NHR Playoff Central: Wednesday
NHR Playoff Central. After a night off there will be 11 playoff games tonight all of which are Class A or Class AA sub-section title games save the Hopkins versus Cooper 6AAAA contest to see who plays in the state tournament.
Monday was eventful but surprises were few. Lake Park-Audubon did give Hillcrest Lutheran their first los of the season in a big way (80-63) and Mounds View knocked out Champlin Park which was a surprise to some. But outside of that things went as planned.
The Big Stage. St. John’s University will be the site of the biggest double-header of the evening. Melrose takes on Albany at six and that will be followed by Braham against St. Cloud Cathedral at 7:45. Many want to see a third Braham/Melrose game but Albany and Cathedral have the talent to be spoilers.
There are also double headers in the metro this evening with the Class A section 4 games being played at ARCC (Prairie Seeds vs Heritage Christian and Minneapolis North vs CHOC) and the Class AA section 4 games being played at St. Paul Washington (New Life vs St. Croix and Roosevelt vs Minnehaha). Cooper versus Hopkins is at Osseo but it’s not getting big attention because Hopkins beat the Hawks by 40 plus without Amir Coffey less than two months ago.
There are also double headers at STMA (Class AA section 5) and UMD tonight (Class AA section 7) so if you live in the metro, the St. Cloud area, or the Duluth area you have some good choices.
Name to Watch. Ethan Youso and Max Carlson of Virginia. Ethan and the Blue Devils lost to Esko by 18 points in early January and if Virginia wants to win the sub-section tonight and stop Esko from a fourth straight trip to state Youso has to match Adam Trapp down low and Carlson and his backcourt mates must be able to stop Jaxson Turner from controlling the game.
Upset City. Had to of been the Comets knocking Hillcrest Lutheran Academy off the unbeaten plateau and ending their season by 17 points. That guy Jesse Bergh we keep talking about? Had a good old 26 points, 13 rebounds, five blocks and straight dominated the game for Lake Park-Audobon.
Hat Tip to the Career. Aaron Kloeppner, Champlin Park. The fantastic role player for the Rebels will head to St. John’s next year and work to be a role player for the Johnnies as well. He was a key piece to last year’s 31 straight wins and this year he was the team’s 4th leading scorer at over eight a night.