better perimeter skills so I'd like to see him outside and Hawkins in the post in that 4 out - 1 in scenario. Their 3 v 6 game at Orono on Tuesday should be a good game, especially with the Jeremy Randle layin with 3 seconds left in last year's tournament opener to knock Orono out at DLS still in the memory bank.
Week 15 Scoreboard Club (Mid-Week)
So with all the games we're a day late (and more than a dollar short) on this week's edition of the Scoreboard Club, so we'll do Monday - Wednesday games in this edition. My least favorite writer (Charley Walters) is reporting that Seantrel Henderson of Cretin-Derham Hall will end up at Totino-Grace. Surprising move but a great one for TG on the football field and on the basketball court. CDH will lose John Nance, Mike Floyd and Henderson next year. But with Peter White and possibly Elliot Owoso (apologies for the hacked spelling) up on varsity next year, the cupboard isn't bare there. With Jonathan Crockett and Henderson, the TG program shapes up nicely in next year's North Suburban, especially if Rodney Williams is gone.
Games from this week
Games from this week
- Tonka blows out Hopkins at Hopkins in a surprise. Anthony Tucker gets it done with 35. Hopkins needs a win at Armstrong tomorrow to share the Classic Lake title.
- Sibley beats Simley to clinch the Classic Suburban outright. Sibley can push 4AAAA rival Tartan to 3rd place with a win in their building tomorrow night. Hill-Murray finished the non-conference portion of their schedule 0-10, but I'll take them to win at Arlington next Tuesday.
- Eden Prairie clinches the Lake outright with a close win at Burnsville. Kennedy and Eastview both get wins to cause a 3 way tie for 2nd. No one else will finish above 500 in the league.
- Henry mounts another comeback against Roosevelt and gets a win this time. A win tonight against a revamped South team will give them the Mpls City title via 2 head-head wins over Washburn. South won the 1st game though so you never know. Washburn needs a win over Roosevelt tonight to keep their title chances alive. If Washburn makes the Twin Cities game it would be the 1st time since 1994 that North or Henry would not be in the game.
- New Prague beats Farmington to stay tied for 2nd in the Missota. Prior Lake can clinch outright with a win tonight in Red Wing.
- MCAA non-conference games included MCA winning at PACT in a possible Section 4A West Subsection final preview. St. Agnes by 4 over SW Christian in another good game. New Life Academy at PACT in a good cross-over game in section 4A tonight in addition to Edison at Heritage.
- Benilde-St. Margaret's clinched the North Suburban with a win over rival St. Louis Park. Columbia Heights beat Irondale in 2OT to knock the Knights down to 4th place. The Islanders can finish the regular season at 500 with a win over Meadow Creek tomorrow. Their 4 v 5 game with St. Anthony on Tuesday will be one of the better 4 v 5 games around.
- Blaine gets a big win at Maple Grove. They've now won 7 0f 9 with the 2 losses being to Champlin Park and Osseo. They're still my pick in section 7AAAA.
- Central beats Humboldt to return to the Twin Cities game on Saturday. They last played in the game in 2005. Another great 4 vs 5 matchup as they travel to Tartan on Tuesday in tough section 4AAAA play. This may be the best 4 vs 5 matchup.
- Cretin-Derham Hall gets a share of the Suburban East crown with a win at Park (27 for John Nance). Stillwater can share with a win tomorrow over Roseville.
- St. Bernard's with a big win over DeLaSalle to clinch the East division of the Tri-Metro. DLS can clinch the West with a win over St. Agnes tonight. I'll be covering that game.
- In Non-Conference play, Bethlehem Academy gets a good win at Holy Family which keeps them in the A poll instead of CHOF. With wins over #8 Park Christian and #9 Bethlehem and beating a PACT team that beat #10 Spring Grove and a win over Mayer Lutheran (tough one at Concordia tonight), they deserve to be there. I previously questioned Spectrum's QRF, they went on the road and got blown out by a bad Providence team
Duluth East at Park Center Observations
1st look tonight at Dyami Starks, super soph for Duluth East as I make the trip to Park Center for the game. East came in 10-14 and off a 2 pt win over Cloquet with their super soph Chad Calcaterra. Which forces me to mention that the 3rd big soph on that list, Kevin Noreen was in the building tonight with Kyle and their Dad. Kevin sporting a splint or major tape job (or both?) on his right ring finger (shooting hand). Hopefully that's a non-factor for the playoffs. Unfortunately we have a less than all-star officiating crew, including the main culprit of questionable calls at the North/DeLaSalle game last Saturday.
Duluth East starts 3 sophs, 1 Jr and a Senior. They're young and have some athletes, but a Freshman is their best post player. Starks reminds me of a cross between Kwamain Mitchell of Whitefish Bay Dominican and Jordan Hughes (4th super soph from Henry). Starks hits a 3 to make it 5-4 East at 13:30 and another one at 12:15 to make it 9-8 PC. Starks misses a bunny and Mark Cooper takes it the other way for PC to give them a 13-8 lead. Starks hits another 3 before going to the bench for a 3 minute rest. PC is up 21-20 when he returns inside of 5 minutes. Frosh Ian Nelson with 5 of the 7 Greyhound points while Starks was out. Starks comes back with a deep 3 inside 4 minutes to give East a 23-21 lead and then a layup off a blocked shot for a 25-21 lead. East gets 2 more 3s in the half from Dorian Cross and Keaton Hasan (only senior) and its 31-25 East at halftime. Starks with 16 points and 5 Rebs, 5-11 FGs, 4 3s but no assists. Cooper leads PC with 7 at the break. PC tried face guarding Starks once he gave the ball up so he wouldn't get it back, no avail. Starks just too quick and was able to go both ways. East just getting hammered on the offensive glass.
Starks hits a jumper right out of halftime and then Hasan knocks down 2 3s to end a 8-2 East run that makes it 39-27 with 15:43 to go. But Cooper gets 7 in a row to force a timeout and its 39-34 with 14:45 to go. Voltaire Nalls gets a steal and layin (he had the task of guarding Starks much of the night) to cut it to 3. After another East timeout, PC goes to their dribble motion spread and Nalls puts on a sick Allen Iverson right to left ankle breaker crossover on the left wing for a layup to give PC the lead 42-41 with 12 minutes left. Rhys Morris hits 2 more FTs in the run and Bryce Wagner does a nice job slipping a screen to get a bunny and Nalls hits a FT after another East turnover. 47-41 PC with 10:16 left, 20-2 run for PC over 5:27. Dorian Cross finally breaks the run with a 3 at 9:15. Nalls with another layup, Cooper gets a layup after 2 Starks FTs, Christian Taber in the act with a layup on a runout and its 55-46 PC with 7:10 to play. Taber with another layup at 5:55 before another Cross 3 makes it 57-51 PC with 5:30 to play. Starks misses a 3 at 4:30 and is 0-8 so far in the half. He finally gets a layin with 3:30 left and then a tough pull up 3 with 2:50 left and its 59-57 PC. Cooper gets a layup and then inbounds the ball off of Starks back and takes it full court which leads to a Michael Carey layin with 2:30 to go 63-57 PC. Starks makes 1 of 2 FTs, a Ermias Assefa layin for PC and then another tough pull up 3 for Starks makes it 65-61 PC with 1:18 to go. But Starks misses a 3 on the next East possession and PC runs out the clock (East waited to foul and then couldn't foul) to win 66-61.
Park Center led by Mark Cooper with 20. Voltaire Nalls with 14. My scoresheet got out of whack for them, so give or take a couple. They're probably looking at the 6 seed and a matchup with Cooper in round 1 of 5AAAA. Fun neighborhood rivalry kind of game and 1 that should be played every year to open the season just like the girls do. I wish they'd run more of their dribble motion. They get good movement, good spacing and good looks from it.
