Minnesota Playoff Central: Novak Breaks Record, 68 Saturday Games

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>THIS.... is the biggest day of playoff games for the state of Minnesota. SIXTY-EIGHT games. We do our best to preview this massive day and go through last night's results.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Playoff Central</strong>. Hopkins was motivated and blew out Armstrong 92-58 meaning the Royals earned win 20, they stay one of the hottest teams in high school basketball and..... .Ken Novak Jr now has 1,013 career wins.... the most wins in the history of Minnesota High School Basketball! Congrats to Novak, his assistants, his family, and all the players that helped him along the way. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Now the Royals can think about Buffalo and maybe Wayzata. Last night the Royals looked great led by 19 points each from [player_tooltip player_id='1560839' first='Xavier' last='Frelix'] and [player_tooltip player_id='2119592' first='JoJo' last='Smith'], and 16 assists from likely Mr. Basketball top five finalist [player_tooltip player_id='1550877' first='Jayden' last='Moore']. Hopkins next faces Buffalo who needed a buzzer beater on a [player_tooltip player_id='2126866' first='Matthew' last='Jordan'] drive for an assist to [player_tooltip player_id='2830954' first='Will' last='Miriovsky'] for the clincher 67-66 vs Washburn. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>The Big Stage</strong>. There are 68 games today, the whole state is the big stage. There are eight games in Class AAAA (section semi-finals for 1AAAA, 2AAAA, 4AAAA, and 7AAAA) and that is so many big games: Farmington vs Mayo, Chaska vs Eden Prairie, Tartan vs St. Paul Central and the monster East Ridge vs CDH. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In Class AAA there are a baker's dozen games with six different sections having section semi-finals plus Becker and Fridley playing today instead of last night because of an archery tournament (I'm serious). The biggest game of the day in AAA is almost surely Mahtomedi facing St. Paul Johnson at Mahtomedi. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>There are 24 games at the Class AA level and all eyes are on 3AA and 1AA who are down to four teams each. The Mayo Civic Arena has Triton vs Goodhue, and Caledonia vs Zumbrota-Mazeppa. SMSU has Morris Area vs Minnewaska, and Jackson County Central vs Montevideo. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Class A level has 23 games by final four games in both Section 1A and Section 3A. Those games are also at the Mayo Civic Center and SMSU respectively. Wabasso versus Central Minnesota Christian is the biggest game to be aware of. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Upset City</strong>. It's kind of hard to call anything that happened last night (on a limited night for games) as a big upset but three three-seeds (Elk River, Apple Valley, and Hibbing) all defeated two seeds (Bemidji, Rosemount, and Denfeld respectively). Elk River evened out their record on the season at 14-14 beating Bemidji by nine points for the second time in ten days. If I had to pick one as the biggest upset, this likely would have been it since the Elks likely should have been the four seed, but at the same time, Elk River, Apple Valley, and Hibbing would have all been my picks to win those games. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Top Performances</strong>. Six-foot-2 senior [player_tooltip player_id='1560770' first='Chase' last='Sheldon'] scored 24 points to lead the Elks to the win over Bemidiji. The Elks are one of the hottest teams in the state right now having won eight of nine games and their next opponent is....</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Alexandria who smacked Monticello 81-54. The Cards turned the Magic over 22 times last night and were led by [player_tooltip player_id='2118495' first='Talan' last='Witt'] and [player_tooltip player_id='2126865' first='Grady' last='Starzl'] who each finished with a team high 18 points. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Then you have that Apple Valley win over Rosemount. The Eagles controlled this game setting up the match-up with Eagan that we have all been talking about for about a year. [player_tooltip player_id='1560866' first='Camare'' last='Young'] scored 27 points hitting four threes helping the Eagles beat Rosemount. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Then you have Hibbing who held Denfeld to 15 first half points and won the game by 15 points (63-48). Junior [player_tooltip player_id='2126126' first='Ray' last='Brau'] scored 17 second half points to lead his team to their 20th win of the year. Next up for Hibbing is Grand Rapids in the section title game. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Tip of the Hat to the Career</strong>.[player_tooltip player_id='1560797' first='Jaxon' last='Boschee'] scored 31 points in his final game last night finishing off an outstanding career that saw the Bemidji talent score more than 2,000 points at the big school level! Boschee has previously been offered by division two schools and is a D2 level scorer and we expect to see him continue his scoring at the college level next year. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->