Eagles end a Purple Reign

Prologue
To the University of St. Thomas for what has become an annual showdown between Eden Prairie and Cretin-Derham Hall.  Nice crowd on hand for the only boys game on the state schedule.  Hopkins and Apple Valley scouting both teams for state.  St. Cloud State head coach Matt Reimer looking at Ryan Larson.  Bethel assistant Chipotle Gal also in the house recruiting.  All kinds of AAU guys also looking on.

Number of Teams I've Seen: 146 (142 games, 91 days, 50 buildings, 26 online)

Beverage Ticker: 1084.1 ounces (11870 Calories)

• Pepsi: 304.5 ounces (3800 calories)
• Coke: 209.8 ounces (2500 calories) 
• Dr. Pepper: 48 ounces (600 calories)
• Sprite Zero: 20 ounces (0 calories) 
• Sprite: 208.9 ounces (2480 calories) 
• 7 Up: 36 ounces (420 calories)
• Red Gatorade: 140 ounces (980 calories)  
• Red Powerade: 40 ounces (260 calories) 
• A&W Root Beer: 36 ounces (510 calories) 
• Mug Root Beer: 12 ounces (160 calories) 
• Barq's Root Beer: 12 ounces (160 calories)

Food Ticker:

• Hot Dogs: 27
• Walking Tacos: 7
• Pizza: 22
• Pulled Pork Sandwich: 1
• Chipotle: 1 (thanks to Bethel staff)

Game Time:
A quick start for CDH.  Jacob Prince 2 putback and a Sy Chatman triple for a 9-3 Raiders lead just over 4 minutes in.  Eden Prairie settles down after a timeout and John Henry comes off the bench smoking hot.  Pick and roll jumper, a 3 point play and 2 bombs as he scores 11 of the next 13 Eagles points.  16-11 Eagles at 11:25 after the 13-2 run.  CDH right back with a Daniel Oturu dunk plus Jaeden King making 2 free throws off a turnover and an inside triple for a 7-0 run.  Very little CDH offense the rest of the half though.  Chatman with a couple more hoops but nothing else for the Raiders.  Meanwhile Eden Prairie gets their offense going.  Connor Christensen and Kyler Kluge for 3.  Austin Andrews with a stick back and a big block on Ryan Larson  that leads to another Henry 3.  31-24 Eden Prairie just inside 4 min left in the half.  Oturu picks up 2 quick fouls and sits with 3 at the 1:37 mark.  Crafty play from Andrews there.  He makes 2 free throws on those after a jumper and Drake Dobbs buries a tough triple.  Its a 14-2 Eden Prairie run over the last 5:15 of the half.  They take a 38-26 lead to halftime.

Chatman with a dunk after an Oturu block countered by a Dobbs 3.  Chatman another hoop but Dobbs scoops to beat the defense of Oturu.  Dobbs with a triple to counter a Ryan Larson scoop for 2.  52-36 Eden Prairie with 12 minutes left.  But you knew CDH had a run and here it comes.  King with 2 bombs.  Oturu with a putback for a 3 point play plus a post jumper.  Chatman converts a turnovers.  The CDH run is 16-2 in 4 minutes  54-52 Eden Prairie hanging on to the lead as they take timeout with 7:45 left.  They tried to use Andrews to attack Oturu in the post early in the half but got away from it.  Then the CDH defense picked up and pushed them out of anything during this run.

Henry with the next 5 for Eden Prairie including a 3 point play running the court.  Caleb Davis getting minutes replacing Larson at the point for the entire stretch run.  He drives and scores between the Henry hoops.  Oturu scores in the post and Chatman puts back a missed FT just inside of 5 minutes left.  Davis goes to the left hand inside for 2 and that ends a 7-0 CDH run.  61-59 CDH back on top with 4:20 left after being down by 16 this half.  A pick and roll finds Oturu helping deep in the lane.  The ball is swung back to Andrews on the 3 point line.  He fakes for an Oturu fly by and drives for the lead with 3:26 left.  Its back to the pick and roll with Dobbs.  Oturu gets switched onto him and he tries to switch back with Jacob Prince.  But that leaves Andrews wide open under the rim for a layup with 2:05 left.  Sandwiched around that, CDH missed 4 free throws.  CDH has to give a couple of fouls to get to the bonus but they do force a turnover with 40.8 left and get a timeout to draw a play up.  Its Chatman attacking the rim and he gets fouled.  He makes both clutch FTs and we're tied with 24 seconds left.  Eden Prairie runs the clock down going without taking a timeout.  Its Dobbs attacking and the bigs are nowhere to be found.  He scoops it in with 2 seconds left.  CDH gets a timeout but their pass to Oturu at halfcourt is intercepted.  Eden Prairie wins 65-63.  We exit the building to Purple Rain.

Post Game
For Cretin-Derham Hall, the loss snaps a 21 game winning streak and likely knocks them out of the top spot in the state poll.  But they'll still be the top seed in 4AAAA and can sweep the Suburban East with a win at Park on Friday.  The Raiders are now 23-2 overall and 15-0 in the Suburban East.  Sy Chatman leads the Raiders with 20 points.  Daniel Oturu adds 15 points to go with 10 rebounds and 4 blocks on my sheet.  Jaeden King with 3 3s and 11.  Ryan Larson not 100% and only 4 points.  Caleb Davis with some nice minutes in the game.  He replaced Larson for the stretch run.  Would have likely to see more urgency from CDH, particularly in pounding the ball inside against a small and young Eden Prairie team.  But they showed they can turn up the defense with the 2nd half run.

For Eden Prairie, John Henry leads the Eagles with 21 points off the bench.  Drake Dobbs with 17 including the game winner.  Austin Andrews adds 14 in a different than usual fashion vs Oturu.  He used a lot of fakes which got Oturu off his feet but was better when attacking away from the basket.  The Eagles wanted little part of challenging the length of Oturu and Chatman at the rim.  Eden Prairie finishes their season 19-7 overall, 4-4 in the Lake Conference.  They are looking at the #1 seed in the loaded section 2AAAA bracket.  That's big because top seed hosts all the games there.  7 triples in the first half helped to build the lead but only 2 in the 2nd half as CDH was able to extend the defense.

Speaking of section 2AAAA, have fun seeding that bracket behind Eden Prairie.  Edina has wins over Eden Prairie, Apple Valley and Cretin-Derham Hall this year.  Not to mention, they also have the top ranked schedule in the CzarPI.  But they also have tight losses to section foes Chaska, Prior Lake and Minnetonka by a total of 6 points.  A Chaska win on the road on Friday vs suddenly hot Robbinsdale Cooper would give them a split of the Metro West with the Hawks.  But they have 2 losses to section foe and league rival Bloomington Jefferson.  We all know that nobody wants to see Jefferson or Shakopee in the 1st round thanks to the grind it out disciplined styles both are very adept at.  Minnetonka and Chanhassen are no picnic either.  I think Chaska, Edina and Prior Lake go 2-4 (no particular order, I could make a case for any arrangement), Minnetonka 5, Shakopee 6, Jefferson 7, Chanhassen 8.