Minnesota Playoff Central: Thursday
Zeke Nnaji is listed as a finalist for all the major Player of the Year Awards in Minnesota plus he’s a top 30 ranked player in the nation. Last night he backed it up once again with 29 points leading…
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Continue ReadingZeke Nnaji is listed as a finalist for all the major Player of the Year Awards in Minnesota plus he’s a top 30 ranked player in the nation. Last night he backed it up once again with 29 points leading the Hopkins Royals back into the state tournament.
Ticket Punched! One team in the state of Minnesota knows it is going to the State Tournament right now and that is the Hopkins Royals. Wayzata won this game the previous two seasons but Zeke Nnaji and the Royals got a big taste of revenge with last night’s 82-71 victory. Zeke Nnaji scored a combined 104 points in three games with the Trojans this season and last night Nnaji controlled things once again in the paint. Nnaji is a Mr. Basketball Final Five member, he made the finalist list for the McDonald award, he’s a top Gatorade Player of the Year candidate, and Zeke will be on the short list of candidates for the Star Tribune Metro Player of the Year award. And last night Zeke played like Player of the Year level talent he is scoring 29. From the perimeter Kerwin Walton scored 25 giving Nnaji space to work and forwards Dane Zimmer and Andy Stafford room to active produce double figure numbers. Hopkins is back in the State Tournament after missing it the previous two seasons.
The Big Stage. There are 14 section championship games this evening meaning half of the state tournament teams will be known by about 10pm this evening. Big games everywhere, but where can you can see multiple big games? The Rochester Civic Center will have Austin taking on Northfield at 6pm followed by the latest rematch of Lakeville North and Rochester JM at 8pm. There is no place better to watch a sectional high school basketball game then the Civic Center so that atmosphere will be excellent. Matthew Hurt and Tyler Wahl will go head to head once again. The pair have faced each other in multiple past section title games plus they were teammates for D1 Minnesota this past spring and summer. Matthew Hurt is the all time leading big school scorer and rebounder, can he lead the Rockets (who have won 18 of their last 19 games) past the senior dominated deep Panthers team who is ranked top five in state?
Another multi-game location will be Southwest Minnesota State. At 5pm St. James Area will try and tame the red hot shooting hand of Redwood Valley’s Cole Woodford followed by an 8pm game played between Dawson-Boyd versus Westbrook-Walnut Grove. Sophomore Ethan Mischke is looking like one of the better young players in Class A basketball.
There are several big games elsewhere tonight as well (most small school section title games are on Friday):
- East Ridge vs Cretin-Derham Hall (East Ridge goes for 3-0 vs CDH)
- Hibbing vs Princeton (Hibbing beat Princeton earlier in the year)
- Waconia vs DeLaSalle (Islanders go for an 8th straight trip to state)
- Mahtomedi vs Totino-Grace (1 vs 2 in section)
- St. Thomas vs Holy Angles (STA goes for 3 in a row)
- Mankato East vs Waseca (Jays won the regular season game)
Upset City! St. Charles defeated Caledonia 65-63 in what is surely the biggest upset of Wednesday. St. Charles jumped ahead 17-5 before Caledonia clawed back and made it a one score game. Sam Holtz made three threes and led his team with 21 (Kooper Vaughn and Drew Leistikow each scored 14) while Noah King scored 31 for Caledonia but received little help from others.
Right on Schedule. Lake City received a game high 23 points from Nathan Heise and 19 Reid Gastner as the talented pair cruised their team through Wednesday setting up the section title game with St. Charles. Many believe that Lake City is on a collision course along with Perham to defend the outstate against the talented city teams of Minnehaha Academy and Breck or Minneapolis North (they play each other for the section title).
Tip of the Hat to the Career. Jacob Beeninga had a fabulous career for the Wayzata Trojans taking them to state back to back years after having spent 58 seasons without a state tournament appearance. It was Beeninga that brought the program to another level and that legacy has been cemented. Jacob will now focus on his career playing for Minnesota State-Moorhead.