#1 Minnehaha, #2 Waseca, #3 Austin and #4 Princeton advanced as expected in the Class AAA QF at Williams Arena on Wednesday. Here are the finals along with the predictions from our tournament preview.
• DeLaSalle 76 Bemidji 45. Our prediction: DeLaSalle 75 Bemidji 45. No, really.
• Princeton 68 Mahtomedi 63. Our prediction: Princeton 75-71.
• Waseca 82 Holy Angels 62. Our prediction: Waseca 77-73.
• Austin 68 Monticello 52. Our prediction: Austin 69-58.
So, pats on the back all around. Then, the details.
DeLaSalle was more dominant even than the final score suggests. They were way too long, too quick, too athletic for the Lumberjacks. led 40-19 at the half and 74-32 at 6:42, but the starters were long gone by then and Bemidji subs wanted those last 6 minutes a little bit more, outscoring the Islanders 13-2 down the stretch. If it had gone 13-2 the other way, it would have been 87-34 and that would have been more indicative of how easy this was for De.
Jamison Battle and Tyrell Terry led the way for the Islanders with 36 points on 14-of-20 shooting. Terry added 9 assists. Kameron Givens and Jalen Travis added 10 points each on 10-of-16 shooting. De shot just one FT! Bemidji shot a respectable 43 percent but De got off 15 more FGA thanks mostly to 19 Bemidji turnovers.
Princeton and Mahtomedi were close much of the way. Princeton led 29-28 at the half but Mahtomedi went up 33-29 early in the 2nd. Princeton came right back to take the lead at 34-33, and Mahtomedi would never catch up. They did make it a one-possession game inside of 10 seconds on a tip-in by J'Vonne Hadley. But Adam Williams hit 2 throws to put it away.
Hadley was awesome with 32 points, 16 boards, 5 assists and 3 steals. Asked about Hadley, Princeton coach Brett Cloutier said, "We wanted to hold him to his average," and that's what they did. Zac Centers also hit his average of 15 for Mahtomedi, but the rest of the Zephyrs weren't able to provide enough help. Princeton, meanwhile, had its usual balanced scoring with 4 players in double figures led by Adam Williams with 17, 15 of them on 5-of-13 3s. One from deep in the left corner around 6 minutes increased the lead to 8 and felt kind of like a dagger at that point.
Waseca took a big early lead over Holy Angels thanks to a clutch of fast break baskets off turnovers, off defensive rebounds, off whatever. It was 29-13 at 7:30 of the 1st and it looked like a runaway. Instead, the Stars pushed their way back into it at 45-40 early in the 2nd as Matt Banovetz and Max Gerstner hit 7-of-13 3s. But, Waseca pulled away for a 2nd time as brothers Malik and Kyreese Willingham combined for 14 points. It was 67-47 at 9 minutes.
Senior guard Malik Willingham scored 22 points, and added 11 boards and 6 assists. Sophomore forward Kyreese Willingham scored 17 with 12 boards, 5 assists, 3 blocks and 4 steals. Andrew Morgan, an agile 6-8 sophomore post, had 21 points including 3 dunks, 9 boards and 2 blocks. 6-0 sophomore guard Ryan Dufault went 12-4-5. Waseca scored 20 points off turnovers and 10 fast break points. They run, they spread the floor, and thereby they create space for Morgan and the Willinghams to score inside.
Austin ground it out over Monticello, who turned it over 31 times, leading to 26 Austin points. Austin guards Medi Obang (7 steals), Dongrin Deng, Agwa Nywesh and Ngor Deng combined for 17 steals. Obang led all scorers with 16 points to go along with those 7 steals.
Looking ahead, well, we've already said: DeLaSalle 73 Princeton 67, and Waseca over Austin 66-59. I would now have to say that neither game will be that close. Let's knock 5 points off of each of the losers and say De 73-62 and Waseca 66-54.
• Austin 68 Monticello 52. Our prediction: Austin 69-58.
So, pats on the back all around. Then, the details.
DeLaSalle was more dominant even than the final score suggests. They were way too long, too quick, too athletic for the Lumberjacks. led 40-19 at the half and 74-32 at 6:42, but the starters were long gone by then and Bemidji subs wanted those last 6 minutes a little bit more, outscoring the Islanders 13-2 down the stretch. If it had gone 13-2 the other way, it would have been 87-34 and that would have been more indicative of how easy this was for De.
Jamison Battle and Tyrell Terry led the way for the Islanders with 36 points on 14-of-20 shooting. Terry added 9 assists. Kameron Givens and Jalen Travis added 10 points each on 10-of-16 shooting. De shot just one FT! Bemidji shot a respectable 43 percent but De got off 15 more FGA thanks mostly to 19 Bemidji turnovers.
Princeton and Mahtomedi were close much of the way. Princeton led 29-28 at the half but Mahtomedi went up 33-29 early in the 2nd. Princeton came right back to take the lead at 34-33, and Mahtomedi would never catch up. They did make it a one-possession game inside of 10 seconds on a tip-in by J'Vonne Hadley. But Adam Williams hit 2 throws to put it away.
Hadley was awesome with 32 points, 16 boards, 5 assists and 3 steals. Asked about Hadley, Princeton coach Brett Cloutier said, "We wanted to hold him to his average," and that's what they did. Zac Centers also hit his average of 15 for Mahtomedi, but the rest of the Zephyrs weren't able to provide enough help. Princeton, meanwhile, had its usual balanced scoring with 4 players in double figures led by Adam Williams with 17, 15 of them on 5-of-13 3s. One from deep in the left corner around 6 minutes increased the lead to 8 and felt kind of like a dagger at that point.
Waseca took a big early lead over Holy Angels thanks to a clutch of fast break baskets off turnovers, off defensive rebounds, off whatever. It was 29-13 at 7:30 of the 1st and it looked like a runaway. Instead, the Stars pushed their way back into it at 45-40 early in the 2nd as Matt Banovetz and Max Gerstner hit 7-of-13 3s. But, Waseca pulled away for a 2nd time as brothers Malik and Kyreese Willingham combined for 14 points. It was 67-47 at 9 minutes.
Senior guard Malik Willingham scored 22 points, and added 11 boards and 6 assists. Sophomore forward Kyreese Willingham scored 17 with 12 boards, 5 assists, 3 blocks and 4 steals. Andrew Morgan, an agile 6-8 sophomore post, had 21 points including 3 dunks, 9 boards and 2 blocks. 6-0 sophomore guard Ryan Dufault went 12-4-5. Waseca scored 20 points off turnovers and 10 fast break points. They run, they spread the floor, and thereby they create space for Morgan and the Willinghams to score inside.
Austin ground it out over Monticello, who turned it over 31 times, leading to 26 Austin points. Austin guards Medi Obang (7 steals), Dongrin Deng, Agwa Nywesh and Ngor Deng combined for 17 steals. Obang led all scorers with 16 points to go along with those 7 steals.
Looking ahead, well, we've already said: DeLaSalle 73 Princeton 67, and Waseca over Austin 66-59. I would now have to say that neither game will be that close. Let's knock 5 points off of each of the losers and say De 73-62 and Waseca 66-54.
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