2019 Minnesota Girl's State Tournament - Class AAA Championship Game Recap - De La Salle vs Becker 3-16-19

The first game on tap on this Saturday night at the Barn was the Class AAA Championship Game pitting perennial powerhouse De La Salle going up against upstart and third-seed Becker.  While the Islanders were the top seed in Class AAA and the favorites going in, I had caught this Becker team in action back in February doing color commentary with my good friend Mike Peden and I knew right then and there that this Bulldog team was good - not to mention hungry and ready.  So I wasn't surprised at all that they finagled their way into the state title game even if they did it living dangerously in thrilling wins over both Marshall and and defending state champ Robbinsdale Cooper. 

The Islanders would draw first blood in this contest on a "3" from the right corner by freshman forward Sydney Runseweat the 16:40 mark but Becker sophomore guard would soon knot the score at three with her own three-point bomb a short time later.  De La Salle would get their lead to 9-3 by the 13:37 mark and another unfortunate series of events for the Bulldogs allowed De La Salle to grow their lead to nine at 14-5 by the 13:01 mark that prompted Becker Head Coach Dan Baird to call for a thirty-second timeout to get his team calmed down.  That short stoppage in play seemed to give the Bulldogs new life as they struck like an agitated rattlesnake with two scores topped off by a lay-up that drew a foul and resulted in an "and one" by Nuest at the 12:23 mark that cut the deficit to four at 14-10.  Another series of misfortunes for Becker, however, allowed the Islanders to go on a 7-0 push to make it a 21-10 ballgame by the 9:30 mark  but a Nuest "3" from the top at the 9:10 mark gave the Bulldog faithful some hope as the deficit was back in single digit range again down 21-13.  The Bulldogs were also having problems with containing De La Salle sophomore post Nora Francois from getting steals and scores in the paint.  Becker sophomore forward forward Julia Bengston would come up big for her team with a couple of scores but getting the deficit slimmed back down to striking range distance was proving to be problematic.  The Bulldogs managed to get things trimmed down to seven points with 3:16 left at 26-19 and senior post Lexi Masog got one free throw to go down after getting fouled with 1:58 left that had the deficit down to six points at 26-20.  A lay-up by freshman forward Adeline Kent with just over a minute left kept the deficit at four at 26-22 but the Islanders would get a late push just before the halftime buzzer; topped off by a score in the paint by freshman guard Leah Dengerud as De La Salle took a 31-22 lead with them into the locker room at the half.  A check of the first half box score shows that the Bulldogs had the edge on the boards at 21-18 but, unfortunately for them, they also had 11 turnovers to go with that compared to De La Salle's five.  More ominous for Becker, however, was that they were held to 7-25 shooting for 28% and only 2-10 from downtown for 20%.  De La Salle had a very balanced scoring attack with junior Nurjei Weems leading the way with eight points while Nuest was pacing Becker with her nine points.

Two quick scores by Becker in the opening moments of the second half suddenly had the deficit reduced to five points at 31-26 and a "3" by Kent at the 15:58 mark now had the Bulldogs back within a single possession down 31-29.   De La Salle freshman guard Kiani Lockett got the Islanders a bit more breathing room with her lay-up at the 12:00 mark and by the 11:00 mark De La Salle had re-established a seven-point lead at 36-29.  The Islanders were still in good shape up 40-32 with 7:25 left but Becker would mange to slim the deficit down to four again with 6:40 left on a score in the paint by Kent at 40-36 and sometimes it seems like all this young Bulldog team needs to do is just stay within striking distance and hang around to give themselves a chance.  With 4:14 left, however, the Islanders' Lockett unleashed a dagger "3" from the right wing that pushed the De La Salle lead to ten at 46-36 and the sands of time now seemed to be closing in on Becker.  Nora Francois would add a score in the paint with 3:14 left to make it 48-36 and Becker's Baird now had no choice but to call a timeout with this one slowly but surely slipping away into the cold night.  Becker's Nuest would foul out with 1:31 left and the Islanders took care of business down the final 90 seconds to capture the Class AAA crown with a 56-40 victory. 

Becker's Baird alluded during the Bulldogs' portion of the post-game press conference that De La Salle's length and athleticism were a big part of his team's downfall on this day.  "They're longer, okay, at multiple positions and all five of their girls seem like they have extremely long arms and they're active.  So, this week in practice we brought in tall people; quick people who could really simulate that in a 2-3 zone and they (De La Salle) just did it really well.....It was just hard for us to get in a groove all game so that's very good coaching by them."  I asked Baird about his squad's two quick scores at the beginning of the second half that seemed to give his team a shot of energy and new life.  "Yeah, it was 29-31 and we got it there and it seemed like neither team could score for a minute or two.....We definitely had chances to tie it or take the lead and we just didn't capitalize.  Our shooting percentage wasn't very good today; it was like 26.5% for the game which is a season low and you've got to attribute that to De La Salle's defense.  They played a fantastic game."  Baird elaborated that the Islanders started the game in man-to-man defense and then when Becker managed to close the gap to two points at 31-29 early in that second half, De La Salle then switched to a zone defense and that really changed things up for his team.  I asked sophomore Julia Bengtson who also attended the post-game press conference for Becker about how important this experience was for her going forward.  "I think it's really important because you got to see what it's like; to experience this fun atmosphere and just where never giving up gets you.....Playing through your mistakes and just like coach says; next play mentality so it's definitely something you want to come back to as much as you can....Hopefully next year but you never know....So we're just gonna work our hardest this off season to hopefully win the championship next year and just get as far as we can."  Bengtson also said that there are some specifics that she intends to work on this off season such as changing her speed that will help her become a more versatile player and working on her shot and having more confidence in that as well.  Baird also said that he's so impressed with how hard this group works; particularly during the summer when they show up at 6:00 A.M. to get in a 2 - 2 1/2-hour workout and how incredibly motivated they are.  In the De La Salle portion of the post-game press conference, Head Coach Tanysha Scott definitely sounded like she had been through quite an ordeal over the last few days as her voice was hoarse and sounded very tired.  But through all of it, she was incredibly excited and happy for her team.  I was able to ask Scott right off the bat about her team's defense and the fact that they have a natural advantage with their overall length and athleticism, that that really helped disrupt a lot of things that Becker wanted to do; particularly with their half-court offense.  "Well, that's what we practice.....We practice getting into the passing lanes but we knew they were good drivers and good shooters so what we did was that we played a 'switch-five'."  Scott said that this tactic enabled them to get into the passing lanes more often and create mismatches as well.  Scott also said that it was important for them to slow Becker down and make them play more of a half-court game where their size and length would have an advantage.  A check of the final box score shows that Becker actually did have the advantage on the boards by a 39-33 count but unfortunately, also led the turnover department as well as they suffered 20 turnovers to De La Salle's 12.  Another big stat to point out:  The Islanders had a huge advantage in points in the paint by a 32-14 count plus the fact that they wound up holding the Bulldogs to 13-49 from FG range for 26.5% and 4-18 from downtown for 22.2%.  De La Salle had an incredibly balanced scoring attack on this night as sophomore Nora Francois led the way with 14 points while Lockett wasn't far behind with 12 points and Weems had 11 points while Mary Claire Francois finished with ten points.  Nuest was the only player for Becker on this night in double figures with her 11 points.