Duluth East falls to 10-15 with the loss and they have the bottom QRF (coming in to game) of any of the teams in 7AAAA. I said earlier in the year that their defense was a major problem and in the 2nd half alone I count 9 layups against them. And the good teams they've played have picked them apart, the worst example being the 105 that St. Thomas Academy put up on them in December. Not to mention the 84 that offensively challenged Forest Lake put up on them less than 3 weeks ago. The Greyhounds have to play them again in the 1 vs 8 game next Tuesday. Dyami Starks finishes with 29 (averaging 30) including 7 3s, but 9-23 FGs (4-12 2nd half). He has a green light but beyond Keaton Hasan (13 pts) they really don't have another scorer. Freshman Ian Nelson had 5, but those were all with Starks on the bench in the 1st half. But they have only 1 senior on the roster with a truckload of sophomores. With their history and 2 years of continued improvement from Starks, don't be surprised if they're very good 2 seasons from now.
Duluth East starts 3 sophs, 1 Jr and a Senior. They're young and have some athletes, but a Freshman is their best post player. Starks reminds me of a cross between Kwamain Mitchell of Whitefish Bay Dominican and Jordan Hughes (4th super soph from Henry). Starks hits a 3 to make it 5-4 East at 13:30 and another one at 12:15 to make it 9-8 PC. Starks misses a bunny and Mark Cooper takes it the other way for PC to give them a 13-8 lead. Starks hits another 3 before going to the bench for a 3 minute rest. PC is up 21-20 when he returns inside of 5 minutes. Frosh Ian Nelson with 5 of the 7 Greyhound points while Starks was out. Starks comes back with a deep 3 inside 4 minutes to give East a 23-21 lead and then a layup off a blocked shot for a 25-21 lead. East gets 2 more 3s in the half from Dorian Cross and Keaton Hasan (only senior) and its 31-25 East at halftime. Starks with 16 points and 5 Rebs, 5-11 FGs, 4 3s but no assists. Cooper leads PC with 7 at the break. PC tried face guarding Starks once he gave the ball up so he wouldn't get it back, no avail. Starks just too quick and was able to go both ways. East just getting hammered on the offensive glass.
Starks hits a jumper right out of halftime and then Hasan knocks down 2 3s to end a 8-2 East run that makes it 39-27 with 15:43 to go. But Cooper gets 7 in a row to force a timeout and its 39-34 with 14:45 to go. Voltaire Nalls gets a steal and layin (he had the task of guarding Starks much of the night) to cut it to 3. After another East timeout, PC goes to their dribble motion spread and Nalls puts on a sick Allen Iverson right to left ankle breaker crossover on the left wing for a layup to give PC the lead 42-41 with 12 minutes left. Rhys Morris hits 2 more FTs in the run and Bryce Wagner does a nice job slipping a screen to get a bunny and Nalls hits a FT after another East turnover. 47-41 PC with 10:16 left, 20-2 run for PC over 5:27. Dorian Cross finally breaks the run with a 3 at 9:15. Nalls with another layup, Cooper gets a layup after 2 Starks FTs, Christian Taber in the act with a layup on a runout and its 55-46 PC with 7:10 to play. Taber with another layup at 5:55 before another Cross 3 makes it 57-51 PC with 5:30 to play. Starks misses a 3 at 4:30 and is 0-8 so far in the half. He finally gets a layin with 3:30 left and then a tough pull up 3 with 2:50 left and its 59-57 PC. Cooper gets a layup and then inbounds the ball off of Starks back and takes it full court which leads to a Michael Carey layin with 2:30 to go 63-57 PC. Starks makes 1 of 2 FTs, a Ermias Assefa layin for PC and then another tough pull up 3 for Starks makes it 65-61 PC with 1:18 to go. But Starks misses a 3 on the next East possession and PC runs out the clock (East waited to foul and then couldn't foul) to win 66-61.
Park Center led by Mark Cooper with 20. Voltaire Nalls with 14. My scoresheet got out of whack for them, so give or take a couple. They're probably looking at the 6 seed and a matchup with Cooper in round 1 of 5AAAA. Fun neighborhood rivalry kind of game and 1 that should be played every year to open the season just like the girls do. I wish they'd run more of their dribble motion. They get good movement, good spacing and good looks from it.
Duluth East falls to 10-15 with the loss and they have the bottom QRF (coming in to game) of any of the teams in 7AAAA. I said earlier in the year that their defense was a major problem and in the 2nd half alone I count 9 layups against them. And the good teams they've played have picked them apart, the worst example being the 105 that St. Thomas Academy put up on them in December. Not to mention the 84 that offensively challenged Forest Lake put up on them less than 3 weeks ago. The Greyhounds have to play them again in the 1 vs 8 game next Tuesday. Dyami Starks finishes with 29 (averaging 30) including 7 3s, but 9-23 FGs (4-12 2nd half). He has a green light but beyond Keaton Hasan (13 pts) they really don't have another scorer. Freshman Ian Nelson had 5, but those were all with Starks on the bench in the 1st half. But they have only 1 senior on the roster with a truckload of sophomores. With their history and 2 years of continued improvement from Starks, don't be surprised if they're very good 2 seasons from now.
My thoughts on Royce White's dismissal from DeLaSalle
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Royce White
John Millea reported on the Star Trib preps blog that Royce White has indeed been dismissed from DeLaSalle. Considering the suspension at the beginning of the year and what appeared to be significant tension between him and the program, I think this is a blessing in the big scheme of things. But only if he learns from the mistakes. This may be that rock bottom moment that causes a positive change. It'll be interesting to see if his MN HS career is indeed done because of the transfer rules. Do him and Rodney Williams Jr end up together at a prep school? It'll also be interesting to see what (if anything) comes of his AAU time this spring and summer. How much will potential character issues cause his recruiting stock to slip? Hard to tell, but there are plenty of people who would be happy with that talent. It would be a shame to see him not realize his vast potential so I hope it all works out for him in the end.
As to DeLaSalle, they can move on and not have it as a distraction which is a good thing. The cupboard is hardly empty there. Sophs Jalen Jaspers and Bryce Hawkins and Jr AJ Barker all return next year with the usual up and comers so they'll still be a good team. Tough games in the immediate future vs St. Thomas Academy on Friday and at Orono in the 3 vs 6 game next Tuesday.
As to DeLaSalle, they can move on and not have it as a distraction which is a good thing. The cupboard is hardly empty there. Sophs Jalen Jaspers and Bryce Hawkins and Jr AJ Barker all return next year with the usual up and comers so they'll still be a good team. Tough games in the immediate future vs St. Thomas Academy on Friday and at Orono in the 3 vs 6 game next Tuesday.
St. Croix Lutheran at Breck Observations
Gotta love late afternoon meetings. I wanted to do the DLS at St. Bernard's game but considering I'll see DLS later in the week and saw them last Saturday, its probably better this way. A chance to see Chris Breuer (son of Randy Breuer) play again. Good student section for this game too from SCL.
Dakota Tidd gets our first mention of the night as he schools Breuer in the post to make it 6 all with 15 minutes to go in the 1st half. He gets a 3 pt play at 13:03 to make it 13-10 Breck and has 9 quick pts. Breuer and Blake Johnson trade buckets to make it 15-14 Breck with 11:31 left in the half. A Thomas Smolenski 3 makes it 18-14 Breck at 10:25 but Breuer gets 6 of the next 8 points in an 8-0 SCL run and its 22-18 SCL with 8:40 left in the half. Smolenski with 4 straight Breck points and we're tied at 24 with 6:44 to go in the half. Breuer continues to be en fuego as he gets 2 at 5:35 to make it 28-25 SCL, an offensive rebound for 2 at 3:45 to give SCL a 32-27 lead. He gets another deuce and caps off his half with a triple to make it 38-31 SCL with 1:20 left in the half. Tidd countered the last 2 by Breuer and now he counters again, this time with a 3 pt play, but Aaron Hulsebus knocks down a 3 right before the break and SCL goes to halftime up 41-34. Breuer with 19, Hulsebus with 12. Tidd with15 and Smolenski with 7. SCL is on fire making just about everything. Breuer is getting it done on the block, with the 3 and inbetween. Tidd unstoppable when he got interior touches and wanted to score.
