2019 Minnesota Girl's State Tournament - Class AAAA Semifinal Game Recap - Hopkins vs Centennial 3-14-19

The first game on tap over at the Barn on this Thursday night might have seemed like a ho-hum affair for some with top-ranked and top-seeded Hopkins taking on fourth-seeded Centennial but from having watched this Cougar team over the last few weeks in the Section 5AAAA semifinals and final, I knew that this was a squad that was peaking at the right time and had the capability to hang with the best. 

Centennial would draw first blood on senior Sarah Lavell's score in the paint but Hopkins' junior sensation would soon snare a steal and dash the other way for a lay-up and by the 15:04 mark of the first half, the Royals held a 6-2 advantage.  By the 12:05 mark, a lay-up by Royals senior Dlayla Chakolis had helped Hopkins stretch the lead to seven and, to a certain extent, the Cougars had themselves to blame to a certain extent as they managed to miss two easy lay-ups that would have had them close.  Bueckers would get an offensive rebound of her own miss for a putback at the 10:55 mark and draw a foul in the process that would get the Royals lead to ten at 15-5 and Centennial Head Coach Jill Becken knew a timeout was in order.  And that famous pressure defense of Hopkins was beginning to wear on the Cougars as well and two quick scores pushed the Royals lead to 23-9 with 7:41 left in this first half and Centennial's Becken was forced to burn another thirty-second timeout.  Centennial did get a bit of a boost when sophomore Jodi Anderson snared an offensive rebound for a putback that drew a foul that resulted in an obligatory free throw with 6:17 left but the Cougars still had a lot of making up to do down 25-12.  Anderson would give more heroics with a "3" with 4:15 left but Centennial still found themselves down by thirteen at 30-17 and the Royals were not in a charitable mood on this night either.  It seemed when the Cougars could get things slowed down with their 2-3 zone defense, they had a fighting chance but getting into a running game with Hopkins was a death wish and, as it was, the Royals took a fairly comfortable 38-23 lead into the locker room at the halftime break.  Without question, one stat that had to have had Centennial's Becken reaching for the roll of Rolaids in the locker room were the 21 turnovers her team suffered in that first half alone.  Yikes.  Centennial did have the edge on the boards at 25-20 but when you turn the ball over that many times, that edge gets negated.  And the box score shows that Hopkins' Bueckers already tallied 17 points as well.  The Cougars thus far were being paced by Anderson's 12 points.

Centennial seemed to get their offense going a bit better once the second half got underway as they seemed to be playing on more even terms anyway.  The problem was that they were trading scores with the Royals and with the deficit already in double-digits, that's a luxury you cannot afford.  By the 15:00 mark, the Cougars were down by twenty at 51-31 and it was apparent that this one was a bridge too far for Centennial.  Hopkins maintained the twenty-point edge at 61-41 by the 11:35 mark and Bueckers' magic allowed that lead to slightly expand to 69-45 with 7:30 left.  As the game approached the 5:00 mark in the second half, the Royals started to be deliberate on offense, working the ball around for the best shot with a big lead in their back pocket.  With just under 4:00 left, Hopkins had this one in the bag with a 75-47 lead and both Centennial's Becken and Hopkins Head Coach Brian Cosgriff sent in their reserves for clean-up duty as the Royals rolled into yet another Class AAAA final with a resounding 75-51 victory. 

A check of the final box score shows that Centennial definitely got the turnover ratio down in the second half as they finished with 29 boo-boos - still way too many, of course.  The one positive is that the Cougars had a big edge on the boards at 43-29 but too many turnovers negated that advantage.  Another outstanding outing for Hopkins' Bueckers as she easily led all scorers with 28 points while Chakolis added 12 points and freshman Maya Nnajihad 11.  Senior Sara Stapleton's 16 points led the way for Centennial on this night while Anderson added 11.  Centennial's Becken spoke afterward in the post-game press conference.  "Well, the struggle for us tonight was the pressure...That just took us out of what we wanted to do; especially in the first half.  We just had too many turnovers........I thought that our kids played hard.....We made some adjustments; we really wanted Sara (Stapleton) down in the block and I thought we did a better job of getting her down there doing that as a team......We didn't do the best job of engaging Taylor (McAulay) offensively but we also had (Paige) Bueckers guarding her so that's tough."  I asked Becken specifically about how I thought that her squad showed a willingness in the second half to drive into the lane more; penetrate in there and get some opportunities at the rim.  "Our goal was to chip away at their lead and get it (the deficit) down to ten by the media timeout.....When we were playing defense, we tried to play a zone and contain but then they started eating up clock so we went back to 'man'......I thought (Jodi) Anderson did an okay job in staying in front of Bueckers....but she (Bueckers) just rose up and shot over her like four times......She's (Bueckers) just a phenomenal player."  Becken also pointed out about how proud she is of her team as they always pick each other up and encourage each other as well.  Hopkins Head Coach Brian Cosgriff was in the press room shortly thereafter with both Bueckers and Chakolis.  Cosgriff:  "Well, we want to dictate tempo....That's always been our goal all year long and we want our kids to play very hard on every possession.....And we feel that if we do that, good things will happen."  Bueckers expressed how important defense was.  "For us, it's defense first...getting a lot of transition buckets but setting the tone on defense, dictating that tempo and in this game against Centennial that was definitely the key."  I aksed Cosgriff about what the plan was wrt getting ready for Saturday night with the two-day window they have to prepare.  "Well, we're gonna watch this game (Stillwater vs Eastview), we're gonna get up and work out tomorrow at 5:30.....And then I'll be in the film room 8:30 to 3:00.  Then we'll have practice and then I'll be in the film room from probably 6:30 till 10:00.  Then we'll get up and have a light workout/practice and then we'll be in the 'Barn' "  Naturally, there were some chuckles from everybody in the room during this but facing this Hopkins team is no laughing matter for any opponent and you'd better be firing on all cylinders when you play them.