4A & 4AA CHAMPIONSHIP
The metro private school championships, better known as the 4A
and 4AA sections, crowned winners Friday night. And for the first time all season I felt like I was in a gym with atmosphere. Tonight the crowds were raucous and the student sections stood the entire game. Space was hard to come by—-in the stands. That may have revved up the teams tonight. Something old (Minnehaha) and something new (Heritage Christian) are off to the big dance next week. But the paths were different.
HERITAGE CHRISTIAN 71, MAYER LUTHERAN 58
#2 seed Heritage Christian is making their first journey to the big show with a blitz basketball attack on Mayer Lutheran. When you shoot good, you look good. HC was sensational. How hot? so hot the nets were smoking. The Eagles only missed six shots the entire first half. For the game HC was at 74% from 2s. That is not a misprint or missed key stroke. That fast start put ML early in the hole. It was 18-6 with 12 minutes left. That is when ML took their first time out. HC had runs of five and four, with droughts few and far between. Soon HC led 31-11. Even with HC tickling the twine, they had issues on other parts of the court. I can’t think of too many teams that coughed the ball up 32 times, a minus 13 in turnover differential, and still come up smelling like a rose. Taylie Scott led the charge for HC, with chants of MVP from their fans. She ended up with 27 points and kept the machine running. ML did try to climb out of the chasm and made progress cutting the margin to seven (33-26), thanks to a 15-2 run. By half HC had managed to right the ship and was back in front by eleven (40-29). ML on the backs of Maddy Hucky and Mya Chmielewski 20 point efforts were within shouting distance getting the deficit down to eight several times, the last coming at 62-54 with 2:49 left. But ML could never get sustained stops.
MINNEHAHA ACADEMY 64, CONCORDIA ACADEMY 51
State ranked #4 Minnehaha is traveling down the state tournament Rhoades for the fifth straight year, but the final score belies the tension felt in the game. Senior Terra Rhoades paved the way for the Red Hawks with a game high 35 points. Early on this looked like it was going to be a blow out for MA. Concordia struggled to score inside or outside against the Redhawk zone with their wing spans casting shadows. MA led 11-2 after eight minutes. Three and a half minutes later the score made a glacial move to 11-3. This obviously didn’t have the scorching shooting of the first game. By half MA led 21-14. With 7:24 left in the game CA had cut the lead down to five (42-37). But MA was in the bonus and the Redhawks moved to the delay game. The result was a foul up finish. MA attempted 34 free throws and cashed in 23. CA attempted seven. Terra Rhoades herself attempted 14.
MA is now 22-7. CA ends the year at 19-10.
| Category | Heritage | Mayer Lutheran | Minnehaha | Concordia |
| Scoring | 71 | 58 | 64 | 51 |
| Rebounds | 36 | 19 | 43 | 45 |
| 2FG% | 74.1% | 37.1% | 41.9 | 37.5% |
| 3FG% | 45.5% | 31.8% | 20.8 | 20.0% |
| FT% | 66.7% | 84.6% | 67.6% | 85.7% |
| Distributions | 22 | 22 | 21 | 20 |
| Turnovers | 32 | 19 | 14 | 18 |
| Paint points | 32 | 18 | 24 | 26 |
| Bench | 0 | 0 | 5 | 3 |
| Team | PP100 | Scorer | Distributor | D stops |
| Heritage | 100.0 | Taylie Scott 27 | Taylor Schuck 7 | Annnika Simonson 12 |
| Mayer Lutheran | 79.5 | Two with 20 | Mya Chmielewski 7 | Two with 8 |
| Minnehaha | 87.7 | Terra Rhoades 35 | Taytum Rhoades 7 | Terra Rhoades 12 |
| Concordia | 68.9 | Lydia Lecher 15 | Ivane Tensaie 9 | Ivane Tensaie 10 |
TRENCH PLAYER:
GAME 1: 5-7 junior guard Taylie Scott of Heritage Christian
GAME 2: 5-6 senior guard Terra Rhoades of Minnehaha Academy