Recovery during the cold

Prologue
A couple of frigid nights in the metro.  Almost had to dig out the ushanka for the cold.  But a double dose of ski mask makes me cozy.  First its a Metro West trip to Richfield to see them take on Kennedy.  Then the top of the Lake Conference on display with Eden Prairie visiting Hopkins.  Hot Dogs for fuel both nights along with Coke products.  Such hardship.  Excuse me while I sip a Pepsi while I write this at Dacha De Czar.

Song of the Day: Freeze Frame - J. Giles Band

Number of Teams I've Seen: 144 (111 games, 45 buildings, 17 online)

Beverage Ticker: 811.2 ounces (9000 calories)
  • A&W Root Beer: 12 ounces (170 calories)
  • Barq's Root Beer: 12 ounces (160 calories)
  • Coke: 129.8 ounces (1540 calories)
  • Dr. Pepper: 44 ounces (550 calories)
  • Fruit Punch Gatorade: 185.8 ounces (1300 calories) 
  • Mug Root Beer: 12 ounces (170 calories)
  • Pepsi: 310.7 ounces (3880 calories)
  • Sprite: 104.9 ounces (1230 calories) 
Food Ticker:
  • Hot Dogs: 24
  • Pizza: 8
  • Walking Tacos: 3
  • Extras
    • French Onion Sun Chips (210 calories)
    • 5 Lays Chips (800 calories)
    • 1 Ruffles Sour Cream and Cheddar chips (230 calories)
    • Kit Kat (210 calories)
    • 4 Snickers (1000 calories)
Thursday: Bloomington Kennedy 80 Richfield 70
Ryan Miles scores 9 right away and Richfield opens a quick 11-2 lead.   Lamar Grayson attacking for Richfield as well.  Those 2 carry the Spartans offense wtih 29 1st half points.  Terrell Barber with 12 in the half to keep Kennedy within 42-30 at the break.  Kennedy storms back with a 10-0 run thanks to 8 points at the rim from post Laronte Mormont.  No matchup inside for the big lefty.  The corners of the Richfield 1-3-1 exposed in the 2nd half as Kennedy hits 6 3s and forces Richfield out of the zone.  But its still a 3 point game with under 4 to play.  Kennedy scores 7 in a row to push the margin to 10 with 2:55 left and its over.  Sophs Amarion Hanspard  and Habil Farah each go for 4 triples and 12 points on the night for Kennedy.  25-6 Kennedy bench scoring advantage.  Terrell Barber leads Kennedy with 20, Laronte Mormont with 13 of his 15 in 2nd half.  Lamar Grayson 23 to lead Richfield.  Mitchell January 19 and Ryan Miles 17 were other scoring leaders for Richfield.  Big loss for Richfield as they join Kennedy at 1-7 in the Metro West cellar.  It was a must win for the Spartans too as they try to stay within the tiebreaker margin with St. Croix Lutheran in the race to see who hosts the rematch in the 3AAA 4 vs 5 game.  Richfield won a close one at St. Croix Lutheran in early January to hold that tiebreaker.  Kennedy gets a critical win in their fight with Highland Park for the 6 seed in that same section.

Friday: #1AAAA Hopkins 78 #7AAAA Eden Prairie 71
Both teams come in tied with Wayzata on top of the Lake Conference as they go into this final round of the 1st rotation of league play.  Zeke Nnaji once again doing his thing inside.  He adds a post bucket and is fouled after Dane Zimmer hits 1 bucket and a triple.  27-18 at the 5:49 mark.  Then the bombs start flying.  Drake Dobbs, John Henry twice, Kerwin Walton, Jalen Treml and Connor Christensen to beat the halftime buzzer..  Those bombs help Eden Prairie go on a 10-1 run over the last 2:40 of the half.  36-34 Eden Prairie up at the break.

The Eagles keep that momentum going early in the second half.  That's despite both teams having a very cold stretch.  John Henry with a putback and fouled to end a 17-3 Eden Prairie run.  43-36 EP with 14:50 to play.  Then Nnaji and Dobbs start going back and forth to lead their offenses.  They trade 3 point plays.  Nnaji scores, Dobbs from deep and another hoop.  Nnaji 2 putbacks.  Dobbs with a 3 plus a bucket and foul around a Nnaji hoop.  64-58 Eden Prairie with 6:49 left. 

Jalen Dearring comes back in at that point after sitting almost 4 minutes with 4 fouls.  He responds by scoring the next 9 points of the game in under 2 minutes.  2 freebies to start it, a deuce, a triple and bonus freebies to end it.  Now EP needs a timeout as its 67-64 Hopkins with 4:57 left.  Tough 5th foul on Dearring (blocking call) with 1:53 left but Eden Prairie ends up missing the front of the bonus on it.  Kerwin Walton adds a bucket to push it to 5 and Hopkins makes 7-8 FTs to seal it.  Drake Dobbs scores the last 12 points for EP.  He finishes with 5 triples and 36 points to lead all scorers.  Connor Christensen adds 13, John Henry 11.  Zeke Nnaji with 26 points to lead Hopkins.  Jalen Dearring with 16 points before fouling out.  Kerwin Walton adds 14.  Big rebound win for Hopkins after the loss at De La Salle on Wednesday.  Eden Prairie sees a 6 game winning streak snapped.  This 7 point loss matches the combined point total of 4 of their other 5 losses.

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