ST. PAUL CENTRAL 56, BLAKE 40

St. Paul Central used a second half surge to break Blake’s heart on Valentine’s Day 56-40. Two Minutemen players, Jonquelle Warren and Arlandus Montgomery arrived late for the six pm start and didn’t get into the contest until 13:54 remained in the game with Blake leading 31-28. They immediately flipped the switch. Montgomery was the catalyst of a 28-9 finish with pin point passing and Warren knocked down some two 3s in two attempts. Until that time the Minuteman boat was staying afloat thanks to Eliza Karlen and Ellie Gubbrud. Blake struggled to get into their offensive flow after that and the press was not effective against the two jolts of energy.

Bigger Central controlled the boards with an eleven advantage. The bigger advantage for SPC came with inside scoring. There the Minutemen had 36 points to 12 for Blake. It goes deeper than that. The Bears attempted 17 inside (and lay ups) while the Minutemen had 33 attempts. That is how size and the 2/3 zone impact the game. As a result Blake took 36% of their shots behind the arc. That also meant there wasn’t a lot of drives inside and it also meant they weren’t going to the free throw line—only four for the night.

Central, with the victory, noses above .500 at 12-11. Blake falls to 10-13 on the year.

Of the five games on tap today the highest team not to be charted this year was Blake at #195. SPC was charted in the first Minnesota game I did this year at the Hamline event on Thanksgiving Friday. I still have eight teams to cross off to finish the top 100 for the year.

I barely made it to Blake on time thanks to a 15 minute delay on 694 and Central Avenue by Medtronic. I made it with five minutes to spare. There were some fans, thinking it was a 7 pm start, that rolled in just as the game was wrapping up.

 

Team	PP100	scorer	Distributor	D stops
St. Paul Central	87.5	Ellie Gubbrud 17	Arlandus Montgomery 6	Aliza Karlen 14
Blake	60.6	Cate Moe 11	Cate Moe 7	Robbie Grace 8

TRENCH PLAYER: With a trench player, you want someone who is there from the start. 6-0 senior forward Ellie Gubbrud of St. Paul Central, a newly minted member of the 31 Club gets the nod.