Breakdown Tip-Off Classic - Park Center vs East Ridge Recap 12-3-16

Made my way over to Hopkins High School on this Saturday morning to take in one of the games of one of the better high school girl's events in the upper Midwest - the Breakdown Tip-Off Classic.  The 10:30 A.M. game on the East Court at Lindbergh Center featured Park Center; one of the powerhouse teams out of the Northwest Suburban Conference and East Ridge; an up-and-coming team out of the Suburban East Conference.

The Raptors have an interesting mix of veteran leadership and promising young sophomores and freshman and, because of that, the train of thought (at least in my mind anyway) was that Park Center would use its experience and speed and athleticism to gain a decisive advantage early on.  But East Ridge has a lot of size on its front line and backcourt and that size seemed to stifle the usually explosive Pirate offense.  With the game tied at 2-all, senior guard Lauren Johnson's jumper from the left corner just inside the arc started an 11-0 run.  Fellow senior post Mariah Sexe then made her presence felt as she was able to snare an offensive rebound for a putback that drew a foul and sent her to the line for the obligatory free throw and then the 6'1" Lehigh commit connected with a jumper from the left corner at the 13:49 mark for a 9-2 Raptor lead.  Lanky senior forward/post Kelen Kenol was able to make a pretty spin move and connect with a jumper in the lane at the 12:58 mark and then senior guard Emma Stoehr made good on a daring drive into the land of giants for a finish at the 10:53 mark for a 13-2 East Ridge lead.  The shell-shocked Pirates finally awoke from their Saturday morning slumber when senior point guard Danielle Schaub knocked down a short jumper at the 10:29 mark.  Two scores by junior reserve forward Charo Nickens - a short shot at the 9:52 mark and a score in the paint at the 9:12 mark - pulled Park Center closer trailing 13-8 but it was becoming readily apparent that this was not the Thursday night waltz they had with Eden Prairie and if the Pirates were going to do this, they were going to have to do it the hard way.

The Raptors got their lead back to nine points on a score in the paint by junior reserve forward Meaghan Rapp with 8:48 left and a lay-up in transition by senior guard Noelle Tomes with 8:19 left that made it a 17-8 ballgame but Park Center was able to close the gap on two three-point bombs - one by senior guard Ann Simonet from the right wing with 8:03 left and another from junior reserve post Azsha Michael from the left corner with 7:29 left - that cut the East Ridge lead to 17-14.  But the Raptors were able to respond with a 6-0 push that cut short this attempted comeback.  A score in the paint by Rapp with 6:51 left and pairs of free throws by Tomes with 6:17 left and Kenol with 3:58 left made it a 23-14 game.  Trailing by nine, the Pirates were able to finally kick it into gear and get their offense going a bit; going on a 9-0 run.  Junior guard Sommer Blakemore made a hard drive into the lane for a finish with 3:20 left and Schaub was able to connect on a short shot on the ensuing Pirate possession with 2:41 left.  Then, two more Blakemore scores - a short jumper off the glass with 1:49 left and a "3" from the right wing with 1:29 left - knotted the score at 23 a piece and it was here that many thought (including your's truly) that Park Center had finally found itself and now could gradually take control of things.  But it would be East Ridge that would have the final say of the first half as Kenol knocked down two freebies with 1:09 left and then Tomes knocked down a jumper from the left wing with just :01 before the halftime buzzer that gave the Raptors an unlikely 27-23 lead and the head of steam that Park Center had built up with that run seemed to go out the window.

A Sexe drive and finish at the 17:43 mark of the second half expanded East Ridge's lead to 29-23 but the Pirates managed to battle back and finally take a few brief one-point leads.  Simonet drained her second trey of the day with a bomb from the right wing area at the 17:14 mark and a short shot by senior post Mikayla Hayes at the 16:04 mark cut the Raptor lead to a single point at 29-28 and then it was slender junior guard Meghan DuBois slithering her way into the lane for a finish off the glass that gave Park Center its first lead of the day at 30-29.  The two teams would trade one-point leads over a nearly three minute stretch and with the Pirates holding a 34-33 advantage, Tomes banged home a "3" from the left wing area that had East Ridge back on top 36-34 but Park Center's Schaub knotted the issue at 36-all with her jumper at the 11:51 mark so it looked like the Pirates were right where they wanted to be and in position to seize control.

But when Park Center seemingly had this upstart East Ridge team on the ropes, they inexplicably and mysteriously let them off the hook.  After a DuBois "3" from the left top area at the 10:47 mark tied the contest at 39-all, the Raptors went on a game-changing 8-0 run.  A Rapp score in the paint at the 10:29 mark and a short shot by Sexe at the 9:15 mark gave East Ridge at 43-39 advantage.  Then it was Sexe stealing the show by snaring an offensive rebound for a putback with 8:19 left that not only gave the Raptors a 45-39 lead but was also Sexe's 1,000th point of her fabulous high school career.  When Johnson knocked down a jumpewr from the left wing area.  When Johnson knocked down a jumper from the left wing area with 5:59 left, East Ridge was now up 47-39 and Pirate Head Coach Chris VanderHyde called a timeout knowing full and well that his squad was in deep trouble.  But the Raptors were able to stretch their lead to ten points on a Sexe jumper from the right elbow area with 4:09 left before Park Center could even begin to make any meaningful comeback.  Pairs of Hayes free throws with 3:45 and 2:51 left and a Hayes score in the paint with 2:25 left had the Pirates within striking distance trailing 51-45 but when they needed that one big shot - that one big trey or a score drawing a foul, it just simply wasn't there on this day.  Twice within the last two minutes, Park Center got themselves within a single tantalizing possession but never could get any closer.  Blakemore would connect with a "3" from the left wing area with 2:00 left that had the Pirates trailing 51-48 and one Du Bois free throw with 1:07 left along with a Blakemore drive into the land and finish with :44 left cut the Raptors lead down to 53-51.  Alas, that's as close as Park Center could get.  Tomes would hit two insurance free throws with :24.4 left for a 55-51 Raptor advantage and the Pirates never could find anything else on offense.