2019 Minnesota Girl's State Tournament - Class AA Championship Game Recap - Caledonia vs Minnehaha Academy 3-16-19

 The second game on tap this afternoon was the Class AA Championship Game that pitted two unlikely participants - fourth-seeded Caledonia and third-seeded Minnehaha Academy.  But from having watched both of these two teams the night before, I knew that both of these squads had earned their way to this point and that this would be a tough game.

The Redhawks built a 5-2 lead at the 16:27 mark on the power of a score in the paint by senior guard Avery New and that lead would soon grow to 7-2 but Caledonia would get this one tied at seven when senior guard Ashley Schroder drained a "3" from the right top area at the 15:30 mark.  Minnehaha Academy would get solid footing again soon thereafter and get a 12-7 lead when junior guard Mia Curtis drained a "3" from the right wing at the 13:33 mark before the Warriors could claw their way back and two free throws by senior Kaitlin Conniff at the 11:29 mark had Caledonia down by only two at 12-10.  Right back came the Redhawks and a pretty drive and lay-up by senior point guard Taytum Rhoades at the 10:45 mark re-established some breathing room for Minnehaha Academy with a 17-10 lead.  And right back would come the Warriors as they closed the gap to two points at 17-15 when Ashley Schroeder knocked down two more free throws at the 9:45 mark.  Then senior guard Katie Tornstrom would drain a cold-blooded "3" from the left top area with 8:48 left that suddenly pushed Caledonia into the lead at 18-17.  Two free throw by senior guard Heidi Bolduan kept the Warriors in front 20-18 but Minnehaha Academy would soon get the game tied when Rhoades, who had to sit a spell with two fouls, connected with a layup with just over six minutes left.  One Rhoades freebie with 5:19 left pushed the Redhawks out in front 21-20 and a "3" by Curtis with 4:40 left from the right wing pushed the lead to 24-20 and with 3:53 left, Curtis would strike again from three-point land with a bomb from the left top to forge a 27-22 lead for Minnehaha Academy.  With 2:23 left, the Redhawks' Rhoades would connect on a pretty lay-up in transition to get the lead to 29-22 and two Rhoades free throws with 1:26 left maintained that seven-point edge at 31-24.  Rhoades would again get to the charity stripe for two more freebies that increased Minnehaha Academy's lead to nine at 33-24 and in pretty decent shape.  But a strange twist to end the first half occurred with just :01.6 when Caledonia's Ashley Schroeder would be fouled trying to unleash a desperation three before the buzzer by the Redhawks freshman forward Telia Graham.  Ashley Schroeder not only got all three free throw attempts to go down to narrow the gap to six points at 33-27 but now Minnehaha Academy's Graham had picked up her third foul as well.  A check of the first half box score shows that Caledonia absolutely owned the boards thus far by an impressive 29-13 count - but also suffered 15 turnovers in that first half as well which effectively cancelled that edge out.  Neither team was shooting the lights out by any stretch but considering Caledonia went 4-23 from FG range for 17.4%, they were probably pretty fortunate to be down only six at the half.

The Warriors would close the gap to four early on in the second half and a "3" by Tornstrom from the left corner at the 17:16 mark cut the deficit to one at 33-32.  At the 16;13 mark, Caledonia pushed out in front when Conniff made a pretty drive for a finish but things would be even worse for Minnehaha Academy at the 14:57 mark when Rhoades picked up her fourth foul of the day and Redhawks Head Coach Matt Pryor had no choice but to sit his star point guard.  Surprisingly, Minnehaha Academy did not wilt at this critical juncture and had retaken the lead by a 40-36 count but by the 13:41 mark, another Redhawk player was slapped with her fourth foul of the day; junior guard Tanna Gallo making things even more problematic for Minnehaha Academy.  Caledonia's Ashley Schroeder would drain a "3" from the right top area at the 12:36 mark to pull the Warriors to a point at 40-39 and at the 11:56 mark, Ashley Schroeder would be fouled in a transition opportunity and her two free throws had Caledonia back out in front 41-40.  Schroeder would strike again at the 11:20 mark for a lay-up to make it 43-40 and then a Tornstrom "3" at the 10:49 mark from the right wing made it 46-40 and clearly Minnehaha Academy was in the danger zone.  The Redhawks, were resilient enough to recover and a "3" from the top by Curtis at the 9:06 mark tied this one at 46 but more disaster would await Minnehaha Academy with 8:03 left when Curtis fouled out.  That allowed the Warriors to reassert themselves and get a 50-46 lead with 7:57 left.  With 7:44 left, Caledonia's Tornstrom drained a killer "3" from the left top area to get the Warrior lead to five at 53-48 but the Redhawks, staring at gloom and doom in the face, battled right back and would have this one tied at 53 when Rhoades knocked down two free throws.  With 4:37 left, Minnehaha Academy was clinging desperately to a 56-55 lead and you knew this stretch run was going to be a doozy.  With 4:12 left, Minnehaha Academy's Rhoades; racing like a late Union Pacific-Milwaukee Road "Cities" train, connected with a lay-up in transition to get the Redhawks lead to 59-55 with the obligatory free throw and with 3:16 left, Minnehaha Academy had a five-point 62-57 lead.  With 2:36 left, Caledonia's Tornstrom would get sent to the line but she could only get one free throw to go down which didn't make much of a dent.  With 1:15 left, the Redhawks had a 66-60 lead but Caledonia managed to whittle the deficit down to three points when Ashley Schroeder connected with a tough lay-up with :57.2 left.  But the Warriors never could get that one big stop or bucket that might have drawn them even and Minnehaha Academy captured the Class AA title with a 72-63 victory. 

Because of time limitations between when this game ended and when the evening session would start up again at 6:00 P.M., I opted to skip the press conference to get something to eat as I was literally starving; I hadn't had a bite to eat since breakfast.  But when you go over the final box score in this one, there are some numbers that have to be examined here.  The astonishing thing that sticks out to me more than anything is how Caledonia absolutely dominated the boards on this day by a 49-36 count - a margin that, more often than not, has you on the correct end of the scoreboard.  In this case, however, the Warriors were also guilty of 21 turnovers on this day as well compared to the 13 that Minnehaha Academy had and in a way, that effectively negated that big edge on the boards.  Another big factor was that the Redhawks had a big advantage in points in the paint by a 22-14 edge and coupled with the fact that Caledonia shot only 15-56 from FG range for a dismal 26.8% and weren't a lot better either from beyond the arc going 7-24 for 29.2%, you can begin to see why the normally-potent Warrior attack was stifled on this day.  Just a fantastic outing for Minnehaha Academy's Rhoades as she easily led all scorers with her 29 points and Curtis was solid as well with her 18 points while Pryor finished with ten points.  Ashley Schroeder led the way for Caledonia on this day with her 21 points and Tornstrom wasn't far behind with her 19 points while Conniff finished with 16 points.