Minnesota Playoff Central: Minneapolis North Moves On

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Polars were one of five teams to move on in the playoffs last night, and tonight there are 17 more games. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Playoff Central</strong>. The Class A level has a ton of excellent games tonight. Here is a quick run through:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Braham vs Upsala: both teams are 22-6</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Henning vs Ada-Borup: two teams ranked in the top ten</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Benson vs West Central: upstart and sized Benson against regular top team West Central Area</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Kittson County Central vs Stephen Argyle: both teams are 20+ game winners</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>The Big Stage</strong>. Shakopee will have a sell out crowd tonight when they host Prior Lake for the section title. Like Hopkins vs Wazyata, tickets were sold out in minutes so most viewers will be seeing this online. The Lakers and Sabers split the first two games and both games were in the 80s points wise. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>And when it comes to AAAA there is another section final and that is Maple Grove at Champlin Park. These teams also split this year and each team had a double figure win versus the other. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Upset City</strong>. The closest thing to an upset was Minneapolis North (4 seed) knocking off Southwest Christian 71-65. Junior JMarion Sanders had 23 and senior Allen Hill scored 20 earning the win. [player_tooltip player_id='2103376' first='Brayden' last='Beckering'] had a game high 23 points but the balance of North having four players in double figures led the Polars to the win including the dozen from leading scorer [player_tooltip player_id='2569257' first='Marcus' last='Marshall']. And a date with Breck who beat Hiawatha Collegiate.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Top Performers</strong>.  [player_tooltip player_id='1574225' first='Miles' last='Newton'] had 29 points leading Breck over Hiawatha Collegiate in a 77-57 victory. [player_tooltip player_id='1560864' first='JP' last='Musoke'] supported Newton with 14 points. Kam'Ron Solomon had 24 in the loss. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Caleb Schmidt scored 20 leading Liberty Classical over Hope Academy. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2175462' first='Joshua' last='Sokeye'] had 20 and [player_tooltip player_id='2109935' first='Abu' last='Tarawallie'] had 18 for Heritage Christian in a blowout win over Avail. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Tip of the Hat to the Career</strong>. [player_tooltip player_id='1574212' first='Anthony' last='Smith'] of Hopkins. Smith finished the season scoring 25 points per game as a 42 percent three point shooter. When it comes to Hopkins, they are teams with great balance and usually players don't average a big number but 25 a game is what Smith provided which is one of the best totals at Hopkins I can recall. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->