Breck comes out on a 13-2 run to start the half as SCL has a couple of sloppy turnovers and a big Tidd block leads to a Alex McDonald layin. Breuer with the only 2 SCL points during the run and he breaks the run with another bucket to make it 47-45 Breck with 12 minutes left. Out of a timeout before the end of the run, SCL went 2-3 zone and Smolenski had a couple of good looks at 3s that didn't go in that would have really broken it open. But Smolenski does hit 2 FTs at 9:05 to give Breck a 54-49 lead. Leighton Spaulding gets a tough reverse layup on a backdoor cut and then 2 more off of a Tidd turnover and its 54-53 at 8:11. Alex McDonald down the lane for 2, Matt Vargas with a bucket and then 2 more on a SCL turnover and Breck is up 60-53 with 6:15 remaining. Breuer again breaks a Breck run and Hulsebus gets a 3 and its 60-58 Breck with 5 to play. Vargas hits 2 FTs before another Hulsebus 3. Alex McDonald with 2 FTs. Gabe Greseth on a nice give and go as Breuer hits him for the score from the post. Michael Roeller gets a putback for SCL and they lead 65-64 with 3:15 left. Vargas hits a 10 footer at 2:33 to put Breck back on top. Hulsebus goes to the block and gets a post up for 2 at 2:07. SCL then runs a lob for Breuer which he lays in for a 69-66 lead with 1:45 to play. Breck misses and Hulsebus gets the rebound but he gets a T for throwing an elbow (questionable in addition to 2 forearm push off calls on the dribble that were also questionable so a rough night for him with the zebras) and that his 5th foul so he's done with 1:24 to go. Smolenski makes the 2 technicals and Tidd gets the ball in the post to draw a foul and make 1 of 2 FTs. We're tied at 69 with 1:09 left. Greseth gets fouled and makes 2 clutch FTs at 43.9 (71-69 SCL). McDonald misses and Breuer rebounds. Breuer then finds Spaulding for a layup with 12 seconds to go and that's your ballgame. 73-69 St. Croix Lutheran wins.
Dakota Tidd with 19, but only 4 in the 2nd half. Thomas Smolenski with 13 for Breck in a balanced attack. They host Trinity in 4AA West play next Tuesday and then a probably revenge game with Edison in the 2nd round (3/13) before a shot at Holy Family in the subsection final on 3/15. Regular season finale is Friday at Mounds Park Academy. They definitely aren't the same team without John Gray on the bench.
Chris Breuer leads the Crusaders with 27, very left handed, but he was very effective scoring and on the glass. Aaron Hulsebus is one of the better guards people don't know about (14 PPG). They lose just 2 seniors so they'll be good next year. They'll be the 5 seed in 4AA East and their road game will be very interesting either at Minnehaha (3 pt loss at SCL w/o Taylor Sparkman for Minnehaha) or Roosevelt.
Dakota Tidd gets our first mention of the night as he schools Breuer in the post to make it 6 all with 15 minutes to go in the 1st half. He gets a 3 pt play at 13:03 to make it 13-10 Breck and has 9 quick pts. Breuer and Blake Johnson trade buckets to make it 15-14 Breck with 11:31 left in the half. A Thomas Smolenski 3 makes it 18-14 Breck at 10:25 but Breuer gets 6 of the next 8 points in an 8-0 SCL run and its 22-18 SCL with 8:40 left in the half. Smolenski with 4 straight Breck points and we're tied at 24 with 6:44 to go in the half. Breuer continues to be en fuego as he gets 2 at 5:35 to make it 28-25 SCL, an offensive rebound for 2 at 3:45 to give SCL a 32-27 lead. He gets another deuce and caps off his half with a triple to make it 38-31 SCL with 1:20 left in the half. Tidd countered the last 2 by Breuer and now he counters again, this time with a 3 pt play, but Aaron Hulsebus knocks down a 3 right before the break and SCL goes to halftime up 41-34. Breuer with 19, Hulsebus with 12. Tidd with15 and Smolenski with 7. SCL is on fire making just about everything. Breuer is getting it done on the block, with the 3 and inbetween. Tidd unstoppable when he got interior touches and wanted to score.
Breck comes out on a 13-2 run to start the half as SCL has a couple of sloppy turnovers and a big Tidd block leads to a Alex McDonald layin. Breuer with the only 2 SCL points during the run and he breaks the run with another bucket to make it 47-45 Breck with 12 minutes left. Out of a timeout before the end of the run, SCL went 2-3 zone and Smolenski had a couple of good looks at 3s that didn't go in that would have really broken it open. But Smolenski does hit 2 FTs at 9:05 to give Breck a 54-49 lead. Leighton Spaulding gets a tough reverse layup on a backdoor cut and then 2 more off of a Tidd turnover and its 54-53 at 8:11. Alex McDonald down the lane for 2, Matt Vargas with a bucket and then 2 more on a SCL turnover and Breck is up 60-53 with 6:15 remaining. Breuer again breaks a Breck run and Hulsebus gets a 3 and its 60-58 Breck with 5 to play. Vargas hits 2 FTs before another Hulsebus 3. Alex McDonald with 2 FTs. Gabe Greseth on a nice give and go as Breuer hits him for the score from the post. Michael Roeller gets a putback for SCL and they lead 65-64 with 3:15 left. Vargas hits a 10 footer at 2:33 to put Breck back on top. Hulsebus goes to the block and gets a post up for 2 at 2:07. SCL then runs a lob for Breuer which he lays in for a 69-66 lead with 1:45 to play. Breck misses and Hulsebus gets the rebound but he gets a T for throwing an elbow (questionable in addition to 2 forearm push off calls on the dribble that were also questionable so a rough night for him with the zebras) and that his 5th foul so he's done with 1:24 to go. Smolenski makes the 2 technicals and Tidd gets the ball in the post to draw a foul and make 1 of 2 FTs. We're tied at 69 with 1:09 left. Greseth gets fouled and makes 2 clutch FTs at 43.9 (71-69 SCL). McDonald misses and Breuer rebounds. Breuer then finds Spaulding for a layup with 12 seconds to go and that's your ballgame. 73-69 St. Croix Lutheran wins.
Dakota Tidd with 19, but only 4 in the 2nd half. Thomas Smolenski with 13 for Breck in a balanced attack. They host Trinity in 4AA West play next Tuesday and then a probably revenge game with Edison in the 2nd round (3/13) before a shot at Holy Family in the subsection final on 3/15. Regular season finale is Friday at Mounds Park Academy. They definitely aren't the same team without John Gray on the bench.
Chris Breuer leads the Crusaders with 27, very left handed, but he was very effective scoring and on the glass. Aaron Hulsebus is one of the better guards people don't know about (14 PPG). They lose just 2 seniors so they'll be good next year. They'll be the 5 seed in 4AA East and their road game will be very interesting either at Minnehaha (3 pt loss at SCL w/o Taylor Sparkman for Minnehaha) or Roosevelt.
Chisago Lakes at Fridley Observations
So I took the opportunity to see Jr Josh Figini of Chisago Lakes play tonight. Coming into tonight's game at Fridley he was averaging 22 pts and 11 rbs. Fridley won the 1st matchup on Jan 24th 70-67 in Overtime. Jr Isaiah Thomas for Fridley came in averaging 14.4 pts a game to lead Fridley so a fun matchup of Juniors. Figini with 27 and 12, Thomas with 21 to lead their teams in the 1st meeting. Fun pregame music with Van Halen's Right Now and Jump along with the Boss Born in the USA and Sweet Georgia Brown (but no Harlem Globetrotters, boo hoo)
A Figini 3 for his 1st field goal makes it 10-4 Wildcats @ 11:30 of the 1st half. Figini on an isolation gets 2 more and its 17-10 Wildcats with 8:20 left in the half. Fridley comes back with the next 9 points with Thomas getting 5 of the last 7 in the run. That run gives Fridley a 19-17 inside of 5 minutes. The teams trade points until the end of the half and they go to the break tied at 24. Figini with 9 pts on 3 of 5 shooting, 1 rebound. Thomas and start football QB Blake Cook each lead Fridley with 5. 7 3s between the teams in the half.
