The first AAAA semifinal on this Thursday night featured a rematch of last year's AAAA Championship Game - Osseo and Hopkins - which Hopkins easily won to claim yet another state championship. This is familiar territory for both squads as they've been in this setting numerous times but Osseo hasn't won the whole ball of wax since 2000 when Hana Peljto, Heather Bertram and Lauren Podratz were running the show. Just like last year, Hopkins would be heavily favored but Osseo had got through a tough battle with St. Paul Central just yesterday and wanted another crack at the Royals. Hopkins, meanwhile, had to guard against any potential letdown.
Somewhat predictably, Hopkins got off to a good start taking a good lead but Osseo battled right back; cutting the Royals lead down to 12-10 by the 12:03 mark. The Orioles managed to stay within striking distance over the course of the next five minutes and then pulled to within two at 20-18 on a transition lay-up by athletic senior Phillis Webb with 6:27 left. Freshman Ari Jones put Osseo ahead with her "3" from the right wing with 5:21 left at 21-20. Hopkins would re-take the lead coming down the stretch but missed opportunities by both teams would be the main storyline before the half. The Royals went into the locker room up 31-25 on Osseo but the Orioles had to feel very good about where they were at. Hopkins was led by 6'4" senior post Erin O'Toole's 12 points while Osseo featured a balanced scoring attack - junior Ayo Porte led the way with 8 points but she was closely followed by seniors Webb and Janay Morton who both had 6 points. At this point, turnovers were a problem for Osseo as they had 10 but they were doing well in the rebound category; trailing Hopkins by only three boards.
But Hopkins seemingly has a way of making their opponents feel that they must play an almost superhuman level of basketball in order to have any chance to win and the Royals flipped on the switch at the beginning of the second half to to go on a 10-4 run that had Osseo Head Coach John Rieser calling a thirty second timeout to get his squad calmed down. Another 5-0 burst by Hopkins extended that lead to 46-29 at the 14:08 mark and Rieser called another timeout as he knew his squad was in trouble. The turnovers were starting to mount for the Orioles and they simply could not box out Erin O'Toole in the paint; much less keep up with Nia Coffey in Royal transition breaks. Osseo was still getting opportunities to score but, when they did, they were always met by two more scores by Hopkins that only saw their deficit widen. With 8:46 left, Hopkins was rolling as Taylor Anderson drove into the lane for a finish that got her fouled and the obligatory freebie now had the Royals up 62-33 that, for all intents and purposes, was the ball game. Osseo point guard Madi Malone went out with an injury (not sure how serious) with just under 5:00 left and both Rieser and Hopkins Head Coach were quick to substitute in the last few minutes as Hopkins put a 72-50 win into the books and secured a spot in Saturday night's Class AAAA title game. Coffey had an outstanding second half for the Royals as she finished this night leading all scorers with 20 points along with 8 rebounds. Morton led Osseo with 14 points while fellow senior Webb came in right behind with 13 points.
Afterward, Osseo Head John Rieser was pleased with his team's overall effort but admitted that they ran into a buzzsaw in the second half and simply couldn't answer the pressure defense that Hopkins administered after the break. They felt confident coming into the game and were right where they wanted to be at halftime but "couldn't get it into the same gear as Hopkins did in the second half."
No comments:
Post a Comment