Ten Best: St. Louis Park vs. Cooper
Another run down 169 led me to a Friday night Metro West clash between Robbinsdale Cooper and the visiting St. Louis Park Orioles. Rough-and-tumble and slow-paced play throughout, St. Louis Park never found a rhythm while Cooper took advantage with Beijan…
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Continue ReadingAnother run down 169 led me to a Friday night Metro West clash between Robbinsdale Cooper and the visiting St. Louis Park Orioles. Rough-and-tumble and slow-paced play throughout, St. Louis Park never found a rhythm while Cooper took advantage with Beijan Newbern‘s hot hand. The Hawks pulled away for a hard-earned 64-54 win.
Hawks improve to 9-5 on the season, 4-2 in the Metro West. They’ve hit a roll lately and have Chaska at home on Tuesday in a battle for second place. St. Louis Park is 8-10, 2-4 Metro West as of Saturday. Their non-conference schedule was brutally tough and it didn’t quit once they came to conference opponents.
MVP: Beijan Newbern (G, 6-3, Jr., Cooper)
In a gameplan that involves a lot of isolation plays, Newbern thrives. He contributed multiple bully drives into floaters off the glass, taking the smaller Oriole guards down low and burying them. He hit a couple treys as well on kickouts from attacking teammates. Finished with a game high 24 points.
Best offensive performance: Joey Whitlock (SG, 5-10, Jr., St. Louis Park)
He kept Park in the game at the end. Knocked out a 28 footer at the first half buzzer, and found his confidence hitting two more bombs in the second half to bring it back to a one possession contest. 13 total points, tallied a couple rebounds and assists as well. Dangerous shooter who takes after his older brother Ray (a freshman at Luther in Iowa).
Best defensive performance: Onte Burns (G, 5-11, Jr., Cooper)
Big time energy from the junior, who was active and flying around all game on both ends. 15 points, half being converted from traps into turnovers. He’s a thicker-bodied guard who does a lot of things solidly for the Hawks.
Best rebounder: Damien Gordon (F, 6-4, Sr., Cooper)
Physical and smart, with an impressive vertical to boot, Gordon outleaped the Oriole frontcourt on many occasions for offensive boards. He draws the opposing center as well, and he attacked Ryan Domres early to put him in foul trouble. A good worker game of eight points and five rebounds.
Best athlete: Cire Mayfield (PG, 5-10, Jr., St. Louis Park)
When StLP couldn’t shoot in the opening minutes, Mayfield took the ball and easily beat the first line of defense to get to the rim. He simply is quicker than most defenders. His shot is smooth too, showing confidence in his jumper on his way to 12 points. Also showed jumping ability, skying for four rebounds.
Biggest game-changer: Orioles’ flat shooting and cheap fouls
Ryan Domres and Mykal Howard—two of StLP’s senior leaders—each picked up two fouls early and had to sit most of half one. When your vocal guys aren’t on the floor there is some sense of panic and discombobulation; the Orioles couldn’t throw a rock in the ocean and had trouble stopping drives on defense. The half-focused mentality early gave Cooper the advantage.
Best underclassman: Jalen Miller/Jalen Justice (G, 6-0, So., Cooper)
The two Jalens are identical in position, height, and age, and though neither made a mark on the scoresheet, there’s a lot of promise for these two in the next couple years. The route for youngsters playing varsity usually starts as ball movers/role players (Miller and Justice did that well on Friday, along with being known threats from deep) and progressively increases to being go-to guys by senior year. Expect them to be at their peak very soon.
Best performance off the bench: Richard Green (G, 5-10, Sr., St. Louis Park)
Along with Mayfield, Green came on to replace Howard and his quickness helped the Orioles crawl back into the game. He provided energy and steals plus six points at the bucket. Nice job by the agile senior guard.
Best storyline moving forward: Section 6AAAA
Hawks/Orioles face off again at the end of the season, but this was also a preview of the very possible 4/5 game in section 6AAAA. Another Cooper victory later will probably seal the home playoff game for them. Can one or both of them pull off an upset for confidence boosts for the stretch run?
Other: Cooper led 57-52 with 50 seconds remaining. Damien Gordon dribbles off his own foot out of bounds while trapped; or so it looked. The nearest ref called Oriole ball, then after consulting himself for a few moments, reversed the call back to Cooper. StLP coach Dave Breitenbucher was very much not in agreement. He picked up a technical and his bench was also assessed one. Somehow Cooper gains another two free throws, and makes a total of five out of six. All of a sudden it’s 62-52. Who knows what would have happened otherwise? Crazy sequence and Park fans were not happy.