NHR Playoff Central: March 13
It’s the final week of the Section playoffs in Minnesota and teams are dropping quickly. Here’s a rundown of where things sit in Minnesota currently.
The Big Stage. Mankato/St. Peter Area. All eyes are on this region tonight with the lone games being played at Minnesota State-Mankato and Gustavus College. The 2AA games in Mankato will be Fairmont vs NRHEG and Glencoe-Silver Lake vs Jordan. The games in St. Peter match Mountain Lake vs Springfield and Cleveland vs CMC.
Upset City. The #1 Playoff Day. Last Saturday is always the day where most playoff games are played in a fun setting. Upsets were minimal but there were some of note.
Rushford-Peterson over Spring Grove. Spring Grove is the one squad that seemed like they could give North a run and the reason was they played them so well last summer in beating North. Fact is Spring Grove hasn’t been playing well and the Trojans ended their season. Landon Skalet, a sophomore, hit the game winning three for R-P late. The Trojans are playing fantastic defense right now and the state needs to be aware. Jacob Paulson led them with 11 points.
Holy Family over Brooklyn Center. The Fire is playing very well and they, the eight seed, took out the one seed on Saturday in St. Michael. The 1/8 seeding makes this look like a monster upset but in reality Holy Family has been playing great competition all year and learned from it. Nathan Hendler totaled 20 points and eight rebounds plus his feisty nature got in the heads of his opponents. Lincoln Cizek was great at the arc and Griffin Johnson ran the offense perfectly.
St. Agnes over New Life Academy. Having one of the better shooting games from the arc all year and a strong defensive performance the team of St. Agnes first year coach Chris Hopkins beat New Life Academy 57-54 in an attention grabbing performance. The win evened up the Aggies record at 14-14 giving them six wins in their last seven games. Next up is Minneapolis Roosevelt.
Rogers over St. Cloud Tech. Rogers beating Tech is not a big upset. Rogers is a very good basketball team that is now 24-4 on the season and ready to take their shot at Maple Grove. The upset part is their 16 point win controlling the game. Matt Carik and Mitch Spilles each scored 18 while Jordan Belka gave the team a dozen points for a balanced effort.
Saturday’s Top Moments. Jackson County Central keeps winning…Michael Schaefer had big numbers for Cathedral…Tartan’s senior class moves on after a 30 point blowout win and now they get CDH who survived on more Daniel Oturu shot blocking and key plays in overtime…Trae Berhow pushed his team through Litchfield in overtime with help from Ben Theisen, nose tackle slash PG, and McKinley Gehlhausen, the Dancing Bear…Myles Hanson exploded again for huge numbers, that top ten snub has him going…Hopkins is still playing at a high level…Mahtomedi came back from 14 down and Parker Fox led the way with dunk after dunk and 27 second half points…Matthew Hurt had 37 of his team’s 61 as JM beat New Prague…Waseca barely got by Kato East in overtime…Brad Davison and Tywhon Pickford combined for 53 of their team’s 71 to beat Elk River…
Hat Tip to the Career. Several. There were too many good players that had their careers end to go with just one. We start with 2,000 plus point scorer Jack Sorenson of Lakeville South who will now focus on where to play at the next level. Rocky Kreuser of Totino-Grace is now focused on playing for NDSU while Jordan Lynn and Lamarr Wood will go from Mpls Henry to the next level at Lake Region State.
In the southeast Faribault’s Kade Hart, Pine Island’s Broc Finstuen, and Spring Grove’s Chase Grinde all finished up their careers on Saturday. Kart is headed to Bemidji State, Grinde is going to USF, and Broc will be in Wyoming at a junior college. Also, Zach Hanson from New Prague will be at St. John’s and his season ended as well.
Likely the best season had by a senior who played their last game was Walt McGrory of Edina. Walt and the Hornets fell to Chaska over the weekend. Walt can now focus on his college selection which includes SDSU, Furman, Maine, and others.