Thursday, March 24, 2011

Hopkins Royals 71 Owatonna Huskies 57

Hopkins Royals 71 Owatonna Huskies 57

The Owatonna Huskies played a hell of a game and lost by 14. Two big runs helped Owatonna to stay close. The second came midway through the 2nd half, outscoring Hopkins 16-5 to get within 56-50 at 7:01, as Vaughn Thada scored 10 of the Huskies’ 16 points during the run.

If the game had gotten any closer, Owatonna may have discovered that Hopkins was sitting on a higher gear. But it never came to that. The Royals never pressured the ball like they can and so the turnovers ended up just 22 for Owatonna and 16 for Hopkins and the points off turnovers just 18-17 Hopkins.

Instead the Royals asserted themselves inside—mostly Marvin Singleton, of course, who scored 5 points down the stretch and 20 for the game to go with 16 boards, half of them on the offensive end. Overall the offensive boards were 15-6 Hopkins and the 2nd chance points 16-2, and that’s the old ball game.

The Huskies 1st run was right out of the gate as they took quick leads of 4-2, 6-4, 8-6 and on up to 12-8 and 15-10. Hopkins still led just 22-21 at about 6:15, Owatonna guards Thada and Drew Osmundson burned the Royals repeatedly on the dribble drive.

But the Royals scored 10 in a row with Joe Coleman contributing a bucket, and a steal and assist; and Marvin Singleton a 2 + 1 and a free throw off an offensive board. The margin hung around 10 points the rest of the half, and it was 40-29 at the half.

Hopkins looked like, well, Hopkins to start the 2nd half, quickly running out to a 17-point lead at 49-32 and 51-34 before Owatonna launched its 2nd run.

For the day, the Huskies shot a respectable 42.5 percent, Hopkins 45. But an extra 18 shots, based on Hopkins dominance in the possession game (offensive boards and turnovers) was too steep of a hill for Owatonna to climb.

Coleman scored20, plus a game high 3 steals, but Singleton was better with 20 points and 16 boards.

Trench Player: Marvin Singleton

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