The Eden Prairie boys showed why they're unbeaten and rated #1 among the Class AAAA boys, swooping into Hopkins Lindbergh Center and leaving several hours later with an 82-68 win. It was closer than that, but whenever Kenny Novak's Royals made a run, the Eagles had the weapons and the answers. They closed the game on an 11-2 run for the 14-point final margin.
Like I said, the Eagles have a lot of weapons and the ability to feed the hot hand. Tonight it was senior wing John Henry making 7-of-12 3-pointers, mostly from deep in the corners and with a hand in his face. And, as always, senior point guard Drake Dobbs controlled the ball and the tempo and got the ball to the guy with the hot hand, and made 3-of-4 3s of his own. Henry and Dobbs combined for 52 points on 16-of-27 shooting.
For Hopkins, of course, 6-5 senior guard Kerwin Walton was the story with 26 points on 9-of-17 including 4-of-8 from long range. And Hopkins was deeper with 9 players scoring to 6 for the Eagles. But none of the other Royals could get into double figures and as a group they shot just 16-of-41, including 7-of-19 in the 2nd half. There was just too much one-on-one for the Royals and so my unofficial stats show just 4 assists on 25 Hopkins buckets. And, as strong and athletic as Hopkins is, I had Eden Prairie with a 37-22 edge on the boards.
Eden Prairie took an early 11-7 as their first 6 shots were all 3s and they made half of them. But, Hopkins ripped off an 18-7 run to lead 26-18 at the 7 minute mark of the first half. 9 of those points came on 5 Eden Prairie turnovers, half of their total for the whole night. Now it was the Eagles turn and they closed the half on a 20-4 run. Dobbs and Henry each hit a pair of 3s in the run.
The Eagles kept it going in the 2nd half, opening with an 18-8 advantage (a total of 38-12), again making 3-of-4 3s in the first 4 minutes of the half. At the 14 minute mark it was 56-38. But Hopkins made its run, a 28-15 run over 14 minutes to get within 71-66 with 4 minutes remaining. Walton scored 15 of the 28 points but Sawyer Shrake and Regan Merritt each chipped in a 3 as well. But, now it was Will Foster and Connor Christianson scoring 7 points down the stretch for the final score.
What makes the Eagles the Eagles, I think, is their movement and their ball movement on offense. They always have 5 great passers on the court so they're hard to trap and hard to slow down. Hopkins did both but only in small spurts. In fact, they did a nice job of doubling down low but the Eagles more than answered with the 3-ball. But don't underestimate Hopkins or overestimate the Eagles. This was not a 14 point game but more like 6 or 8. But for now Eden Prairie is the best team in the state of Minnesota, no matter what you may read elsewhere.
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