Figini gets a bucket and is fouled to start the half, but misses the FT so CL has a 26-24 lead. Thomas hits 2 3s in the middle of a 12-1 run to give Fridley a 36-27 lead outside of 14 minutes left. Figini gets a 3 point play to pull the Wildcats within 36-33 with 11:40 to go (6-0 Wildcat run). After the officials didn't give Chisago Lakes their 1 and 1 FTs on an off ball foul, Figini gets fouled in the act of shooting. The officials correct the error on the foul and give Chisago Lakes 4 FTs (Figini's 2 but the missed 1 and 1 1st with no one on the line) and they make all of them to pull to 40-39 with 8:44 to go. Thomas is sitting during this last 3 minute stretch but he comes back in and gets a 3 pt play to make it 46-39 Fridley with 6 minutes left. After a Evan Tienken layup pulls Chisago Lakes within 46-43 with 5 minutes left, Thomas hits Xavier Hussein on a nice cut for a layup to start a 9-2 Tiger run culimated by 2 Hussein FTs which make it 55-45 with 3:07 to go and that seals it. Fridley makes their FTs and doesn't turn the ball over the rest of the way and they win 63-56.
Isaiah Thomas with a real nice game for Fridley as he leads the way with 21 points, 16 in the 2nd half. He reminds me a bit of Joe Krabbenhoft, but not as big. He had the task for much of the night of not only scoring but also checking Figini. Fridley probably looking at the #3 seed in 3AAA, but with a win at home over Spring Lake Park on Friday they'd have a case for the #2 seed if the seeding meeting hasn't happened at that point.
Josh Figini finishes with 23 points. He played more outside than I expected. He hit a couple of 3s in the game and showed the ability to handle the ball some. He spent a lot of time away from the basket which hurt his rebound total. His shot release is a little different, but it works for him. They lose a whole bunch of seniors around him so next season doesn't look much better than this one. They're also in 3A and will likely be the 6 or 7 seed. Totino-Grace/Chisago Lakes is a real coin flip for that . But I'll give a slight edge to TG because they'll probably finish 1 game ahead in the North Suburban standings. That 7 seed would likely mean a trip to Spring Lake Park where they won the last time they were there. TG would then play Fridley in a neighborhood rivalry game in the 3 v 6 and these teams split their 2 matchups. Not to mention a 4 v 5 St. Anthony at Columbia Heights matchup (a 2 pt game earlier in the year). 3 really compelling games that could go either way. Very wide open section as 2 thru 7 are very even and Henry at 1 isn't invincible as shown by a 1 pt win at TG in their opener.
A Figini 3 for his 1st field goal makes it 10-4 Wildcats @ 11:30 of the 1st half. Figini on an isolation gets 2 more and its 17-10 Wildcats with 8:20 left in the half. Fridley comes back with the next 9 points with Thomas getting 5 of the last 7 in the run. That run gives Fridley a 19-17 inside of 5 minutes. The teams trade points until the end of the half and they go to the break tied at 24. Figini with 9 pts on 3 of 5 shooting, 1 rebound. Thomas and start football QB Blake Cook each lead Fridley with 5. 7 3s between the teams in the half.
Figini gets a bucket and is fouled to start the half, but misses the FT so CL has a 26-24 lead. Thomas hits 2 3s in the middle of a 12-1 run to give Fridley a 36-27 lead outside of 14 minutes left. Figini gets a 3 point play to pull the Wildcats within 36-33 with 11:40 to go (6-0 Wildcat run). After the officials didn't give Chisago Lakes their 1 and 1 FTs on an off ball foul, Figini gets fouled in the act of shooting. The officials correct the error on the foul and give Chisago Lakes 4 FTs (Figini's 2 but the missed 1 and 1 1st with no one on the line) and they make all of them to pull to 40-39 with 8:44 to go. Thomas is sitting during this last 3 minute stretch but he comes back in and gets a 3 pt play to make it 46-39 Fridley with 6 minutes left. After a Evan Tienken layup pulls Chisago Lakes within 46-43 with 5 minutes left, Thomas hits Xavier Hussein on a nice cut for a layup to start a 9-2 Tiger run culimated by 2 Hussein FTs which make it 55-45 with 3:07 to go and that seals it. Fridley makes their FTs and doesn't turn the ball over the rest of the way and they win 63-56.
Isaiah Thomas with a real nice game for Fridley as he leads the way with 21 points, 16 in the 2nd half. He reminds me a bit of Joe Krabbenhoft, but not as big. He had the task for much of the night of not only scoring but also checking Figini. Fridley probably looking at the #3 seed in 3AAA, but with a win at home over Spring Lake Park on Friday they'd have a case for the #2 seed if the seeding meeting hasn't happened at that point.
Josh Figini finishes with 23 points. He played more outside than I expected. He hit a couple of 3s in the game and showed the ability to handle the ball some. He spent a lot of time away from the basket which hurt his rebound total. His shot release is a little different, but it works for him. They lose a whole bunch of seniors around him so next season doesn't look much better than this one. They're also in 3A and will likely be the 6 or 7 seed. Totino-Grace/Chisago Lakes is a real coin flip for that . But I'll give a slight edge to TG because they'll probably finish 1 game ahead in the North Suburban standings. That 7 seed would likely mean a trip to Spring Lake Park where they won the last time they were there. TG would then play Fridley in a neighborhood rivalry game in the 3 v 6 and these teams split their 2 matchups. Not to mention a 4 v 5 St. Anthony at Columbia Heights matchup (a 2 pt game earlier in the year). 3 really compelling games that could go either way. Very wide open section as 2 thru 7 are very even and Henry at 1 isn't invincible as shown by a 1 pt win at TG in their opener.
Week 14 Observations and Week 15 Schedule
A sad week around the metro this week. Carrington Tankson of Osseo out with a collapsed lung and a death in the family. Adam Thielen of Monticello collapsed on court in a game vs Rogers on Friday night due to cardiac arrest. We wish them all the best. Not to mention the news of Royce White being out for reasons that no one wants to discuss and Ryan James reporting that Rodney Williams Jr will most likely not be at Cooper next year.
Scores around the metro from the end of the week.
Monday: The obvious Minnetonka at Hopkins. The others worth watching. MCA at PACT in a good section 4A west game. SW Christian at St. Agnes in another good section 4A game. Roosevelt at Henry to keep Roosevelt in the Mpls City race. Elk River at Osseo and Blaine and Maple Grove in interesting NW Suburban games. I will likely be at the Chisago Lakes at Fridley game to see Josh Figini for the 1st time.
Tuesday: DeLaSalle at St. Bernard's in a light schedule.
Wednesday: Duluth East at Park Center, my 1st chance to see super soph Dyami Starks of the Greyhounds play. St. Paul City play and Armstrong at Wayzata in the Classic Lake.
Thursday: Mayer Lutheran at Concordia (5 PM) is a really fun 2A game. Washburn at Roosevelt (4:30) could still have a say in the Mpls City race. I'll be at the MCA at BC game (5:00) and maybe the St. Agnes at DLS game at 7.
Friday: Closing night of the regular season. St. Thomas Academy at DeLaSalle is the premier game on the docket.
Saturday: Twin Cities game at Arlington and the 6AAAA girls final at the Gangelhoff Center (Concordia-SP).
YTD Stats
119 games (91 MN split 75 boys and 16 girls, 28 WI split 24 boys and 4 girls)
46 buildings
144 teams (112 boys and 32 girls, 101 MN teams split 78 boys and 23 girls, 37 Wisconsin split 29 boys and 8 girls, 6 outstate split 5 boys and 1 girls)
2 Genders
Current Poll Stats
4A: 8 (Missing Rochester Mayo and St. Cloud Tech)
3A: 6 (BSM, STMA, Johnson, Princeton, Rocori, Como Park)
2A: 2 (St. Bernard's and Concordia)
1A: 3 (MCA, Cass Lake-Bena and Bethlehem Academy)
Scores around the metro from the end of the week.
- Minnetonka and Hopkins both roll as they have showdown #2 tomorrow night at the Lindbergh Center.
- Richfield goes to Tartan and likely spoils their chances for an end of season conference title showdown. Marc Sonnen with 28 in the loss. Considering that the 1st game was a 1 point game, not all that surprising. Sibley can clinch the title outright with a home win over Simley tomorrow.
- Kennedy loses at cellar dweller Chaska and Jefferson hands Eastview another close loss without Ethan Thomforde. Their 1st matchup was a close one too. Eden Prairie clinches at least a tie for the Lake title with a blowout of Lakeville S. Ethan Wragge with 21 in the win for the Eagles. They can clinch outright with a win at Burnsville on Monday. With all the turmoil, Burnsville finds themselves alone in 2nd, Eastview and Kennedy tied for 3rd.
