South at Henry Observations

Minneapolis City action on this night as South travels to Henry. Its 16-15 Henry inside of 12 minutes when South goes on a 12-2 run over the next 6 minutes. South extends the lead to 35-23 with 3:15 left in the half. Inside of 2 minutes its 40-28 South but Jordan Hughes hits a 3 after a blocked shot, Mandela Jackson gets 2 after a scrum and another South turnover results in 2 FTs for Alonzo Melton which gives Henry 7 of the last 8 pts of the half. Halftime score is 41-35 South. Michael Adams had 15 and Devon Lamb has 9 in the half as Henry can't contain dribble penetration. Mandela Jackson with 11 in the half for Henry, Jordan Hughes cold shooting for only 6 points. Inside Melton and Evan Gray with 8, but Gray's points were early in the half.

South can't pull away in the early part of the 2nd half as its 60-49 with 10:23 to go. Both teams are in the bonus already. Henry then proceeds to start raining in 3s (Jackson with 2, Hughes with 1 and Louis Cox with 1) to go on a 16-4 run over the next 4 minutes to take a 65-64 lead with 6:25 to play. South is missing a ton of free throws but they're getting them back on the offensive glass, a cardinal sin. A Hughes 3 ties the game at 70 and then a nice post move by Jerome Vaughn gives Henry a 72-70 lead. DeShaun Tyler gets a bucket outside of 3 minutes to give South the lead 73-72 and they won't trail again. Lamb gets a nice post up and makes a tough shot after Cox misses a 3. Jackson makes 1 of 2 FTs to pull Henry with 2 at 2:25 (75-73). But Michael Adams makes 2 FTs, Will Ferguson gets 2 layups, Hughes misses 2 3s but hits one late to pull Henry within 4 but South tacks on 1 more Ferguson layup for a 87-81 South victory.

Mandela Jackson was somewhat out of control in the 1st half, but he had a really good 2nd half and finishes with a game high 27. Jordan Hughes with 3 3s in the 2nd half and he totals 17. Evan Gray with 13 but didn't get nearly enough inside touches. Minimal offense from Henry and their defense was suprisingly bad as they couldn't contain anything off the dribble. But that jives with their ranking as the 5th worst defensive team in class 3A giving up 73.5 PPG coming into tonight. Section 3AAA is another up for grabs section as the best records are Fridley at 8-7 and Spring Lake Park at 9-8. Henry falls to 8-9 with the loss and this hurts in the race for the #1 seed.

Henry tried some 1-2-2 3 quarter court trap on missed FTs which I found interesting as that's the 3rd team I've seen do that this year (Eastview vs Aquinas and Waukesha Catholic Memorial who does it on everything were the others). Pressing off a miss can be a good way to get cheap points if you can get organized since the offense usually isn't as organized on a miss. But they put a little guy on top which defeats the purpose (OK so that's a peeve of mine). Get a big guy up front on those odd-front zones so he's in a passing lane and you've got a tough guy to trap with. I also wish Henry would do more of that nasty diamond press (1-2-1-1) that they used last year with Jerome Vaughn on the ball.

For South, big games from all 3 guard spots. Devon Lamb with 19 (tough matchup too as he's strong enough to post up), Deshaun Tyler and Michael Adams with 20 each. While the loss hurts Henry in the Minneapolis City it keeps South with an outside look. As to the section race, we mentioned that 9-8 was the best record in 3AAA, South improves to 11-7 with the win and still only has the 5th best record in brutal section 6AAAA. North's 7th best 9-6 would be best in 3AAA.