Minnesota Playoff Central: A Massive Night Ahead

<p>Tonight the Minnesota high school playoffs continue with some Titanic match-ups highlighted by Columbia Heights versus Totino-Grace and the 5AAAA semi-finals. </p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Playoff Central. </strong>Michigan signed [player_tooltip player_id="567035" first="Will" last="Tschetter"] scored 34 points and grabbed 12 boards to lead 7th ranked Stewartville over Lake City. The Tigers take on 3rd ranked Caledonia Wednesday. [player_tooltip player_id="796956" first="Justin" last="Wohlers"] led Lake City with 22 points.</p> <p><strong>Upset City</strong>.   Hayfield was the three seed, Lyle-Austin Pacelli was the two seed.  The Vikings actually won the regular season match-up between the teams so it wasn’t a surprise and actually, if Lyle Pacelli had won the game I would of said they actually pulled off the upset.  So this was going to be the game either way.  </p> <p>Hayfield is a team with an outstanding senior ([player_tooltip player_id="957199" first="Ethan" last="Slaathaug"]) and a lot of good young players around him.  Ethan carried a lot of weight last night scoring 28 points but the juniors and sophomores around him played their role perfectly.  Sophomore [player_tooltip player_id="962284" first="Isaac" last="Matti"] scored a dozen and junior Kobe Foster played his role as a defender perfectly.  </p> <p><strong>The Big Stage.  </strong>You may not be aware of this but three of the top four ranked teams in Class AAAA - and some will argue the best three teams in Class AAA - are in the same section.  That leads to tonight’s Totino-Grace vs Columbia Heights clash.  Match-ups?  I thought you’d never ask!?!!?</p> <p>PG - [player_tooltip player_id="962198" first="Taison" last="Chatman"] (TG) vs [player_tooltip player_id="958742" first="Terrence" last="Brown"] (CH)</p> <p>SG - [player_tooltip player_id="962199" first="CJ" last="O’Hara"] (TG) vs [player_tooltip player_id="957232" first="Elijah" last="Williams"] (CH)</p> <p>SF - [player_tooltip player_id="962203" first="Tommy" last="Humphries"] (TG) vs [player_tooltip player_id="958648" first="Hassan" last="Kamara"] (CH)</p> <p>Big Wing - Demario Watson (TG) vs [player_tooltip player_id="850729" first="Muja" last="Burton"] (CH)</p> <p>Post - [player_tooltip player_id="532558" first="Devin" last="Burger"] (TG) vs [player_tooltip player_id="958666" first="Donnavin" last="Hinsz"] (CH)</p> <p>6th Man - [player_tooltip player_id="532550" first="DJ" last="Akpati"] (TG) vs Tula Tula (CH)</p> <p>Thoughts - The Hylanders are the more experienced team.  Tula and Williams are seniors and the rest of the CH starting line-up is juniors.  TG will be bigger/longer at many spots and Burger/Akpati are seniors.  There is a large group of sophomores there that rank with the elite players in their class statewide.  Then you have the CH juniors that rank with the best individual class of players for the 2022 group.  Should be an excellent game. </p> <p><strong>Players To Watch</strong>.    Loving the 5AAAA games tonight top ranked and undefeated Champlin Park against Osseo, and then top ten teams Park Center (ranked 4th) and Mounds View (7th in state).  The talent in those four games is excellent.  Here are some individual match-ups to watch for:</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="774746" first="Joshua" last="Strong"] (Champlin Park) vs Tyirece Waits (Osseo)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="567044" first="Francis" last="Nwaokorie"] (Champlin Park) vs [player_tooltip player_id="850705" first="Blessed" last="Barhayiga"] (Osseo)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="774795" first="Dylan" last="Gichaba"] (Champlin Park) vs [player_tooltip player_id="850711" first="Joshua" last="Ola-Joseph"] (Osseo)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="850710" first="Braeden" last="Carrington"] (Park Center) vs [player_tooltip player_id="774870" first="Evan" last="Kim"] (Mounds View)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="836689" first="Jalen" last="Cook"] (Park Center) vs [player_tooltip player_id="850723" first="Dylan" last="Wheeler"] (Mounds View)</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="774885" first="Dawson" last="Rudolph"] (Park Center) vs [player_tooltip player_id="1143865" first="Kobe" last="Kirk"] (Mounds View)</p> <p><strong>Tip of the Hat to the Career</strong>. Caledonia knocked out PEM 59-55 last night with [player_tooltip player_id="957133" first="Sam" last="Privet"] scoring 18 inside taking advantage of his size to score inside.  With that comes the final game for point guard [player_tooltip player_id="774814" first="Blake" last="Herber"].  Herber will play at Lakeland U next year after scoring 21 points a game this year shooting 46-47 percent. </p>