Royalty reclaims the Throne

Prologue
An early season clash of titans as #1AAAA Wayzata visits #3AAAA Hopkins.  Lake Conference, Section 6AAAA and state poll bragging rights all depending on the outcome.  Limited crowd but at least we get a Billy Crystal sighting on the whistle.  No surprise that Hopkins flipped the benches to the opposite side so they were away from the normal bleachers and entry way.  2 hot dogs on my homemade concessions menu for the evening.

Song of the Day: King of Pain - The Police

Food and Beverage Counter
Mug Root Beer - 12 oz (170 Cal)
Pepsi - 12 oz (150 Cal)

1 Parlour Burger
2 hot dogs

Game Time
Hopkins gets off to a good start.  Elvis Nnaji with 1 dunk and then off a turnover Max Wilson goes up high to him for another dunk.  16-7 Hopkins at the 11:50 mark.  Lead holds there as Cam Heide goes to the bench with 2 fouls just outside the 7 minute mark.  Xavier White converts a turnover and the Hopkins lead expands to 39-20.  Hopkins with 3 late turnovers in the half to trigger an 8-0 Wayzata run going to the locker room.  39-28 Hopkins at the break.

They look to continue the momentum with the 1st 5 points of the 2nd half.  Wayzata tries to cut into the lead with back to back triples but Hopkins has answers.  Tristan Lee for 3 and Jaelen Treml dunks a turnover to keep the lead at 56-39.  Carter Bjerke with the torch lit in the 2nd half.  One of his 5 triples cuts the lead to 63-54 with 8 minutes remaining and hang on we have a game.

76-63 with under 4 minutes left as Wayzata tries to rally.  Eddie Beeninga 2 free throws and a triple to cut the lead to 6 with 1:33 left and 2 more freebies to make it 5.  Bjerke with his last triple of the night with 34 seconds left cuts it to 4.  But Lee keeps Wayzata at bay with 6 of 6 free throws late.  A late turnover and miss seal the deal.  Hopkins wins 87-80.

Post Game
For Wayzata, Carter Bjerke with 5 triples and 24 points to lead the way.  16 of those points in the 2nd half.  Cam Heide had fouls in the 1st half but had 11 of his 16 in the 2nd half.  Eddie Beeninga 12 of his 15 in the 2nd half.  Trojans were an ice cold and sleepy 9-34 shooting in the 1st half but heated up to over 50% in the 2nd half. Wayzata now 1-1 on the season and in the Lake Conference.  They'll go home on Friday for their home opener and start of 4 straight home games (and 6 straight home conference games in a weird schedule quirk).  A trip to Minnehaha is sprinkled in there.

Hopkins improves to 2-0 overall and in the Lake Conference.  They host STMA on Friday before going on the road for 4 games.  5 in double figures for the Royals.  Xaver White with 21, Elvis Nnaji 19, Tristan Lee 18 including 6-6 free throws to seal it.  Jaelen Treml adds 16 and center Jack Hernandez solid with 11 points.  Nnaji was active inside and even stepped out and hit a 3 along with a couple of blocks.  I liked the 2 bigs, high low motion that coach Novak pulled out of the hat.  He used that a couple of years ago with the Joe Hedstrom crew and I was left wanting more of it.  Their defensive pressure did bother the Wayzata offense.

Four Factors

FACTOR	Hopkins	Wayzata
Effective FG %	56.6%	49.24%
Offensive Rebound %	33.3%	25.6%
Free Throw Rate	36.1%	30.3%
Turnover %	20.8%	17.1%
Points Per Possession	1.10	1.07

Hopkins wins 3 of the 4 factors.  The EFG could have been much worse if not for a blazing hot 2nd half from Wayzata that largely offset a dismal 1st half.  Hopkins with double the assist total of Wayzata on my officially unofficial sheet.  Wayzata relies more on that sharing so you wouldn't expect a big loss in the assist percentage but that happened here.