Centennial, Park Center advance to Section 5AAAA finals
Of some 20 or so semi-final doubleheaders, I picked Section 5AAAA to spend my Saturday afternoon. Surely, these would be a couple of close, competitive games. Guess again. And then my friend told me that Moorhead was going to beat…
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Continue ReadingOf some 20 or so semi-final doubleheaders, I picked Section 5AAAA to spend my Saturday afternoon. Surely, these would be a couple of close, competitive games. Guess again. And then my friend told me that Moorhead was going to beat St. Michael-Albertville. It’s not gonna happen, I said. So, that’s how much I know.
Park Center 66 Roseville 47
Park Center just methodically picked Roseville apart, leading 14-6 as Sommer Blakemore and Ann Simonet hit 3 pointers, then 20-12 when Mikayla Hayes hit her 2nd bucket. But mostly in the 1st half it was Meghan DuBois running wild. Her 11th and 12th points came in transition around the 2 minute mark to make it 28-14.
In the 2nd half, Roseville crawled back to 34-29 when they drew successive charging calls on Simonet. Park Center coach Chris Vander Hyde made some adjustments and suddenly Hayes was open for 3 straight buckets on high-low passes from DuBois, then Simonet, then Blakemore. 43-31, 8 minutes to go, all over but the shouting.
According to my unofficial numbers DuBois had 15, Hayes 12, Blakemore 10, Simonet and Danielle Schaub 9 each for Park Center. Hayes added 13 boards while Schaub had 5 assists, all in the 2nd half. They turned it over just 6 times.
Meanwhile, Kaia Porter was the whole show for Roseville with 16 points on 8-of-13 shots with 9 boards. But, no one else scored more than Jayda Johnston’s 6 points as the Pirates scrappy defense was able to speed Roseville up a little bit. They shot OK at 17-of-42 but had an uncharacteristic 19 turnovers.
Centennial 62 Champlin Park 46
Centennial did the same to Champlin that Park Center did to Roseville—picked ‘em apart. Only the methodology was different. Compared to Park Center’s balance, here it was the Syd Stapleton show as the junior sniper scored 18 1st half points on 7-of-13 shooting, plus 7 more on 3-of-9 in the 2nd half, for a total of 25 points. And, by the time it was 20-10 at 8 minutes, then 27-12 at 6 minutes, Champlin started hurrying things, forcing things. It was all over by halftime at 35-18.
Like Roseville, Champlin chipped away, and uit was 49-37 at 6:44 after the Rebels scored on 4 straight possessions with Allison Gerads scoring twice. The Cougars took a timeout, and Claire Orth hit a 3 and then a 2 and soon it was 58-40.
In addition to her 25 points, Syd Stapleton grabbed 11 boards. Sara Stapleton and Orth each added 11 points. Erica Hicks and Amanda Pollard each scored 13 for Champlin.
Highlights Across 2 Games
MVP—Syd Stapleton pretty much single-handedly knocked Champlin Park onto their heels. Actually it was little sister Sara who scored twice and Syd once the get things to an 8-all tie. Syd then his a 2 and a 3 for a 13-8 Centennial lead. 4 minutes later she hit a 2, then a 2 and then a 3 to make it 27-12. Finally a 2 and a pair of throws made it 33-16 at the 1 minute mark.
Syd still shoots it a little flat, a little bit of a knuckleball, but today they went in. And she shoots a pull-up off the dribble, which is pretty much of a forgotten art, and which she was able to get anywhere from 8 to 12 feet.
Best Play—When you’re hot, you’re hot. Syd already had 9 points on 4-of-7 FG at about the 8 minute mark when sister Sara grabbed a defensive board and passed it upcourt to sister Syd. Syd brought the ball to the FT line on the dribble, and 2 defenders met her there. With the 2 of them draped all over Syd, she somehow got off the 15 footer and of course it went in.
Best Offensive Performance—Syd Stapleton.
Best Defensive Performance—Meghan DuBois guarded Roseville’s Kaia Porter, and Centennial’s Claire Orth guarded Champlin’s Erika Hicks—at least, they did early on, while the game was still in doubt. Both Roseville without Porter scoring a some points and Champlin without Hicks doing the same, well, they’re both in trouble. And, both were held pretty well in check, certainly not solely but mostly due to the defensive efforts of DuBois and Orth.
Best Under-the-Radar Performance—Well, there’s really nobody under the radar in these programs but Park Center guard Kayla Cox, a 5-3 freshman, would qualify at least as somebody still establishing herself at the varsity level. She’s in the mold of Sommer Blakemore and, say, Raena Suggs. She’s as quick as you could want, a terrible pest on defense. And, on the other side of the ball, she managed to get to the line twice and make 4-of-4 throws while also throwing a pair of assist passes, all in limited minutes.
Best Underclassmen—Jayda Johnston, Roseville’s 6-1 9th grade power forward. She had a tough day, however, against a very solid opponent with a scrappy, harassing type of defense. She scored 6 points on 2-of-5 shooting, and looked most comfortable attacking the rim off the dribble, especially from the right wing and finishing on the left with the left. She had 4 rebounds, all in the first half, and 5 turnovers, 2 on illegal picks.
Best Player off the Bench—Nobody used a lot of bench. The best player off the bench was senior wing Nikki Clark of Centennial. She’s a superb athlete, and a former starter for this basketball team for something close to 2 years (2014-2015 as a sophomore, 2015-2016 as a junior). But, she now comes off the bench and is a steady hand who fits in, doesn’t make mistakes, and especially is a solid defender.
Best Rebounder—Sara Stapleton is huge but mobile for her size with good hands.
Best Passer—Gotta love the way Danielle Schaub penetrates and shoot the pull up in the lane (and never, ever gets stuffed) or drops the bounce pass to a teammate.
Best Catch and Shoot—Syd Stapleton shot it mostly off the dribble, but other than her frankly there weren’t a whole lot of jump shots. Lots of scores at the rim. So, Ann Simonet made 3 jump shots, I think, but she is the best I saw in terms of just having a nice, relaxing, repeatable motion.