Three holiday tournament games at Concordia St. Paul, sponsored by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, matched up Class AAA powers with Class AAAA, well, not such big powers but respectable Class AAAA teams. Class AAA Alexandria, Mankato East and DeLaSalle came into the day at 9-4 and ranked #3, #5 and #6. Their Class AAAA opponents, Maple Grove, Park Center and Minnetonka were 8-11 and all unrated, but all had been rated at one time or another earlier in the year.
So it was something of a surprise that Class AAA swept the series. Alexandria pulled away from Maple Grove late to win 84-69. Mankato East outclassed Park Center 77-58 but led by as much as 71-39 at about 6:30. And, DeLaSalle parlayed a 38-35 halftime lead into a 75-72 win over Minnetonka in the night cap and in the closest game of the three.
Alexandria 84 Maple Grove 69
The big story, if you ask me, is that, well, Alex is better than I thought, and what’s better about them is their quick man-to-man defense. Mason and Talan Witt are especially quick around the ball, but everybody fights over the tops of screens and takes accountability. Nobody is waiting around for help. And, so, Maple Grove shot 23-for-55 according to my unofficial stats, or a respectable 42 percent. Just not good enough to stay with the Cardinals.
6-0 junior guard Mason Witt dominated the 1st half for Alex, scoring 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including 5-of-7 3s. He finished with 28 points based on 10-of-18 shooting. In the 2nd half, 6-8 Chase Thompson, #1 rated senior in Minnesota and Clemson commit, took over, scoring 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting including 2-of-4 3s. He also added 6 2nd half rebounds for a total of 9. 6-0 junior guard Talan Witt added 8 points in each half for a total of 16 on 6-of-11 shooting and 2-of-3 3s. In total, Alex made 32-of-62 FG (52%), 13-of-27 3s (48%), but just 7-of-15 FT (47%).
Maple Grove was about what I anticipated, but considering that they are not ranked, they are maybe a little better than you think.They’ll win some games, against Park Center for one. Forwards Kaden Hearney, a senior, and Boubacar Ann, a sophomore, are solid offensive threats. They scored 32 points combined in the 1st half (11-of-18 shooting) to keep the Crimson in the game. They scored 20 between them in the 2nd half (7-of-18 shooting), and that wasn’t enough. Alex led 47-39 at the half, but stretched it out to 62-45 at 12 minutes. Maple Grove got back within 9 at 66-57 at 7:44 but Alex went on a 10-0 and 15-4 run to ice it.
Mankato East 77 Park Center 58
Who knew that Park Center had fallen so far so fast? They looked like Park Center in the warm-ups, but as soon as the opening tip it was obvious that Class AAA Mankato has vastly better athletes and even more to the point they have more skilled basketball players. Alex beat Maple Grove thanks to a quick, aggressive man-to-man defense. Mankato East’s defense was equally quick, a bunch more aggressive and physical and overall the more effective of the 2. Now, that may be in part because Park Center is not as good as Maple Grove, but I would wager that in today’s Alex vs. Mankato East Class AAA showdown that Mankato East’s shots will be slightly less contested than Alex’s.
In any event, Park Center stayed close only through 14-12, 17-14 and 22-17, depending on your definition of close. But suddenly it was 30-17, then 30-20 and then 46-20 at the half. Junior guard Luke Gustafson led Mankato with 15 1st half points on 6-of-8 shooting. Senior guard Brogan Madson added 13 on 4-of-8 shooting, while senior forward Ganden Gosch also scored 13 on 5-of-11 shooting plus 6 rebounds. All told, Mankato shot 18-of-35 in the half, Park Center just 8-of-29.
By the time it was 50-25, Gustafson, Madson and Gosch had 45 of those 50 points, but Mankato spread the scoring around a little more in the 2nd half as Amari Nobles and Thokwech Puoch each scored 4 times. As mentioned in our intro, Mankato led by as many as 32 at 71-39 before Park Center closed the gap with a 19-6 finish. I didn’t score the 2nd half and there’s no box on the Hub, so I don’t have total (full game) stats, but I think I can say that Abu Keita and Temiloluwa Omotoyinbo were Park Center’s only real offensive threats. They combined for 14 of the Pirates 20 1st half points, and scored at least 15 more between them in the 2nd half. Park Center played without junior guard Xavier Frelix.
DeLaSalle 75 Minnetonka 72
I scored only the 1st half in this game and by the time all was said and done, I was at home in bed. So I can’t tell you how the game ended other than that it ended up a one-possession game. A “thriller” according to one post on X. But there’s also no box on the Hub. So I’ll tell you about the 1st half.
Tonka took the early lead at 6-2, 10-6 and 12-8. De caught up and got its 1st lead at 13-12, and extended that lead to 21-16 as Evan Miller scored a 3+1. Tonka then scored 10 straight points, 8 of them by Isa El-Amin, to go up by 26-21. De caught up at 28, went ahead 31-30 and 38-32 before an El-Amin 3 at the buzzer got the Skippers within 3.
El-Amin was doing most of the rowing for the Skippers. He scored 19 of their 35 1st half points on 7-of-8 shooting including 2-of-3 3s. Jacob Hudson added 8 points on 3-of-4 shooting. Malachi Boadi added 4 points and led all rebounders in the half with 4. Miller and De’von Irvin each scored 11 for De on a combined 8-of-13 shooting. Irvin added 4 steals leading to 8 DeLaSalle points. Tonka shot 14-of-22 (64%), DeLaSalle 15-of-26 (58%) in the 1st half.
CSP Stars
C- Chase Thompson, Alex 6-8, sr., 21 pts-9 reb
SF-Boubacar Ann, Maple Grove, 6-5, soph., 28 pts
PG- Brogan Madson, Mankato East, 6-2, senior, at least 17 pts
CG- Isa El-Amin, Minnetonka, 19 pts (1st half)
SG- Mason Witt, Alex, 6-0, junior, 25 pts
2nd Team
C- Ganden Gosch, Mankato East 6-5, senior, at least 17 pts and 6 reb
PF- Evan Miller, DeLaSalle, junior, 11 pts (1st half)
SF- Keegan Hearney, Maple Grove, 6-3, senior, 24 pts
PG- Talan Witt, Alex, 6-0, junior, 16 pts-5 reb-2 asts-3 stls
SG- De’von Irvin, DeLaSalle, senior, 11 pts, 4 sls (1st half)