- Prior Lake defeats Farmington to clinch at least a tie in the Missota. They can clinch outright with a win at Red Wing on Thursday.
- BSM hammers Cooper to clinch a tie for the league title. A win at cross-town rival St. Louis Park tomorrow would clinch outright. With Carrington Tankson's injury section 5AAAA, Mounds View and Cooper increase their chances of getting to state. Spring Lake Park and Irondale both win to stay ahead of St. Louis Park in the race for 3rd.
- Champlin Park loses to Elk River, but Osseo beats Maple Grove to keep the Rebels in 2nd. Elk River, Blaine and MG all tied for 3rd 1 game behind CP. After a nice start, Coon Rapids loses to Centennial for a losing stretch of 8 out of 10 before a non-conf win over St. Francis on Saturday.
- Johnson blows out Highland Park to clinch a share of the St. Paul City title. Central can still share it with a win over Humboldt on Wednesday thanks to another blow out Como Park on Thursday. I'm baffled as to why Como Park is ranked in the state polls.
- Stillwater wins at Mounds View on Friday to keep pace in the Suburban East with Cretin-Derham Hall. CDH has to go to Park to end their season on Wednesday. Park pulled the upset of Forest Lake at Forest Lake. Major surprise there considering how well FL was playing, but giving up 25 to Jake Lindstrom will do that.
- St. Bernard's clinches at least a tie for the Tri-Metro East with a blowout of St. Paul Academy. DeLaSalle's blowout of Mounds Park gives them at least a tie for the West. How fitting that these 2 league leaders play Tuesday at St. Bernard's.
- Brittany Chambers of Jordan puts up 37 on Edison on Saturday night. The Jaguars move on to Subsection final play at Mounds Park on Thursday night. She had a triple double in last year's section final vs Minnehaha and totally dominated that game. So if Thursday's boys schedule doesn't appeal, that's a good option.
- And finally, congrats to La Crosse Aquinas on a trip to state. They blewout Pardeeville and a very good Cuba City team to move on to play Whitefish Bay Domincan on Thursday morning at the Kohl Center in the state semifinals. That game will be fun and should be the defacto D3 state title game.
Monday: The obvious Minnetonka at Hopkins. The others worth watching. MCA at PACT in a good section 4A west game. SW Christian at St. Agnes in another good section 4A game. Roosevelt at Henry to keep Roosevelt in the Mpls City race. Elk River at Osseo and Blaine and Maple Grove in interesting NW Suburban games. I will likely be at the Chisago Lakes at Fridley game to see Josh Figini for the 1st time.
Tuesday: DeLaSalle at St. Bernard's in a light schedule.
Wednesday: Duluth East at Park Center, my 1st chance to see super soph Dyami Starks of the Greyhounds play. St. Paul City play and Armstrong at Wayzata in the Classic Lake.
Thursday: Mayer Lutheran at Concordia (5 PM) is a really fun 2A game. Washburn at Roosevelt (4:30) could still have a say in the Mpls City race. I'll be at the MCA at BC game (5:00) and maybe the St. Agnes at DLS game at 7.
Friday: Closing night of the regular season. St. Thomas Academy at DeLaSalle is the premier game on the docket.
Saturday: Twin Cities game at Arlington and the 6AAAA girls final at the Gangelhoff Center (Concordia-SP).
YTD Stats
119 games (91 MN split 75 boys and 16 girls, 28 WI split 24 boys and 4 girls)
46 buildings
144 teams (112 boys and 32 girls, 101 MN teams split 78 boys and 23 girls, 37 Wisconsin split 29 boys and 8 girls, 6 outstate split 5 boys and 1 girls)
2 Genders
Current Poll Stats
4A: 8 (Missing Rochester Mayo and St. Cloud Tech)
3A: 6 (BSM, STMA, Johnson, Princeton, Rocori, Como Park)
2A: 2 (St. Bernard's and Concordia)
1A: 3 (MCA, Cass Lake-Bena and Bethlehem Academy)
Minneapolis North at DeLaSalle Observations
Game 2 for DLS without Royce White. The air of secrecy around it is pretty amazing. Hopefully in the end it all works out for both Royce and DLS. As the famous saying goes, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. If worse comes to worse and they have to part ways (and I'm not aware of any possibility of that 1 way or the other), maybe that's a blessing. John Hedstrom and Greg Miller in the building look at North for the 6AAAA tournament, Ed Cassidy and STA in looking at DLS for next week's games (Tues at SB, Fri STA at DLS). And for the 1st time in a while, I see the Howard Pulley folks. That shows how wacky my schedule has been.
A Jalen Jaspers dunk and then a putback gives DLS at 10-3 lead at 14:30. Jeremy Randle drains a 3 ball and its 13-4 DLS at 13:26 to finish a 10-2 run. North with a 7-0 run of their own over the next 4 minutes to get within 2. A Jaspers bucket at 7:27 gives DLS a 16-11 lead. Bryce Hawkins goes to the bench with his 2nd foul at 6:38. 3 straight points from Chamar Wilson for North give them a 22-16 lead with 2:20 to go in the half. Jeremy Randle breaks the drought at 1:40 and another bucket at 1:17. North goes to the break up 24-20. Chamar Wilson with 8 to lead North. Randle with 8, Jaspers with 6, Hawkins bagel which really surprised me. I thought he'd have a bigger role in the offense. The Jaspers bucket at 7:27 is the only DLS FG in a stretch of 11 minutes 46 seconds. That may be a sign of things to come if Royce isn't playing.
Jeremy Randle hits a 3 and AJ Barker has one after a Wilson bucket to tie it at 28 with 15 minutes left. Randle hits another 3 to make it 35-31 DLS (10-3 run) with 11:18 to go. The rest of the game is back and forth. Wilson gets a 3 point play, Jaspers hits 2 FTs before a Wilson putback and its 43-41 North with 5:45 to go. Randle gets a layin to put DLS up 44-43 with 4:50 left. Kearri Pam gets a bucket and is fouled by Hawkins, his 5th foul and he's gone. With the FT, North leads 46-44 with 3:10 to play. Jaspers gets a putback and is fouled at 2:33. He makes the FT to give DLS a 47-46 lead. Curtis Johnson gets his only hoop of the night to give North the lead back with 2:20 left 48-47. Randle gets called for a charge on the DLS possession. North holds the ball and after a timeout Reo Patton gets 2 with 50 seconds to go to give North a 50-47 lead. Tim O'Keefe puts back a miss with 33.8 to go. LaPatrick Jackson misses a front end with 23 seconds left, no timeout DLS. Its gets under 10 and DLS is pretty out of sorts but Jeremy Randle gets a decent look at the winning 3 which misses and the rebound goes long and out of bounds as the clock expires to give North a 50-49 win.
DLS with no answer for Chamar Wilson as he finishes with 20 points. Malik El-Amin played with a heavily wrapped right hand and didn't score. Jeremy Randle with 18, Jalen Jaspers with 16 for DLS. Jaspers played a lot of post which is interesting. I thought Hawkins would get more touches down there but his 1 basket was a 12 ft jumper.
A Jalen Jaspers dunk and then a putback gives DLS at 10-3 lead at 14:30. Jeremy Randle drains a 3 ball and its 13-4 DLS at 13:26 to finish a 10-2 run. North with a 7-0 run of their own over the next 4 minutes to get within 2. A Jaspers bucket at 7:27 gives DLS a 16-11 lead. Bryce Hawkins goes to the bench with his 2nd foul at 6:38. 3 straight points from Chamar Wilson for North give them a 22-16 lead with 2:20 to go in the half. Jeremy Randle breaks the drought at 1:40 and another bucket at 1:17. North goes to the break up 24-20. Chamar Wilson with 8 to lead North. Randle with 8, Jaspers with 6, Hawkins bagel which really surprised me. I thought he'd have a bigger role in the offense. The Jaspers bucket at 7:27 is the only DLS FG in a stretch of 11 minutes 46 seconds. That may be a sign of things to come if Royce isn't playing.
