MINNETONKA 71, PARK CENTER 70

Friday’s tournament schedule took a detour due to a funeral today. I generally get to see at least three games a day during this break, but the funeral came in the afternoon. Again I had to skate down highways and byways. I did return home later in the afternoon and that gave me the opportunity to go down the street and catch the final game in the Park Center tournament. The Pirates were hosting Minnetonka in the final game of the event. #14AAAA Minnetonka edged out #10AAAA PC by one thin point. The longer Skippers dominated the boards (46/22) offsetting their turnover deficit (18/9) in the win. Tonka also exploited their advantage at the free throw line converting 23 to only 11 for PC. The Pirates, manufactured nine 3s on the night including one at the buzzer by leading scorer Sommer Blakemore.

PC grabbed the early lead at 13-7 after three and a half minutes of action. The Pirates scored four straight times to build that lead including two 3s and one old fashioned &1. The offensive pendulum swung to Minnetonka as they went on a 17-2 run. PC was forced to play catch up the rest of the way. The Skippers led 35-28 at the break. PC cut that deficit back to one (44-43) with 12:48 left in the game after a driving lay up by Meghan DuBois. Kayla Mershon responded for Minnetonka on their next possession with an &1 she converted. It should also be pointed out that Minnetonka scored 14 points on second chancers, five more than PC delivered. Minnetonka stretched out their lead to 69-62 with 54 seconds left after Megan Walker converted her second free throw. Blakemore scored a 3 from the right corner tightening the gap to 69-65 with 30.8 left. A quick time out got the result PC wanted—a turnover followed by a lay up by Adalia McKenzie (69-67). The press didn’t get the result the next time and Liv O’Brien was fouled with 14.8 seconds left after a foul sent both players into the base of the wall. It was ruled intentional so two free throws (both missed) but the ball was back in the Skippers hands. This time it was Mershon who was fouled. She had to cleanse some blood from her uniform before she took her free throws with 7.4 ticks left. She converted both. That set the stage for Blakemore’s deep 3 on the last play of the night.

In a one point game any play is the pivotal play. It is only in the last minute when things get magnified. Such is the case here.

There are 23 AAAA teams left to see. I am now up to 53 teams charted in the top 100 and 47 left to go with 49 available dates.

Team	PP100	scorer	Distributor	D stops
Minnetonka	107.6	Megan Walker 20	Blake Greer 8	Kayla Mershon 13
Park Center	104.5	Sommer Blakemore 22	Lauren Frost 6	Four with 5

TRENCH PLAYER: Megan Walker, got to the rim, went to the line