Minnesota Playoff Central: Wayzata headed back to state!

<p>Wayzata has punched the first ticket to the state tournament.  Who is next? Get ready for some huge moments Thursday and Friday!</p> <p><strong>Playoff Central.</strong>    Wayzata is state tournament bound yet again after knocking off Minneapolis South 77-55.  The Trojans are in position to defend their title, but now they wait to see what fills in around them for next week!  As for tonight, a major Class A double header is in Duluth (we talk about that more below).  Tuesday night was a packed night of games but compared to most other nights, there wasn’t quite as much drama.  It was more about expected results. </p> <p><strong>Upset City</strong>.  Despite so much playoff action on Tuesday night there wasn’t really an upset to talk about.  Every Class A higher seeded team won.  In Class AA, Albany beat Mora, Perham beat Pelican Rapids, and Maranatha Christian beat Rockford in 3/2 games but none of those games would really fall into the "upset" category.  Rockford was ranked and the favorite to win but MCA is a good team as well so not really an upset.  Hermantown over North Branch in the 2/3 game with the three winning (Hermantown) is actually the result I expected.  And all Class AAAA high seeds won as well.  </p> <p><strong>The Big Stage.  </strong>  Tonight’s big stage is at UMD.  Cherry (24-4) vs Mountain Iron-Buhl (21-7) and Deer River (22-6) vs North Woods (24-4).  Big time games with big time Class A talent.  [player_tooltip player_id="1288733" first="Isaac" last="Asuma"] is a top ten sophomore in this state averaging 25 points a game for Cherry. [player_tooltip player_id="962209" first="Asher" last="Zubich"] of Mountain Iron-Buhl is the all time scoring leader in at his school and he’s only a junior.  [player_tooltip player_id="958846" first="TJ" last="Chiabotti"] of North Branch is the first athlete to amass 2,000 career points in hoops and 5,000 rushing yards in football.  And [player_tooltip player_id="958848" first="Ty" last="Morrison"] is one of the better senior prospects in Minnesota.  Excellent talent. </p> <p><strong>Top Performers</strong>.   [player_tooltip player_id="850713" first="Carter" last="Bjerke"] put up 26 points while three other teammates were in double figures.  The pick and pop touch as well as the back to the basket game was too matured for the young South opponents. </p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="850710" first="Braeden" last="Carrington"] had 26 points for Park Center in a 76-62 win over Mounds View.  He made 7 of 11 field goals including five triples. </p> <p>Mitchell Jaskowaik - a future Idaho football player - scored 27 points leading GSL to a two score win over Belle Plaine.  </p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="962239" first="AJ" last="Greene"] scored 39 and Lorenzo Levy had 38 as Concordia Academy got by Twin Cities Academy 97-91.</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="958714" first="Jeremiah" last="LaVelle"] put up 32 as MCA beat Rockford.</p> <p><strong>Tip of the Hat to the Career</strong>.  The list is long and distinguished. Here it is...</p> <ul> <li>Ja’Sean Glover of Madelia.  Need a scoring wing that is physically ready?  Glover is your man. </li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="958732" first="Matt" last="Thompson"] of Hancock.  Need a five?  Thompson had an awesome senior season and took his team to the title game last year</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="960333" first="Sam" last="Zilmer"] of Rockford.  Led his Rockets team to a much better season than expected.</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="958693" first="Carmello" last="McNeal"] of Twin Cities/Great River.  Ball pressuring scoring guard that is the age of a junior and a bright future. </li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="850723" first="Dylan" last="Wheeler"] of Mounds View.  Excellent all around player that missed a month of the season. </li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="1139741" first="Logan" last="Kinsey"] of Spring Lake Park.  Rough year for the Panthers at times but Logan has a ton of talent.  I think we could be hearing about him in special ways in the near future at the college level. </li> </ul>