Jeremy Randle hits a 3 and AJ Barker has one after a Wilson bucket to tie it at 28 with 15 minutes left. Randle hits another 3 to make it 35-31 DLS (10-3 run) with 11:18 to go. The rest of the game is back and forth. Wilson gets a 3 point play, Jaspers hits 2 FTs before a Wilson putback and its 43-41 North with 5:45 to go. Randle gets a layin to put DLS up 44-43 with 4:50 left. Kearri Pam gets a bucket and is fouled by Hawkins, his 5th foul and he's gone. With the FT, North leads 46-44 with 3:10 to play. Jaspers gets a putback and is fouled at 2:33. He makes the FT to give DLS a 47-46 lead. Curtis Johnson gets his only hoop of the night to give North the lead back with 2:20 left 48-47. Randle gets called for a charge on the DLS possession. North holds the ball and after a timeout Reo Patton gets 2 with 50 seconds to go to give North a 50-47 lead. Tim O'Keefe puts back a miss with 33.8 to go. LaPatrick Jackson misses a front end with 23 seconds left, no timeout DLS. Its gets under 10 and DLS is pretty out of sorts but Jeremy Randle gets a decent look at the winning 3 which misses and the rebound goes long and out of bounds as the clock expires to give North a 50-49 win.
DLS with no answer for Chamar Wilson as he finishes with 20 points. Malik El-Amin played with a heavily wrapped right hand and didn't score. Jeremy Randle with 18, Jalen Jaspers with 16 for DLS. Jaspers played a lot of post which is interesting. I thought Hawkins would get more touches down there but his 1 basket was a 12 ft jumper.
Bethlehem at CHOF Observations
A fun matchup of high-profile Class A teams as #8 ranked Bethlehem Academy of Fairbault makes the trip into the metro to take on CHOF at the SAL. Jeff Wall of MCA in the building scouting. I'm surprised he didn't take a look at MTS last night. The Basketblogger is back from his honeymoon and joins me for the game. I also had the chance to have a nice chat during the JV game with CHOF scorekeeper Bill Hedrick.
Bethlehem starts 4 juniors and a star sophomore Jordan Clark. Early on its 7-3 CHOF when Nate Fiscus gets blocks on 3 straight BA possessions. They're really attacking the lane hard but Fiscus is sending them back and it does have an impact. Alec Skluzacek gets a layin to give BA their 1st lead 12-11 with 9 to go in the half. Quiet scoring but Nick Butler gets a layup to make it 20-17 and Cole Piepkorn finds Fiscus for a bunny to make it 24-18 CHOF with 3:05 left before halftime. But Piepkorn has a couple of sloppy turnovers by being too unselfish and BA scores the last 5 of the half. 24-23 CHOF at the break. Nate Fiscus with 8 to lead the Lions. Chris Palmer leads BA with 7 and Jordan Clark has 6. BA is running some flex (no, not the flex) and their man-man D is solid and tough.
Early in the 2nd half, Palmer gets 2 and Drew Mathews gets a bucket to give BA a 32-26 lead with 15:24 to play. Its a 9-2 Cardinal run over the 1st 2:36 and 14-2 spanning 5:41 across halftime. But CHOF comes back and 2 Jake Okerstrom FTs tie it at 32 with 13 minutes left. CHOF goes to their 1-2-2 zone and BA procedes to turn the ball over on 5 of the next 6 possessions leading to 8 quick CHOF points. Fiscus and Okerstrom are on the offensive glass for 4 more points and 2 more steals get 4 more CHOF points. When the Cardinals aren't turning the ball over, they're taking quick outside shots, nothing inside and its 1 and done. Jordan Clark finally breaks the run at 6:38. Overall CHOF gets 4 pts on Offensive Rebounds and 12 points from steals/turnovers in the 21-0 run over 8:48 to give them a commanding 47-32 lead. BA tries to get back in it with a 1-2-2 of their own and CHOF gets a little sloppy against it and misses more free throws than they'd like, but the final is never in doubt after the run. CHOF wins 60-50.
Chris Palmer with 18 to lead Bethlehem Academy. Jordan Clark and Drew Mathews with 10 each. Suprisingly athletic team, solid defensively and young. They will be very scary next year and are still a serious favorite to come out of section 1A (along with Spring Grove, a team that PACT beat recently at Spring Grove). Clark is a nice player for a sophomore, don't be surprised to hear more about him down the road. And their youth is getting recognized as its just been announced that they'll be in next year's Border Battle.
CHOF gets 21 from Nate Fiscus in a huge game where he also gets at least 5 blocks and probably double digit rebounds. If this win doesn't give them the #1 seed in 4A East I don't know what does. And considering they're now 19-4 with wins over #8 2A Mayer Lutheran, #8A Bethlehem and #10A Park Christian and a tough SW Christian team that just took out MCA and a QRF of 6 before tonight, its about time they get some recognition in the state poll.
Bethlehem starts 4 juniors and a star sophomore Jordan Clark. Early on its 7-3 CHOF when Nate Fiscus gets blocks on 3 straight BA possessions. They're really attacking the lane hard but Fiscus is sending them back and it does have an impact. Alec Skluzacek gets a layin to give BA their 1st lead 12-11 with 9 to go in the half. Quiet scoring but Nick Butler gets a layup to make it 20-17 and Cole Piepkorn finds Fiscus for a bunny to make it 24-18 CHOF with 3:05 left before halftime. But Piepkorn has a couple of sloppy turnovers by being too unselfish and BA scores the last 5 of the half. 24-23 CHOF at the break. Nate Fiscus with 8 to lead the Lions. Chris Palmer leads BA with 7 and Jordan Clark has 6. BA is running some flex (no, not the flex) and their man-man D is solid and tough.
Early in the 2nd half, Palmer gets 2 and Drew Mathews gets a bucket to give BA a 32-26 lead with 15:24 to play. Its a 9-2 Cardinal run over the 1st 2:36 and 14-2 spanning 5:41 across halftime. But CHOF comes back and 2 Jake Okerstrom FTs tie it at 32 with 13 minutes left. CHOF goes to their 1-2-2 zone and BA procedes to turn the ball over on 5 of the next 6 possessions leading to 8 quick CHOF points. Fiscus and Okerstrom are on the offensive glass for 4 more points and 2 more steals get 4 more CHOF points. When the Cardinals aren't turning the ball over, they're taking quick outside shots, nothing inside and its 1 and done. Jordan Clark finally breaks the run at 6:38. Overall CHOF gets 4 pts on Offensive Rebounds and 12 points from steals/turnovers in the 21-0 run over 8:48 to give them a commanding 47-32 lead. BA tries to get back in it with a 1-2-2 of their own and CHOF gets a little sloppy against it and misses more free throws than they'd like, but the final is never in doubt after the run. CHOF wins 60-50.
Chris Palmer with 18 to lead Bethlehem Academy. Jordan Clark and Drew Mathews with 10 each. Suprisingly athletic team, solid defensively and young. They will be very scary next year and are still a serious favorite to come out of section 1A (along with Spring Grove, a team that PACT beat recently at Spring Grove). Clark is a nice player for a sophomore, don't be surprised to hear more about him down the road. And their youth is getting recognized as its just been announced that they'll be in next year's Border Battle.
CHOF gets 21 from Nate Fiscus in a huge game where he also gets at least 5 blocks and probably double digit rebounds. If this win doesn't give them the #1 seed in 4A East I don't know what does. And considering they're now 19-4 with wins over #8 2A Mayer Lutheran, #8A Bethlehem and #10A Park Christian and a tough SW Christian team that just took out MCA and a QRF of 6 before tonight, its about time they get some recognition in the state poll.
MN Transitions stuns Arlington at the buzzer
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Kevin Noreen
Interesting matchup tonight as I make the trip (painfully at that, thanks to awful traffic at Snelling and Larpenteur) to St. Paul Arlington to see them take on Minnesota Transitions. The Twin Cities Hoops Insider is in the house with me and the PA guy from Holy Angels is kind enough to join us to see Kevin Noreen. No worries about him being trampled by students as the place is nearly empty.
