Minnesota Playoff Central: The Metro West!

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Wednesday night was another 50+ games of Minnesota high school basketball playoff action highlighted by the Metro West making noise in 2AAAA and Central Minnesota Christian earning an eye opening win.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Playoff Central.</strong> The story of Wednesday night was likely what Waconia did to Edina and what Chanhassen did to Shakopee. Edina and Shakopee are not top 15 teams but they have beaten a lot of good teams and are likely top 20 Class AAAA teams. Today the Hornets and Sabers are teams that are out of the playoffs. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Chanhassen outlasted Shakopee with star junior [player_tooltip player_id='1287439' first='Max' last='Woods'] scoring 33 points with 14 points (CZAR STATS, BOOM!) and sophomore [player_tooltip player_id='1760312' first='Riley' last='Johnson'] exploding for 27 (he had 33 earlier in the year against Orono). Woods had the 33 and helped limit [player_tooltip player_id='1288706' first='Jalen' last='Langsy'] to 16. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Waconia beat Edina 70-67 meaning the seven seed knocked off the two seed. The seeds in 2AAAA are quite misleading as there was not much difference between the teams seeded two through seven but this was still a surprising upset win for the Cats. Junior Gavin Olson scored 19 as did Waconia freshman [player_tooltip player_id='1560741' first='Will' last='Kirsch']. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Upset City</strong>. Technically the Chan and Waconia wins were upsets but as I said, those teams were pretty close. Another game that I think was a mild upset was Central Minnesota Christian beating Lakeview. CMC came into the playoffs with 16 wins so it wasn't the win that was the huge upset as much as the way they did it beating Lakeview 71-47. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Another team that I didn't expect to win was Anoka knocking off Blaine. [player_tooltip player_id='1574226' first='Peyton' last='Podany'] scored 20 while the Tornadoes held one of Blaine's best players scoreless. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>The Big Stage.</strong> There are six locations with double headers tonight. Here are the six spots for you basketball crazed fans looking to catch two:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Mankato East HS: Waseca vs LCWM and Blue Earth vs Maple River</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>New Prague HS: Minnesota Valley Lutheran vs Belle Plaine and Glencoe-Silver Lake vs Norwood-Young America</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Minnesota-Crookston: GGG vs Red Lake County and BGMR vs Sacred Heart</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Northland CC: Northern Freeze vs Kittson County Central and Stephen-Argyle vs WAO</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Sibley East HS: Lester Prairie vs BOLD and Cedar Mountain SESM</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>St. Peter HS: Mountain Lake Area vs Mankato Loyola and Martin County West vs USC</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Top Performers</strong>. Here are three top players. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Senior [player_tooltip player_id='962206' first='Max' last='Shikenjanski'] had 18 points and 14 assists for the Ponies in their win over St. Paul Central</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>6'2 Junior Jack Mekalson scored 28 as Battle Lake beat Breckenridge 97-65. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Isreal Moses V scored 29 leading DeLaSalle over St. Paul Como Park</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Tip of the Hat to the Career</strong>. [player_tooltip player_id='1167622' first='Nathan' last='Fenske'] of Lakeview is the first player that comes to mind. The explosive guard will be at Southwest Minnesota State next year. Fense put Lakeview on the basketball map and led them to 20+ wins.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='962222' first='Jessye' last='Lewis Jr'] is an excellent guard from Hiawatha Collegiate who was a fantastic four year player for that program. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Finally, one of the best stories this year was [player_tooltip player_id='1288738' first='Zach' last='Jacobson'] overcoming injuries and finally getting to play varsity basketball. The explosive shooting guard played in a huge leg brace but still managed to average nearly 20 points a game playing about 60 percent of the season. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->