St. Paul Como held on to beat Mpls. South 68-61 Saturday afternoon at Como to win its 6th straight Twin City game and championship. The 6 consecutive TC game wins is a record for boys or girls. The Mpls. North boys won 4 straight from 1984 to 1987 and again from 1995-1998, while the North girls won 4 from 2001 to 2004. Como tied the record in 2018 with an 80-74 win over South, broke it last year beating South again 56-55, and now they've extended the record to 6. Yesterday's 7 point margin was the biggest margin in any of Como's 6 TC game wins; the average has been 3. They've now beaten South 4 in a row.
Como never trailed but they never quite put South away. It was 15-7 early as Ronnie Porter scored 8 points in the 1st 4 minutes. South got within 23-21 and 25-23 as Jade Hill and Camryn Benjamin scored 6 points and Angel Hill 4, but Como went on a 12-3 run and South never got closer than 56-51 and then 66-61 inside of one minute.
Chloe Dmytruk, who did not start, gave Como a spark in the 2nd half with 5 quick points after South had closed to 56-51 but South just didn't shoot it well enough to win. They made just 7-of-32 in the 1st half and 11-of-33 in the 2nd for a total of 28 percent. Jade Hill scored 28 for South but shot 9-of-30.
It was 3-on-3, sorta. Jade and Angel and Benjamin scored 57 points for South on 16-of-50 shooting, while Porter and Kaylynn Asbury and Dmytruk scored 49 on 17-of-40 for Como. But Como's big 3 got a lot more help with 19 points to just 4 for the rest of the South roster.
It was also a story of full court defenses. Como repeatedly beat South's full court defense. Typically, one long pass meant a 3-on-2 or 4-on-2 break and 2 points for Como. South preferred to dribble through Como's full court defense and that tactic was pretty easily defended. Two late steals and 4 points got South to within 66-61 inside of one minute, but until then Como had a 17-9 lead in points off turnovers. South stayed closed thanks to a 51-42 rebounding edge, 19 offensive boards and a 15-7 edge in 2nd chance points.
Gotta hand it to Jade and Angel Hill, who did most of the ball-handling for South and only turned it over 3 times between them. Their teammates turned it over 14 in relatively minor ball-handling roles. (Jade and Angel also had 25 rebounds between them.) Como pushed the pace and only turned it over 10 times. Como also had an 11-4 edge in assists.
Player of the game is Como's Dmytruk though she played relatively few minutes. But, when she did she was the most effective player on the court. She scored 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting. She was the only player on either side who made 50 percent-plus of her shots while taking more than 2 shots. She had 4 rebounds and 3 blocks, a big steal-and-2 when the game was close in the 1st half and a huge 3 when South had closed to within 56-51, followed by a putback to make it 63-53 at 2 minutes.
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