1st half is very back and forth. Its 5 all at 14 minutes, Kevin Noreen with all 5 for MTS. 16 all with 8 to play in the 1st. Arlington gets out to 22-18 but its 25 all at 3:49. Arlington extends to 30-25 at 2:27 and they go to the locker room ahead 32-27. They're starting to get good looks in the middle vs the MTS 2-2-1 but they allow MTS to stay in it at the foul line. Marques Johnson-Smith with 16 matching Kevin Noreen's 16 (11-11 FTs).
Johnson continues where he left off with 5 quick points and a Deandre White layup concludes a 9-0 Arlington run to start the 2nd half to make it 41-27 at 15:58. But Kevin Noreen stays hot as he gets the next 10 MTS points but its still 49-37 Arlington. Then Virgil Baker awakens and gets the next 8 MTS points. A Kavarian Williams layup finishes a 10-2 MTS run to make it 51-47 Arlington with 11:21 to play. But Arlington gets 9 of the next 12 to lead 60-50 with 9:15 left. They lead 64-53 with 7:10 to go. Kevin Noreen gets 1 of 2 FTs and a 3 pointer and its 67-62 Arlington with 4:20 left. Kavarian Williams hits a 3 to finish a 12-3 MTS run that makes it 67-65 with 3:50 left. Arlington gets the next 5 and they're up 72-65 with 3:15 left. But Kevin Noreen isn't done. He gets a sweet post up on the right block for 2 and then Arlington some how left him alone and he knocks down a 3. After an Arlington bucket, he gets another post bucket and its 74-72 Arlington with 1:50 left. After a Deandre White bucket, Williams misses the front end of a 1 and 1 so Arlington has the ball up 76-72 with 1:19 to play. Adonis Gray makes 1 of 2 at 1:16 to extend the lead to 5. Kyle Noreen counters with 1 of 2 at 1:13 to cut it to 4. Arlington turns the ball over at 1:04 which leads to a Kevin Noreen 3 pt play in the post with 53.3 to play. 77-76 Arlington. White misses 2 FTs with 44.2 left which results in Kyle Noreen being fouled. He comes up clutch with both FTs to give MTS their 1st lead in forever 78-77 with 43 seconds left. Out of a timeout, MTS goes to a 1-2-2 zone which they had also shown earlier (something new from them that I hadn't seen) but DeMarkeo Jones hits a 3 with 25 seconds left to give Arlington a 80-78 lead. But he immediately reaches in and fouls Kavarian Williams. Not a smart foul.
After previously missing a front end, Williams comes up clutch with both free throws with 19.8 to play and we're tied at 80. Arlington inbounds and pushes the ball up, but they turn it over at the top of the key at their end. It ends up in Kyle Noreen's hands on the high right wing near the sideline and midcourt. He gets trapped and is in trouble but he splits the trap and tries to feed Kevin Noreen at the high post but its tipped away. But Kyle comes up with the tip and swings the ball cross-court to Williams who immediately swings to Virgil Baker in the corner and there's no doubt about this one. He knocks down the corner 3 at the buzzer to give MTS a thrilling 83-80 road win. In the words of Bill Raftery, ONIONS!
Tough one for Arlington as they have 1 league game left in the regular season before they host Hill-Murray on Mar 11th in an interesting 4 v 5 game. I like that draw for Hill-Murray as Peter McKeown can be a factor vs Arlington and Johnson. Arlington falls to 12-13 with the loss. Marques Johnson-Smith leads them with 23, but he didn't play the last at least 11 minutes or so. I have no idea why. He easily could have had 35 in this game as he was matching Kevin Noreen bucket for bucket.
Speaking of Kevin Noreen, he goes absolutely nuts and finishes with 41, 25 in the 2nd half, 10 in the last 3 minutes. 14 of 16 from the line, 5 3s, dominant on the post, almost double figure rebounds. Just a tremendous game for him. I may be crazy on this one, but based on my look at the scoresheet, it appears MTS hit between 8 and 10 3s in the 2nd half. Kavarian Williams with 14 and Virgil Baker with 13 for the Wolves. A very helpful win for their #1 seed case in Section 4A, especially since it looks like their game at New Life was cancelled which would have been very valuable in the seeding discussion.
Of the 115 games I've seen so far this season, this has to rank amongst the best games that I've seen all season. We'll see if CHOF can counter this MTS win and add to their resume tomorrow when #8A Bethlehem Academy comes to the SAL to face the Lions.
1st half is very back and forth. Its 5 all at 14 minutes, Kevin Noreen with all 5 for MTS. 16 all with 8 to play in the 1st. Arlington gets out to 22-18 but its 25 all at 3:49. Arlington extends to 30-25 at 2:27 and they go to the locker room ahead 32-27. They're starting to get good looks in the middle vs the MTS 2-2-1 but they allow MTS to stay in it at the foul line. Marques Johnson-Smith with 16 matching Kevin Noreen's 16 (11-11 FTs).
Johnson continues where he left off with 5 quick points and a Deandre White layup concludes a 9-0 Arlington run to start the 2nd half to make it 41-27 at 15:58. But Kevin Noreen stays hot as he gets the next 10 MTS points but its still 49-37 Arlington. Then Virgil Baker awakens and gets the next 8 MTS points. A Kavarian Williams layup finishes a 10-2 MTS run to make it 51-47 Arlington with 11:21 to play. But Arlington gets 9 of the next 12 to lead 60-50 with 9:15 left. They lead 64-53 with 7:10 to go. Kevin Noreen gets 1 of 2 FTs and a 3 pointer and its 67-62 Arlington with 4:20 left. Kavarian Williams hits a 3 to finish a 12-3 MTS run that makes it 67-65 with 3:50 left. Arlington gets the next 5 and they're up 72-65 with 3:15 left. But Kevin Noreen isn't done. He gets a sweet post up on the right block for 2 and then Arlington some how left him alone and he knocks down a 3. After an Arlington bucket, he gets another post bucket and its 74-72 Arlington with 1:50 left. After a Deandre White bucket, Williams misses the front end of a 1 and 1 so Arlington has the ball up 76-72 with 1:19 to play. Adonis Gray makes 1 of 2 at 1:16 to extend the lead to 5. Kyle Noreen counters with 1 of 2 at 1:13 to cut it to 4. Arlington turns the ball over at 1:04 which leads to a Kevin Noreen 3 pt play in the post with 53.3 to play. 77-76 Arlington. White misses 2 FTs with 44.2 left which results in Kyle Noreen being fouled. He comes up clutch with both FTs to give MTS their 1st lead in forever 78-77 with 43 seconds left. Out of a timeout, MTS goes to a 1-2-2 zone which they had also shown earlier (something new from them that I hadn't seen) but DeMarkeo Jones hits a 3 with 25 seconds left to give Arlington a 80-78 lead. But he immediately reaches in and fouls Kavarian Williams. Not a smart foul.
After previously missing a front end, Williams comes up clutch with both free throws with 19.8 to play and we're tied at 80. Arlington inbounds and pushes the ball up, but they turn it over at the top of the key at their end. It ends up in Kyle Noreen's hands on the high right wing near the sideline and midcourt. He gets trapped and is in trouble but he splits the trap and tries to feed Kevin Noreen at the high post but its tipped away. But Kyle comes up with the tip and swings the ball cross-court to Williams who immediately swings to Virgil Baker in the corner and there's no doubt about this one. He knocks down the corner 3 at the buzzer to give MTS a thrilling 83-80 road win. In the words of Bill Raftery, ONIONS!
Tough one for Arlington as they have 1 league game left in the regular season before they host Hill-Murray on Mar 11th in an interesting 4 v 5 game. I like that draw for Hill-Murray as Peter McKeown can be a factor vs Arlington and Johnson. Arlington falls to 12-13 with the loss. Marques Johnson-Smith leads them with 23, but he didn't play the last at least 11 minutes or so. I have no idea why. He easily could have had 35 in this game as he was matching Kevin Noreen bucket for bucket.
Speaking of Kevin Noreen, he goes absolutely nuts and finishes with 41, 25 in the 2nd half, 10 in the last 3 minutes. 14 of 16 from the line, 5 3s, dominant on the post, almost double figure rebounds. Just a tremendous game for him. I may be crazy on this one, but based on my look at the scoresheet, it appears MTS hit between 8 and 10 3s in the 2nd half. Kavarian Williams with 14 and Virgil Baker with 13 for the Wolves. A very helpful win for their #1 seed case in Section 4A, especially since it looks like their game at New Life was cancelled which would have been very valuable in the seeding discussion.
