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

The nightcap at the Barn on this Thursday night was the second Class AAAA semifinal game pitting Stillwater against Eastview.  I had to figure that this one had a much bigger potential to be a closer match-up and it would be interesting to see the different individual match-ups as well.  I got settled into my seat and ready to go in this one at the 12:38 mark of the first half with Stillwater clinging to a 10-8 lead.

Eastview senior guard Emma Carpenter got her Lightning team closer with a pretty lay-up at the 11:35 mark and junior Brynn Schwanz would tie the game with a score in the paint a bit later at 12-all.  The Ponies, however, got their lead to 19-14 with 7:53 left but Eastview senior guard Lauren Glas would soon cut that lead down to two points with a "3" with just over seven minutes left that made it a 19-17 ballgame.  Eastview would soon get the game tied at 19 and with just under four minutes left, Eastview junior Cassidy Carson got a friendly bounce on the rim with her three point bomb to push the Lightning out in front 23-22 and a Schwanz lay-up with 1:50 left got the lead to 25-22.  With 1:21 left, Eastview's Glas hauled in a long baseball pass and got a transition lay-up to increase the lead to 27-23 and then with :28.7 left, the Lightning's Carson increased the lead to 28-23 with one free throw before Stillwater sophomore sensation Alexis Pratt got two free throws of her own to trim that deficit to a single possession.  Still, Eastview senior guard Macy Guebert would increase the Lightning lead to five with two freebies after getting fouled with :03.3 left as Eastview took a 30-25 lead into the locker room at the half.  A check of the first half box score shows that Eastview did hold a 20-15 edge on the boards while turnovers were negligible.  It was indeed a great performance thus far by Eastview's Glas as she had tallied 11 points in that first half while Pratt's seven points led the way for Stillwater.  Perhaps more ominous for the Ponies, however, was that senior standout and future Minnesota Golden Gopher Sara Scalia had been held to only two points and you can bet that Stillwater Head Coach Willie Taylor was hoping to find a way to get her going in the second half. 

Two more Carson free throws at the 16:02 mark pushed Eastview's lead up to 32-25 and the Ponies finally got Scalia involved a bit later when she got into the paint for a score to make it 32-27 and a bit later, Scalia would score again to get Stillwater back to within a single possession down 32-29.  At the 14:16 mark, Scalia would get sent to the charity stripe and her two free throws now cut the deficit to one point at 32-31 before Eastview's Schwanz would give her team some more breathing space with a "3" from the left corner at the 13:07 mark.  A Guebert "3" from that exact same left corner a bit later now pushed the Lightning lead to six at 37-31.  Stillwater junior Liza Karlen gave her squad a big lift a short while later with a "3" from the right corner to again get the Ponies to within a single possession down 37-34 and Karlen would hit yet another three a short time later and then a Scalia steal in the backcourt and subsequent lay-up suddenly had Stillwater up 39-37.  Scalia would strike again with an unbelievable lay-up with just over eight minutes left to keep the Ponies ahead 41-39 and a Karlen lay-up a bit later pushed the lead to 43-39.  Eastview Head Coach Molly Kasper; a bit concerned for her team's near-term outlook, called a timeout to make some adjustments.  But two more Karlen freebies with 6:51 left increased Stillwater's lead to 45-39 and two more by Scalia with 5:52 left made it 47-39 and it was now clear that the Lightning was in some big time trouble.  With 4:03 left, Stillwater's Pratt made a nifty move into the lane for a lay-up that had the Ponies safety net maintained at eight points at 49-41 and two Scalia free throws with 3:14 left now made it a ten-point game at 51-41.  Two Pratt fee throws with 2:04 left maintained the ten-point edge at 53-43 and a coast-to-coast lay-up by Scalia with 1:16 left made it 57-45 and things were pretty much academic from there as the Ponies advanced to the Class AAAA title game with a 65-52 victory. 

Looking at the final box score in this one, Scalia came alive in that second half and finished with 22 points to lead all scorers which simply underscores what an incredible player she really is.  Karlen, who had a huge second half with some timely three-point bombs finished with 17 points on this night while Pratt had 15 points and junior Grace Cote tallied 11 points and when you have four of your starters finishing in double-digits, that gives you a pretty good idea of how potent you can be offensively.  Eastview was paced by Glas' 14 points while Guebert finished with 12 points in the losing effort.  I inadvertently neglected to turn on my voice recording feature during the Stillwater portion of the post-game press conference (silly me :p ) but Ponies Head Coach Willie Taylor was in complete agreement with me when I mentioned that the turning point in this ballgame came just before the mid-point in the second half when the Ponies had that flurry of scores that allowed them to finally poke their nose out in front and Taylor mentioned that it just gave his team a shot of energy that they were desperately seeking at the time.  Scalia, who has played with Hopkins star junior Paige Bueckers on the AAU North Tartan team , talked about what a fun person Bueckers is to be around not only as a teammate but off the court as well but it'll be all business Saturday night when the two face off.  Eastview's Kasper during the Lightning's portion of their post-game press conference lamented about some of the defensive breakdowns her team had in that critical stretch in the second half when Stillwater started taking control.  "I think they had like four right-handed lay-ups in a row which is a big no-no in our defensive scheme....and we got down by six and when you can't throw it into the ocean and when you consider yourself a pretty good three-point shooting team can make it very, very difficult and you're getting pretty good looks."  Kasper thought that her squad did a good job in containing Stillwater's Scalia in the first half; preventing her - for the most part anyway - of letting her go to her right.  But she lamented that they didn't contain her in the second half and noted that she had three right-handed lay-ups and that Pratt had a right-handed lay-up as well.  I asked Kasper specifically about what's been the "secret"; so to speak, about her program's consistency throughout the last few years of getting themselves into position to have success at this time of the year.  "Obviously work ethic and dedication is important......I think we make it special and we play for each other.  We're 'homegrown'.  We don't have girls randomly showing up at our door or steps.  We're from Eastview; we're from our district and we love each other.  It's not for the hoorah or 'I need to get my points' or it's about 'me'.  It's 100% for each other and I think nowadays to find true joy for each other, it's something that's very difficult; true gratitude and it's really our focus.  It's really based on love."  Kasper also felt that her only purpose this year was to make Emma Carpenter felt safe and loved.  "I think maybe that's the 'secret sauce'.  I don't know!.....I hope our underclassmen will step up next year.....It's hard to find genuineness like that anymore."  Eastvew's definitely in good hands with Kasper and expect to see a lot more of them in the future.