Section Scout: 5AAAA Finals
36 minutes was not enough to fulfill the excitement level at Rogers High School on Friday night. The last Class AAAA State Tournament berth needed to see 12 more minutes of extra basketball before it could decide who won. Finally,…
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Continue Reading36 minutes was not enough to fulfill the excitement level at Rogers High School on Friday night. The last Class AAAA State Tournament berth needed to see 12 more minutes of extra basketball before it could decide who won. Finally, the Park Center Pirates defeated the Champlin Park Rebels 57-55 in triple overtime.
Take One: Atmosphere. It took a little while to fill up, but Rogers High School continued the streak of years with electric Section 5AAAA championship games. What a fantastically spacious and clean venue to hold a big game. I’d love to see them go back to hosting the semifinals as well. Plenty of basketball media and prominent community members were in attendance to see the great talent, athleticism and depth of both teams. Adding three overtimes had everybody standing by the end when the final heave went up. The Pirate/Rebel rivalry came alive last night and culminated with a storm of green rushing the court.
Take Two: Walking In Memphis. Park Center scores 72 a game. Champlin Park scores 69 a game. Park Center allows 57 a game. Champlin Park allows 55 a game. This game went final at 57-55 with 12 extra minutes played! The definition of Grit ‘n’ Grind. Both teams have stout rim protection and incredibly athletic guards and wings who can make defensive plays out of nowhere. Park Center’s Emmanuel Tamba was excellent defending Bennett Otto and Champlin Park’s Jacob Johnson had length to bother Tommy Chatman most of the game. Two of the better defensive teams in the area took pride on that end as whole units last night.
Take Three: Big man competition. Dain Dainja was quiet in half one since the Rebels sagged on him in a 2-3 zone. But he was crucial to the Park Center victory with his aggressiveness from the high post catch. He needed one dribble on drives to draw contact and finish through it. 15 points and nine rebounds for the highly ranked junior.
Alex John is one of the best athletically capable centers to match with Dainja. He was strong in his minutes scoring on offensive rebounds and coming up with a huge bucket to cut the PC lead from 4 to 2 in the second overtime. He fouled out late but was impressive in the paint in his final high school game. I’m constantly in awe of his strength and agility at 6-8 and how chiseled he’s become.
Behind John was sophomore center Francis Nwaokorie. While the starter sat with fouls, 6-5 Francis used his wide base to snatch away offensive rebounds and had soft touch around the rim amd at the free throw line for 11 points on the game. He stepped into a huge spot in the last overtime to hit freebies and tie things back up. The Rebels are set with another physical big man for years to come.
Take Four: Rebel seniors compete until the last second. Champlin Park’s senior class is stellar. They don’t have the D1 offers or the courtside cameras following them but as plenty have said on Twitter already, they were gym rats their whole careers and have more than exceeded expectations after some very dominant years before them. Bennett Otto has evolved into one of the best point guards in the metro and he’s not even a point guard. His defense and court vision have improved vastly over the years. Jacob Johnson has exploded to be the number one scoring option for CP recently, was already a stronf 3-and-D wing and will please the college who lands him. Alex John as we said is a physical specimen with no fear of opposing bigs. Speaking of physical specimen, Kato Seley can sit down and guard just about anyone with those boulder-like shoulders and quick feet. They led the team to a 23-6 mark and a legitimate claim to being a top 12-15 team in the state. Congrats to them and where they’ll head off to.
Take Five: Are we in the 2014 state semifinals? The third overtime box score was 4-2. Park Center won the tip and held at halfcourt while the Rebels sat 2-3 zone patiently. This went on for 90 seconds before Mark Tuchscherer called for a well-timed trap and Champlin Park got a steal. Their possession came up empty in the paint and Park Center again held without pressure until Tommy Chatman attacked and was fouled with 5.4 seconds left to hit two free throws and take the win.
Everyone’s got their own thoughts on this scenario. More and more people want a shot clock to be implemented as a standard in MN high school hoops. We saw earlier this season in a game between Waseca and St. Cloud Apollo the same thing happened for the final SIX minutes of the first half. Last night makes the case again for the shot clock; will it ever break through?
Quick stats. Dainja 15pt/9reb, Chatman 11pt, Josh Brown 12pt (4 treys). Johnson 13pt/6reb, Nwaokorie 11pt, Bennett Otto 10pt.