FOUR SATURDAY GAMES

Contrasts. That was the theme of the day. The odd games were

breakneck speed. The even games featured deliberate, methodical basketball. The whole spectrum was on display today. The possession counts in the games were 76-48-71-58. In general most of the high school games hover near 66.

I started the day down in Northfield at St. Olaf to check off Grand Rapids. I figured going south an hour was a better use of my time (especially when the roads were relatively dry) than heading north for three hours. The other “must see” today was Eagan. They were in the fifth place game in the Roseville tournament and then I stuck around for the next two games. This was the only window for Eagan that worked in my calendar.

PRIOR LAKE 76, GRAND RAPIDS 54

The St. Olaf Tournament last year featured five games (including Eagan). This year they were down to two. Grand Rapids got three games in, all against South Suburban teams. This time Prior Lake used their pressure to force 30 turnovers and that resulted in easy shots. The Lakers were 9/12 in transition. McKenna Hofschild kept up her hot shooting with 70% from 2s, 100% from 3s (2/2) and 7/8 at the line. At the break PL led 46-25.

	PRIOR LAKE	GRAND RAPIDS
POINTS	76	54
REBOUNDS/OFF	38/11	30/9
TURNOVERS	19	30
FTA/%	28/71.4	20/65.0
2FG%/3FG%	48.9/36.4	37.1/35.7
PP100	100.0	70.1
TOP SCORER	McKenna Hofschild 27	Liberty Blaine 19

TRENCH PLAYER: McKenna Hofschild with a day’s high 27 points, 150.0 pp100 and a 40 in the 31 Club.

ANDOVER 37, EAGAN 34

Patience is a virtue. Eagan had 391 touches in 46 possessions—-or 8.5 touches per possessions. The Wildcats had 26 plays with 7 or more touches (so did Andover). According to my charts, Eagan only had one transition opportunity. The Wildcats led at the break 16-13. With four minutes to go the Wildcats still led 31-30. Sydney White put Andover up to stay with a basket. Emily Diemer gave the Huskies a four point cushion thanks to a three. A 3 by Morgan Eckerle with 1.3 seconds left cut were the only points Eagan scored in the last seven possessions.

This marks the second time I charted Andover on the year and the second time they overcame a slow start to pull off the win. The other time was against St. Francis.

	ANDOVER	EAGAN
POINTS	37	34
REBOUNDS/OFF	22/6	31/10
TURNOVERS	8	15
FTA/%	15/60.0	12/66.7
2FG%/3FG%	35.7/26.1	38.5/25.0
PP100	77.1	73.9
TOP SCORER	Sydney White 13	Hannah Lamkin 12

TRENCH PLAYER: Sydney White with 13 points, 100.0 pp100 and a 21 in the 31 Club.

COOPER 77, ROGERS 64

Cooper used their inside game and the slashing drives of their perimeter to beat the long distance dialing of Rogers 77-64. Cooper was 8/13 in transition and went to the line every 14.5 touches. Rogers went to the line every 75.3 touches. The Royals did knock down ten 3s on the day. Cooper also had balance in the scoring department with four players with 9 or more points.

	COOPER	ROGERS
POINTS	77	64
REBOUNDS/OFF	41/16	35/13
TURNOVERS	12	18
FTA/%	23/82.6	4/50.0
2FG%/3FG%	50.0/18.2	42.1/40.0
PP100	108.5	91.4
TOP SCORER	Aja Wheeler 20	Ellie Buzzelle 23

TRENCH PLAYER: Aja Wheeler with 20 points, a pp100 of 125 and a day’s high 45 in the 31 Club.

ROSEVILLE 44, CENTENNIAL 41

This was perhaps a preview of the 5AAAA finals (Park Center may have some say in the matter). The host Raiders overcame an eight point first half deficit to beat Centennial. By half it was 21-16 Centennial. The physical grinding pace had more touches than the second game. Roseville had 430 touches for the night, but with a few more possessions the touch per possession was lower at 7.4. They do have more 7+ touch plays on the night with 30. The Cougars were unable to generate any clean looks and suffered from 20.9 shooting inside 2. The Raiders didn’t take the lead until Kaylee Nelson’s 3 that hit iron, popped up and then fell through (30-28) with over ten minutes left in the game. Another Nelson 3 gave the Raiders what looked like an insurmountable 41-34 lead with about 2 minutes to go. Late game situations always intrigue me (same as in game 2). There was plenty to dissect here, but what is even more interesting is the last 17.5 seconds. After Centennial’s Jodi Anderson scored on a driving lay up to make it 43-40, they were forced to foul. Jayda Johnston went to the line and made the first but missed the second. The loose ball rebound went to Roseville. Another missed free throw fell into Roseville’s hands but inexplicably they attempted a shot in traffic. This with 7.3 seconds left. This time the dead ball rebound went to Roseville.  Another inexplicable foul put Centennial at the line 90 feet from the basket. Grace Johnson made the first free throw (which ended up being the final point of the night) and the Cougars called time out, probably to set up a miss, get a rebound and kick it out to 3 for a 3 to tie it up since they were still down 3. The first part went according to script, but inexplicably they attempted a two (remember there is only 3 ticks left, down 3). IF they would have converted, they would have lost by one. Instead the ball goes out of bounds, the whistle blows, the refs convene. I have it marked for Roseville. No, it goes to Centennial with 0.9 ticks (or is it tick or is it tic) left. Time out again. Centennial jams it up top for a potential three but a Raider sandwich prevents any shot from even being attempted. Roseville wins round one of a 5AAAA potential final.

	ROSEVILLE	CENTENNIAL
POINTS	44	41
REBOUNDS/OFF	38/14	33/16
TURNOVERS	22	15
FTA/%	16/56.3	18/77.8
2FG%/3FG%	34.5/45.5	20.9/42.9
PP100	75.9	70.7
TOP SCORER	Jayda Johnston 15	Jodi Anderson 12

TRENCH PLAYER: Kaylee Nelson with 12 points, 120 pp100, and 16 in the 31 Club

Here is the all-tournament team (without the Woodbury/St. Francis game included).

Sydney White, Andover
Hannah Lamkin, Eagan
Alaina Brenning, Rogers
Aja Wheeler, Cooper,
Arthel Massaquoi, Cooper
Taylor MacAulay, Centennial
Jodi Anderson, Centennial
Kaylee Nelson, Roseville
Jayda Johnston, Roseville
Rai’Janee Meadows, Roseville