2020 Hall of Fame Classic Review

The Minnesota High School Basketball Hall of Fame put on their 1st annual Winter Classic at Anoka-Ramsey.  Thanks to the weather it was delayed a week and we lost the HS girls games.  Three boys games remained on the schedule following a Men's and Women's college doubleheader.  The St Cloud Tech College women almost pulled an upset on the ranked ARCC women.  In the men's game, ARCC gave Tech a tough battle in the 1st half.  But 5th ranked Tech would pull away in the 2nd half to remain undefeated.  Now to the high school games.  We get the 35 second shot clock for all of them.  1 shot clock violation per game was what we ended up with.

Game 1: #5AAAA Hopkins 90 Hibbing 58
Hopkins with a 1st half barrage of triples to open up the lead.  They hit 6 of them in the 1st 9 minutes to open up a 15 point lead.  Mayson Brown with 5 1st half triples of his own for Hibbing to try to keep the Bluejackets within striking distance.  Hopkins by 19 at the half.  Brown would hit a couple more triples to cut the margin to 15 with 13 minutes left.  All Hopkins after that.  Kerwin Walton and Sawyer Shrake with triples and the rout is officially on.  Hopkins makes 15 triples.  Kerwin Walton with 4 of them and 17 points to lead Hopkins.  Jalen Treml 15 points and 3 treys.  More good minutes off the bench for guard Regan Merritt and he also hit 3 bombs and had 15 points.  Mayson Brown with 7 treys and 25 points to lead Hibbing.  Soph star Ayden McDonald adds 14.

Game 2: #1AAAA Eden Prairie 82 #7AAAA Park Center 64
Billy Crystal on the whistle for this one.  Fun strategy from Eden Prairie as they put their defensive ace Connor Christensen on DT Frierson and let him roam.  Dain Dainja beats the shot clock with a triple and finds a cutting Josh Lewis for a layup.  All Eden Prairie from there.  They go on a 36-3 run over 13 minutes before Park Center makes another field goal.  Park Center not pounding the ball inside (see also the Wednesday game vs Spring Lake Park).  Eden Prairie making everything with Christensen making 4 3s and Drake Dobbs with 3 triples and 15 points in the run.  36-8 Eden Prairie before Dainja scores via a nice mid-post move under the 4 minute mark.  Park Center with a couple of smaller runs in the 2nd half but the outcome is never in doubt.  EP doesn't score a FG in the last 4 minutes.  A Park Center 10-0 run with starters vs the EP reserves ends the game to make it look more respectable.  Drake Dobbs finishes with 31 points and 4 triples.  Connor Christensen 5 triples and 19 points.  Austin Andrews also adds 19 points.  The big 4 score all but 1 point for the Eagles.  Dain Dainja leads Park Center with 22 points.  DT Frierson 15.  Josh Brown all 12 of his points in the 2nd half as he led one of the mini runs in the 2nd half.  Eden Prairie now 8-0 in their games against the currently ranked AAAA teams (Armstrong is only one they haven't played).  Only 1 of those games has been at home.  They still have trips to De La Salle (next weekend) and Minnehaha in February.

Game 3: #9AAAA East Ridge 64 Rochester Mayo 63
Hollywood and young Hollywood get the whistles for this one.  Usually only see them in Breakdown events.  Mayo with 6 3s in less than the 1st 11 minutes.  That leads to a 24-8 lead.  Defensively they swarmed Ben Carlson and basically ignored the rest of the East Ridge roster not named Kendall Blue.  East Ridge stops the bleeding to be within 13 at the break.  A good start to the 2nd half for East Ridge with a 9-0 run after the 1st hoop of the half.  Carlson caps that with a coast to coast dunk.  Raptors within 6 and now its game on.  Mayo keeps the lead with a nice Gabe Madsen cut on a BLOB for a layup.  Mason Madsen with a drive for 2.  Michael Sharp 2 buckets from Gabe Madsen before Gabe pops a jumper.  52-43 Mayo 8 minutes left.

East Ridge getting productivity out of a Kendall Blue and Ben Carlson high pick and roll.  Blue already with a 3 just before this.  He then adds on the next 3 Raptors hoops with a couple mid range hoops and a 3 point play chance.  Ben Carlson 2 free throws and then a monster dunk.  Blue adds a triple and we're tied at 56 with 5 minutes left.  East Ridge run is 13-2 over 2:15.  Blue dunks a turnover and Carlson adds a dunk on a BLOB after it appeared he didn't re-establish inbounds.  Coach Madsen of Mayo is HOT about that and lets the refs know about it.  That's the 1st East Ridge lead 60-58 with 3:33 left.  Ball bouncing around leads to a messy Rob Jeter 2 with 2:22 left.  62-58 Raptors after a 19-4 run.  Mayo scores and then misses a chance to tie.  East Ridge ball with 1:09 left but we have the shot clock so no holding the ball.  Blue gets bumped with 3 left on the shot clock and he'll make both ends of the bonus with 46.2 left.  Mayo 2 misses, East Ridge 2 turnovers.  The last one with 12.7 left looks like a blown Hollywood call.  Sharp buries a 3 with 4.4 left to cut it to 1.  East Ridge struggles to get it in.  Its tipped and rolling around and maybe the clock started late.  Its out of bounds to Mayo with 0.6 left.  They're out of timeouts but a popout screen for Gabe Madsen gives him a great left corner look for 3 at the buzzer but its no good.  East Ridge wins after trailing by 16 in the 1st half and being down 11 with 7:30 left.  Kendall Blue with 23 points to lead East Ridge.  Ben Carlson a bunch of boards and he stepped up in the 2nd half to finish with 16 points.  Michael Sharp leads Mayo with 3 triples and 17 points.  Gabe Madsen 16 points and a handful of assists.  Nice well-rounded game from Mason Madsen with 8 points and similar numbers on the assists and rebounds ledger.