Totino-Grace and Fridley won 1st round games at Hill-Murray yesterday, and so they will play one another today in the 1st semi-final at 5:30 p.m. Unfortunately, the game is not listed on the Hub because the matchup was only determined yesterday. The host Hill-Murray will play Lakeville South at 7:15 in the 2nd semi-final game.
Totino-Grace 73 South St. Paul 25
Totino-Grace totally outclassed South St, Paul 45-10 in the 1st half and 73-25 for the day. I charted the 1st half, but then you’ll have to forgive me for giving it up. In the 1st half, Totino shot a solid 20-of-34 despite making just 3-of-12 3s. But you can do the math. That means they made 17-of-22 2s, almost all of them on layups and maybe half of them on 1-on-zero and 2-on-zero breakaways. Totino’s ball movement and movement without the ball was crisp and smooth and, in the half-court, invariably resulted in an open lane to the rim that Chloe Nuss, Maria Radabaugh and Carolyn Schrader were able to convert. (Nuss and Radabaugh, for the record, were an acceptable 3-for-7 from 3 in the 1st half; their teammates were 0-for-5.) But, meanwhile, Totino was able to get out and run,whenever it pleased.
In fact, Totino ran out to early leads of 11-0 and 17-3 when Kate Ebert made a 3 for the Packers. Totino promptly got a 2-on-zero break after the South St. Paul bucket. Soon it was 39-7, then 45-10.
In the 1st half, South St. Paul shot just 3-of-15–2-of-7 3s, and 1-of-8 2s. What was worse was the 17 times that they did not get a shot off at all, instead turning the ball over those 17 times. In the 2nd half, Totino took their foot off the bas somewhat without ever getting loose or sloppy. But, they mostly called off the full court pressure defense that created so many of those 1st half turnovers for South St. Paul. Nuss finished with 19 points, Radabaugh 16 and Schrader 11. Schrader did not start the game after missing some team practices due to a family vaca, but she is not sick or injured.
Fridley 71 St. Paul Como Park 49
Might the days of Como Park’s domination of the St. Paul City Conference be coming to an end, I wondered as i watched the Cougars getting trounced by Fridley 71-49. I think they’ve won the City title 9 times outright to go with a co-title in 2015. They did not look like a championship team yesterday, but then I looked at the current standings in the City which shows Como at 4-6 and everybody else now at 7-32.
In any event, I should really be talking about Fridley, though it’s true that the Tigers trailed the Cougars 13-11just inside the halfway point of the 1st half after Como’s Jayla Henderson and Makyia Kenney each scored twice. At that point, Como led on the offensive boards 4-1, and by day’s end they would have 20 offensive boards to 10 for Fridley. But Fridley outscored Como 23-9 the rest of the half with senior Aubrey Cochran scoring 13 points including 7-of-8 FT. After turning the ball over 4 times in the 1st 10 minutes, they turned it over 8 times in the 2nd 10 minutes of the 1st half. Como compensated with 13 offensive boards good for 5 points, but they also made just 2-of-7 FT.
Como scored 4 of the 1st 5 buckets of the 2nd half to get within 40-33. But they got stuck on 35 and Fridley increased their lead from 45-35 at the 10 minute mark to 63-45 closer to 5 minutes. This time it was senior Brandi Washington doing most of the damage with 3 2s and a 3. Fridley was led by Washington with 26 points. After that the box score on the Hub bears little if any resemblance to mine. They show Cochran with 22 points, Mya Karsten with 12 and Portia Greer with 9, all more than what I had. And I could swear that #12 Brooklyn Boyd was out there on the floor for Fridley a bit, and I thought she scored 9 points. The Hub shows zero for her. I could be wrong.
I don’t think I’m wrong about the game MVP (my game MVP) who is not Brandi Washington but Como’s senior post Makyia Kenney, who grabbed 19 rebounds on the day, ten on defense and nine on the offense. Unfortunately her 9 offensive boards prodiced only 6 points. Kenney herself made 1-of-2 FG and 0-for-4 FT after her offensive boards. She did record one assist after an offensive board and her teammates were 2-for-6 after her boards. Overall Como shot 20-of-58, including 5-of-28 3s and 15-of-30 2s. Fridley made 5-of-19 3s and 18-of-40 2s. The biggest difference was Fridley making 18-of-25 FT, Como just 5-of 16.
The Lower Bracket
Unfortunately the lower bracket games were no closer than the upper bracket games. Lakeville South defeated Forest Lake 72-45, coming out of just a 34-27 halftime lead, as Dani Coleman led 4 Cougars in double figures with 18 points. And, the host Hill-Murray clobbered Mpls. Camden (formerly Patrick Henry) 79-29 as Mya Wilson led 3 Pioneers in double figures with 26 points.
Today’s semi-finals should be better games. I’m picking Totino over Fridley 64-55 and the host Hill-Murray over visiting Lakeville South 60-53.
Thursday’s All-Stars
C- Makyia Kenney, St. Paul Como, sr., 7 pts-19 rebounds
PF- Dani Coleman, Lakeville South, 6-1, sr., 18 pts
PG- Brandi Washington, Fridley, sr., 26 pts, 11 rebounds, 4 steals
W- Mya Wilson, Hill-Murray, 6-1, soph., 26 pts
W- Chloe Nuss, Totino-Grace, 5-10, s r., 19 pts, (and 5 reb. and 2 asts in the 1st half)
2nd Team
C- Amaya Pahl, Lakeville South, 6-0, jr., 11 pts.
PF- Carolyn Schrader, Totino-Grace, 5-10, sr., 11 pts.
SF- Ashlee Wilson, Totino-Grace, 5-11, 7th grade, 15 pts
PG- Maria Radabaugh, Totino-Grace, 5-9, jr. 16 pts
SG- Aubrey Cochran, Fridley, sr., 22 pts (?)