NHR Playoff Central: Friday
NHR Playoff Central. The Minnesota High School section playoffs were the lead on ESPN last night. The lead! The amazing plays from the Waseca/Marshall game led the show before ESPN talked about the Warriors/Thunder and everything else.
That game will go down as one of the greatest in history with three buzzer beaters in the multiple overtimes including a 75 footer. What was really cool was that social media was there to show us what happened. Social media may not be making people happy down at the University right now but as far as high school basketball goes we love it because we got to see everything that was amazing in terms of buzzer beaters.
Tickets Punched.
AAAA. Hopkins, Apple Valley, Maple Grove, North St. Paul, Blaine.
AAA. DeLaSalle, Fergus Falls, Chisago Lakes, Waseca, Monticello, Fridley, Simley
AA. Caledonia, Jackson County Central
A. Central MN Christian, Goodhue.
Looking at that list I think you would rank the surprises like this:
- Listed in Upset City
- Waseca knocking off Marshall was a surprise as the Tigers were higher ranked and had more weapons but the Jays had the biggest weapon, Nick Dufualt
- North St. Paul beating Tartan which is more historic than based on this year as the Fighting Janquarts beat Tartan twice this season.
- Simley beat St. Thomas for the first time this year plus they got their record to .500 which is also a plus.
- Fridley also got their record to .500 beating Totino-Grace. Not sure that was really an upset, but Fridley was the lower seed.
The Big Stage. Tonight it’s the Civic Center. With back to back title games of Lakeville North against Rochester JM and then Red Wing versus Northfield, you have a great facility in a great atmosphere with some really good teams. It will be a lot of fun in Rochester tonight as JM works to finally get past their playoff nemesis Lakeville North.
MSU-Mankato also has a pair tonight with Maple River vs Belle Plaine and St. Clair vs Cleveland with the Class A game first followed by the Class AA game.
Biggest metro attraction will likely be Osseo vs Mounds View and St. Croix Lutheran vs Minnehaha Academy. Don’t write off the Mustangs who took out Champlin Park and are likely disrespected by all the people wondering if Osseo will get the 1 seed when the tournament is seeded Sunday.
Player to Watch. Jesse Bergh, the 6-foot-9/6-foot-10 junior from Lake Park-Audobon who only started playing hoops two Novembers ago and is now putting up video game numbers and leading his team past top Class A teams. His teammate Mitch Hall is also a very good junior, both can put up 20 on a team. Now they take on Battle Lake who does have Tony Ukkelberg who has been hurt.
Upset City. Spring Grove is the team that many pegged to play Minneapolis North in the final. It seemed to be their destiny. They won every game in Minnesota this year and finally conquered the Rushford-Peterson hurdle. They must have been so glad to do that they forgot about Goodhue who smacked Spring Grove 58-44. Goodhue crushed Spring Grove on the boards 36-14 which pretty much tells you all you need to know. Jacob Pasch scored a game high 17 hitting three treys.
Hat Tip to the Career. Matt Keller. Matt will find his name on several post-season award lists because he had a great year for the Elks. Did not have the game he was hoping for in the final but did score 22.4 points per game this year leading the Elks to a great year.