The first game of this Thursday evening session at Williams Arena was the Class AAAA semifinal game between powerhouse Hopkins and up-and-coming Shakopee which had knocked off White Bear Lake on Tuesday in the quarterfinals. The Sabers were hoping that they might have a few tricks up their sleeves to try and spring another upset but they would quickly find out how and why this Hopkins team is a big favorite to win the whole ball of wax.
After the Royals bolted out to an early 7-1 lead; thanks to a jumper from the top of the key just inside the arc by junior guard Nia Hollie at the 16:53 mark and a score in the paint by speedy sophomore guard DeeDee Winston at the 16:07 mark, Shakopee trimmed the Hopkins lead down to 7-4 on a "3" from the top of the key by willowy 6'2" junior guard/forward Taylor Koenen at the 13:38 mark and got to within a single possession again on a Koenen jumper along the left baseline at the 12:04 mark as the Royals held a 10-7 advantage. Hopkins' Hollie responded with a "3" from the left corner at the 11:46 mark but Koenen again found the range again from behind the arc - this one from the top of the key at the 11:16 mark that cut the Royals lead down to 13-10. It was here, though, that Hopkins went on its first big run of the evening - a 14-2 burst that was capped on a lay-up in transition by senior guard TT Starks that got her fouled and sent her to the line to sink the obligatory free throw that now had the Royals up 27-12. A 5-2 push by the Sabers; capped by a drive and finish by junior forward Caleigh Rodning that got her fouled and allowed her to sink the ensuing freebie trimmed Hopkins' lead down to 29-17. But a score in the paint by senior guard Viria Livingston with 3:01 left and two free throws by Starks with 1:48 left put the Royals in pretty decent shape at the half up 37-23. What was becoming apparent, though, was that Shakopee was having all sorts of problems in it half-court offensive sets; resulting in numerous turnovers and easy Hopkins points and that the Royals speed and athleticism is just something you can't re-create in any practice session.
That theme became all the more clearer once the second half got underway as Hopkins Head Coach Brian Cosgriff and his Royals squad applied the proverbial hands to the neck grasp to choke off the Shakopee windpipe; applying aggressive full- and half-court pressure defense and trapping that forced several Saber miscues and turnovers and led to a 19-0 Hopkins run that erased any doubt whatsoever as to how this one was going to go. Shakopee Head Coach Juan Mitchell tried in vain to stem this Royal tidal wave with a timeout at the 16:20 mark to no avail. A Koenen score in the paint at the 12:17 mark finally ended the Shakopee scoring drought but down 56-25, the damage had already been done. One lay-up by junior reserve guard K'Aezha Wubben at the 12:00 mark and one Wubben freebie at the 10:43 mark stretched the lead out to 59-25 and it was pretty much academic after that. The "Mercy Rule" kicked in with 8:00 left and with the issue long having been decided, both Cosgriff and Mitchell sent in their reserves for clean-up duty as Hopkins breezed into the championship game with a resounding 64-33 victory that really didn't even seem that close. Both Hollie and Starks tallied 16 points on this evening while Koenen's 12 points led Shakopee. I asked Cosgriff, after this exclamation point that his squad made on this night, if he thought his squad's race to the title would be an easy one. "NO!" he exclaimed emphatically. "Never." "We'll be in for a war."
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