Was at UST's Anderson Athletic Complex on both Friday evening (4-15) and Saturday afternoon (4-16) to take in the Clash Of The Classes All Star Games that featured high school all-stars from classes A, AA, AAA, and AAAA. While I REALLY preferred the old format of Saturday evening/Sunday afternoon, apparently some folks who live outside of the metro area felt that the Sunday drive back home was just too much. Whatever.....
The first game Friday evening was the most entertaining of all the games as Class A took on heavily favored Class AAA. It was the Class A team that got out to a good start in this one thanks to Mountain Iron-Buhl's Charlotte Overbye who had a big part in propelling the Class A team out to an early 15-6 lead before the Class AAA stars had a chance to catch their breath. The Class AAA team slowly began chipping away at the lead but the Class A team still took a 33-24 lead into the locker room at halftime. But the AAA team would slowly take charge in the second half thanks to hot-shooting Kaeli Kraska of Totino-Grace and Hill Murray's Bethany Doolittle as they helped the AAA team forge at 47-all tie by the 13:02 mark and then took the lead a bit later on a Kraska "3" at the 12:37 mark. The home stretch would turn into a "3" point shooting duel as Kraska, Orono's Jena Chuba, Holy Angel's Laura Margarit, Minneota's Ashlynn Muhl, and Fillmore Central's Connor Nagle all put on a dazzling display. Still, it looked as if the AAA team was in control and to make matters worse for Class A, Northern Freeze's Liza Hoglo went down with an ankle injury (the same one she injured in the opening round of the State Tournament). Still, the Class A team showed a lot of heart in the waning moments. Overbye's "3" at the 1:31 mark put Class A back up 79-78 at the 1:31 mark and despite Class AAA regaining the lead momentarily, Muhl had two huge baskets inside of a minute and Class A escaped with an improbable 83-82 win over Class AAA.
The second game of the evening featured Class AA vs Class AAAA and, unlike the first game that was a thrill to watch, this one turned into a romp early on as Class AAAA got it going early behind Woodbury's talented and athletic Michelle Young and Minneapolis South's free-wheeling Sattoria Rule. Eden Prairie's Morgan Van Riper-Rose helped bulge the lead to twenty on consecutive scores and Class AAAA maintained that margin going into the locker room at the break. It only got worse for Class AA in the second half as Class AAAA kept rolling enroute to a 91-53 thrashing.
The first Saturday game was the consolation game pitting Class AAA against Class AA. This one was pretty competitive and again it was Totino-Grace's Kaeli Kraska having a hot hand for the Class AAA team that enabled them to gradually build a lead in this one but the one player who really impressed me in this one was Class AAA's Mariah Clarin of Princeton who was almost unstoppable in the paint and Class AAA had the lead at the half 48-39. Minneapolis Roosevelt's Kaylani Edwards recovered from her injury the night before and scored early in the second half in an effort to try and get her Class AA team going again. Hawley's Alli Sanne's nailed a "3" at the 12:32 mark that brought Class AA to within three points of the larger opponent but Class AAA would eventually pull away again getting its margin back up to double digits and coming out on top 96-79.
The Championship game on this day featured Class A vs Class AAAA; an unlikely match-up but intriguing nonetheless. Class A looked good very early on; grabbing a 5-0 lead on Liza Hoglo's inside shot and Charlotte Overbye's "3" but the Class AAAA team was bigger and faster and simply would not be denied in this one. Minnetonka's Katy Winge and Lakeville South's Rachel Banham; both fairly quiet the night before made the presence known early on and Michelle Young from Woodbury was as flashy as ever as Class AAAA built a 21-10 lead by the 12:08 mark. Despite some surges by Class A, Class AAAA maintained the margin at halftime up 43-31. The second half is where the Class AAAA stars really started putting on a show. Winge, Van Riper-Rose, Young, Banham and Dockter all had their moments in the limelight as Class AAAA started pulling away. Still, the Class A team refused to give up as hot-shooting Connor Nagle impressed not only in the "3" point contests at halftime but also in the game as well. There wasn't much "D" in this contest as Class AAAA won an entertaining 101-81 game.
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