Of the 115 games I've seen so far this season, this has to rank amongst the best games that I've seen all season. We'll see if CHOF can counter this MTS win and add to their resume tomorrow when #8A Bethlehem Academy comes to the SAL to face the Lions.
Week 14 Tuesday Night Scoreboard Club
A couple of news items from South before we do this week's edition, Ephesia Holmes was out tonight due to some college recruiting type of violation according to the Twin Cities Hoops Insider. If she's out for South, don't look look for them to get past Hopkins. Don't be surprised if Wayzata beats them on Saturday. Tayler Hill with 25 in an easy win, but the Tigers did not look good. Also from the TCHI, Devon Lamb and 2 other South players were dismissed from the boys team at South.
They couldn't get the clock started on time and South decided to do their own warmup thing for their game (Minnetonka then South intros) after doing the intros alternately for the Wayzata/Southwest game. Makes me wish for the Michigan approach to this where even in a 1st round home game, the PA and such can't treat it like a home game. Also makes me want neutral timers like the NBA went to a couple of years ago.
Scores from 2/25 and 2/26/08 that caught my eye.
They couldn't get the clock started on time and South decided to do their own warmup thing for their game (Minnetonka then South intros) after doing the intros alternately for the Wayzata/Southwest game. Makes me wish for the Michigan approach to this where even in a 1st round home game, the PA and such can't treat it like a home game. Also makes me want neutral timers like the NBA went to a couple of years ago.
Scores from 2/25 and 2/26/08 that caught my eye.
- Hopkins and Minnetonka continue to roll in the Classic Lake as they prepare for Monday's showdown.
- St. Thomas Academy gets a nice win over Sibley which makes the Classic Suburban interesting. Tartan is now only 1 game back and they host Sibley on the final night. How appropriate.
- Burnsville gets Eastview again in OT, Tarell Clark with 22 in this matchup which sounds much like the 1st matchup. So with Kennedy's loss, we have the 3 way tie for 2nd. Eastview vs Burnsville in a 3AAAA final could be one of the best section championship games.
- Prior Lake gets a big 5 pt win at Shakopee to take control of the Missota. They go 2 up with 3 to play. Shakopee falls a win behind New Prague.
- Roosevelt with a 2 pt win at home over North to stay in the Mpls City race. They travel to league leader Henry on Monday and host Washburn next Thursday to control their own destiny.
- The MCAA is done for the season but they had a couple of interesting non-conference games. Breck blows out New Life, but no Max Banchy for NLA. CHOF only beats Heritage on the road by 12 with no Stu Herman or John Hirte in the box for Heritage.
- BSM wins at Spring Lake Park to set up the big showdown with Cooper on Friday night at BSM. With the Spring Lake Park loss, you have BSM with 1 league loss, Cooper with 2 and everybody else with at least 7. Spring Lake Park and Irondale are now tied for 3rd at 10-7.
- Osseo officially clinches the NW Suburban (which has been over since it began) but they get taken to the limit by Champlin Park to do it. Nice to see a close game for Osseo as they approach the tournament. Park Center with the home upset of Elk River. Everybody in the league has at least 5 conference losses besides Osseo. So we ask, is the high number of conference losses in the league a sign of balance and strength or a sign of a weak league?
- Harding takes Johnson to 2 overtimes before Johnson hangs on. Como Park can basically hand Johnson the league title with a win at Central on Friday. Speaking of Central, Dylan Hale with 39 and Larry Brown with 28 in a blowout of Arlington (who I'll see tomorrow vs MTS in a fun game)
- Forest Lake does it again in the Suburban East as they pull the upset of Cretin-Derham Hall despite 29 pts from Michael Floyd. After starting 9-1, they went 1-6, but the Rangers have now won 6 in a row (5 at home) including back-back wins over Stillwater and CDH. If they can finish the season with a win at Mounds View, I might have to jump on their bandwagon in section 7AAAA. This result means that Stillwater's game at MV on Friday night is big. If Stillwater wins to stay in the front runner spot, FL will be looking at a chance to play for 3rd at MV on the final night. Stillwater holds off Woodbury in a good game where Joel Armstrong becomes the all time leading scorer for the Ponies. Congrats to Joel, Winona St got a steal with him. Nice to see him play with another SEC alum, Max Hintz of Woodbury.
- In the Tri-Metro, a Zach Towle bomb late in OT wins it for Concordia at St. Bernard's. The Bulldogs had won 15 in a row coming in and this 2nd loss is another heartbreaker. Jordair Jett with 36 in the loss. While Concordia is mathematically alive, SB wins over SPA and Blake will give them the East even if they lose the monster game to DLS next Tuesday. St. Agnes can play spoiler for the West teams as they have DLS and Minnehaha left in addition to a nice section 4A matchup with SW Christian on Monday night.
Eden Prairie at Bloomington Kennedy Observations
Tonight takes me to a Lake Conference showdown between Kennedy and Eden Prairie. The first time these teams played, EP won 108-65. Would tonight be more of the same? Kennedy can tie for the league lead with a win but an EP win can essentially clinch the league title.No Carlton Starr in the starting lineup for Kennedy but he's in at 16:02. Kennedy leads 3-1 on a Alfred Jaryan 3, but that's the last lead they'll hold. Brett Ervin gets a 3 pt play to give EP the lead for good and finishes a 10-2 run with a bucket to make it 11-5 with 13 minutes left in the 1st half. Ethan Wragge (pictured) gets his 1st field goal with a 3 to make it 20-12 @8:10 and then he gets a layup off a steal to make it 24-14 EP @ 7:21. He hits a 3 to end the half and its 38-16 EP going to the break. Its a 23-4 EP run over the last 9 minutes of the half. Jaryan has 10 points and Carlton Starr has the other 6 for Kennedy. All their offense is 1 on 1 off the bounce. Starr was initially guarded by Carter Bykowski (awful matchup for EP, didn't get that one), but after EP fixed that, he was done. Wragge with 10 and Ervin with 9 for EP.
The second half is more of the same. Jaryan tries to make it interesting with a circus fadeaway for a 3 pt play that makes it 42-24 @ 15:10. The 1st points solely from someone other than Jaryan or Starr come from Josh Nance at 13:10 (he got a layup on the possession before off a nice screen/roll from Jaryan). A Starr bucket makes it 46-30 EP with 12:45 to play but after an EP timeout, that's it. I leave with 4:03 to go and its 62-33 EP after a 16-3 run over 8:42.
Alfred Jaryan with 19 but lots of shots. Carlton Starr with 10 and Josh Nance with the other 4 points. No offense at all for Kennedy, just 1 on 1 or shoot 3s. Bobby Fong goes bagel thanks to Ethan Wragge's defense and that bad offense. Kennedy was just awful on both ends and laid another huge egg in a big game. They're now 2 games back thanks to 2 blowout losses to EP. Big loss as they had a chance at the #2 seed in 2AAAA, now they're closer to 4th as I'd seed Prior Lake and Shakopee higher. More likely they end up 3rd. A very Jeckyl and Hyde team as they can be dangerous with their perimeter people, but if they don't get it done, they can be brutal to watch as they were tonight and in the Hopkins game. Kennedy vs Richfield (Matt Mullenbach, Richfield asst was in the house tonight) would be fun with Renard Robinson vs Carlton Starr plus the guard matchups like DeAaron Hearn vs Alfred Jaryan
As to Eden Prairie, Ethan Wragge with 12 pts on 4 of 9 shooting, 5 rebs and 3 ast (+ another screen that directly led to a Ryan Grant bucket) according to my unofficial score sheet when I left early. Brett Ervin with 11, Carter Bykowski and Ryan Grant each with 8. Great balance for EP. They have a good case for the #1 seed in 2AAAA being Lake champions and non-conference losses to Cretin-Derham Hall and Minnetonka. Don't count the winner of the Missota out of this discussion either.
Ethan Wragge photo courtesy of MNPhotoNet.net
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