Made the short hop again over to nearby Park Center High School on this Wednesday evening to take in the Section 3AAA Quarterfinal game between visiting St. Paul Johnson and host Park Center. The Pirates; as defending state champions and seeded number one in Section 3AAA were prohibitive favorites in this one and rightly so. Still, I wanted to see if Park Center would come out with a sense of urgency and quash any notion that they would just sleepwalk through this one. I found out the answer to that one quickly.
Even quicker than I had imagined, actually. A lay-up off the opening tip by senior guard McKenna
DuBois at the 17:56 mark and a "3" from the left corner by fellow senior point guard Hannah Schaub made it 5-0 Pirates by the 17:14 mark and two scores by sophomore Danielle Schaub - a "3" from the left wing at the 15:29 mark and one freebie at the 15:03 mark after getting fouled - bulged the lead to 13-0. A McKenna DuBois "3" from the right top area at the 14:00 minute mark made it 16-0. Sophomore reserve guard Fey Ayobamedele's "3" from the right top area at the 13:37 mark made it 19-0 and after a steal and lay-up the other way by Danielle Schaub at the 12:45 mark, sophomore guard Ann Simonet uncorked a "3" from the right corner at the 12:25 mark for a 24-0 Park Center lead and St. Paul Johnson Head Coach Darryl Smith; in a vain effort to try and stop the massive bleeding early on, called a timeout. But the Pirates would not step off the gas pedal until they had established a 30-0 on junior reserve guard Olivia Peterson's offensive rebound and putback at the 11:21 mark. The Governors finally got on the scoreboard at the 11:06 mark of the first half when senior point guard Lauryn Smith drained a "3" from the top of the key and a lay-up in transition by senior post Nyshayona Howard at the 10:45 mark made it 30-5. But the outcome was never in doubt once the Pirates started rolling and, with a sizable lead already established, Park Center Head Coach Chris VanderHyde could now start substituting liberally and this gave the younger reserves on the Pirate squad a chance to shine and show their stuff. Freshman reserve guard Jada Buford knocked down one freebie after getting fouled at the 10:08 mark and then banged home a "3" from the right corner with 8:50 left. A "3" from the left top area by fellow freshman reserve guard Summer Blakemore with 8:33 left made it a 41-8 ballgame although St. Paul Johnson was able to trim a bit of fat off the deficit thanks to junior guard Jane Lindstrom's lay-up with 8:17 left and her free throws with 8:01 and 7:55 left. Freshman reserve post Qusyia Smith-Pugh was able to get some more points on the board fro the Governors when she unleashed a "3" from the right corner with 6:46 left. Still, with a huge lead, Park Center's young players were finally getting a chance to strut their stuff and have a bit of fun doing it as well. A Blakemore drive and finish with 5:20 left and a Buford "3" from the left corner with 4:37 left expanded the Pirate advantage to 55-19 and a Blakemore "3" from the top of the key with 1:31 left made it 61-23. Two free throws by McKenna DuBois with :04.4 left gave Park Center a 65-25 halftime lead and the only question now would be how soon would the rest of the bench get in on the action.
Two scores by sophomore post Mikayla Hayes - a free throw at the 17:10 mark and a score in the paint at the 16:36 mark - along with a score in the paint by Simonet at the 15:18 mark now made it a 70-25 ballgame and VanderHyde wasted no time in getting his reserves back into the contest. Senior reserve Camille McCoy got free throws at the 14:27 and 14:13 marks and then connected with a short jumper off the glass at the 13:25 mark for a 74-30 Pirate lead. The Buford/Blakemore duo also got an opportunity to shine in this second half as Bufored made a pretty drive along the right baseline for a finish at the 11:53 mark and then Blakemore dropped two three-point bombs on St. Paul Johnson - one from the right wing at the 11:24 mark and another from the left wing at the 10:49 mark - that upped the Park Center lead to 82-34. With a nearly 50-point lead, the "mercy rule" kicked in at the 9:00 mark that features a continuous clock to speed up the finish of the contest - and also gave VanderHyde a chance to go deeper on his bench as well. Freshman reserve forward Azsha Michael got consecutive scores - an offensive rebound for a putback with 9:42 left and a score in the paint with 8:42 left. Fellow freshman reserve guard Meghan DuBois got her name in the books as well with her "3" from the right top with 5:00 left and two free throws at the 4:04 left. Smith and Smith-Pugh got late scores for the Governors but to no avail as the Pirates had it in cruise control winning this one by a final count of 92-41 to advance to Saturday afternoon's semifinal round action.
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