Minnesota Playoff Central: Tartan Returns to State, 14 more games

Playoff Central. First of all, we apologize for telling you all of Class AAA was going to be decided last night, 7AAA pulled a fast one on us with the game being played Friday (tonight) instead. That is Grand Rapids vs Hibbing at Duluth East. The other seven Class AAA spots at state? They are ALL one seeds: Northfield, Mankato East, Minneapolis South, DeLaSalle, Totino-Grace, Richfield, and Sartell. All one seeds made state.   That trend continued for most of Class AAAA as well with Lakeville South, Tartan, Blaine, and Alexandria qualified for state. The ONLY big school team that has qualified for state and wasn't a one seed was Apple Valley beating Eagan. There are four more big school state bids left and that is the Hibbing/GR game we talked about, a top ten match-up of Chaska vs Prior Lake, the rivalry game between Maple Grove and Osseo, and of course the big dog, Wayzata vs Hopkins.   In addition.... ten more small school bids will be decided tonight with five teams qualifying in Class AA and five more in Class A. We talked about some of those games below in the......   The Big Stage. There are THREE places tonight where you can catch TWO section championship games as players realize their dreams. Those places are....   St. Thomas Academy. Liberty Classical takes on Heritage Christian in a long expected re-match from last year's section title game won by Heritage Christian. That said, Liberty is the heavy, heavy favorite this year as they have already beaten Heritage by 39 points and 19 points in the previous two games. After the 4A final is done, it's Minnehaha Academy going for their 10th straight qualification for playing at state. The opponent is St. Croix Lutheran who has lost 00 straight games to the Hawks including a 77-61 game earlier this season. The Hawks have won seven straight against the Crusaders, the last Crusader win in the series was December 1st, 2015.   St. Cloud State. It starts with the 6AA final as surprising Albany continues to work to defend their state title in what has been an excellent 23-6 season despite so many changes. They face Melrose who has won seven of their last nine games including one score playoff wins over Holdingford and Annandale. The 5A title games follows that as Nevis goes for a 7th straight season of qualifying for the state tournament facing Upsala. Upsala was knocked out of the playoffs in the exact same spot last year by the same team.   Concordia-Moorhead. Top ranked Henning hopes to get past Park Christian in a top ten match-up in Class A's Section 6A. That game will be followed by the 8AA state match-up between a pair of surprising March teams: Perham (17-12) and Staples-Motley (19-8). The Jackets and the Cards are historically two very good programs but they have been hit hard in recent years by some tough seasons. That said, they are on the bounce back and a trip to state would be huge for that bounce back.   Upset City. These are small upsets but they are upsets.   Apple Valley got four threes and 26 points with eight rebounds from [player_tooltip player_id='1560866' first='Camare'' last='Young'] and then eight threes from [player_tooltip player_id='2271330' first='Trey' last='Parker'] for his 24 points including a clutch make late. The Eagles/Wildcats long awaited match-up went the way of Apple Valley 67-62.   Jackson County Central's size and athletic ability was just way way too much for top ranked and undefeated Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta. JCC won this 59-54 led by 27 points from [player_tooltip player_id='1601069' first='Roman' last='Voss'].   And then you had Hills-Beaver Creek changing up their zone defense and confusing Central Minnesota Christian to a 77-70 victory. HBC, another state football champ, is moving on to the state tournament. [player_tooltip player_id='2400265' first='Jamin' last='Metzger'] had 21 points for HBC while junior Riggins Rheault stepped up big for another 19. [player_tooltip player_id='2877054' first='Asher' last='Wieberdink'], a player that I think is going to have a monster 17u season, had 30 points and eight boards.   Top Performances.The balance Lakeville South Tigers got 16 points from [player_tooltip player_id='2400080' first='Nolan' last='Greene'] and 15 from [player_tooltip player_id='2121334' first='Ryker' last='Sanders'] to beat Farmington 76-71.   [player_tooltip player_id='2954043' first='Henry' last='Semans'] scored 21 as one of five Blaine players in double figures allowing the Bengals to beat Andover.   Lucas Gunderson scored 28 and [player_tooltip player_id='1886972' first='Amari' last='Nobles'] had 20 points, nine boards and six assists for Mankato East defeating St. Peter.   Jumari Wright continued an outstanding sophomore season scoring 31 points leading Minneapolis South past South St. Paul to get to state.   [player_tooltip player_id='1951088' first='Luke' last='Roschen'] had 30 and [player_tooltip player_id='2394170' first='Alex' last='Loos'] scored 23 as Goodhue just got by Caledonia who got 27 from [player_tooltip player_id='2824037' first='Aaron' last='Stemper'] and 23 from [player_tooltip player_id='2387331' first='Grant' last='King'].   And in the game of the night, Tartan beat Cretin-Derham Hall in overtime to get to state for the first time since 2012. Tartan sophomores [player_tooltip player_id='2560499' first='Kevin' last='Wilson Jr.'] and [player_tooltip player_id='2560458' first='Emmanuel' last='Oyesanmi'] led the way as Wilson scored 25 while Emmanuel had a double-double of 18 points and 13 boars.   Tip of the Hat to the Career. [player_tooltip player_id='1560868' first='Joseph' last='Mitchell III']. I still recall Mitchell as a freshman playing at the Prep Hoops Showcase many years ago. He was smaller then but his scoring feel was tremendous. He then grew about three or four inches from that camp and became a player with the strength and touch to be a 44.7 percent three point shooter for CDH this year averaging 20.7 points per game. When you realize that Mitchell was taking seven threes a game (approximately) at nearly 45 percent shooting at the arc, you realize that percentage is very impressive. And it should fit in nicely with the UST offense. Mitchell also averaged 4.4 assists and a couple steals a game as a senior.   Mitchell joins [player_tooltip player_id='2119578' first='Pierce' last='Petersohn'], [player_tooltip player_id='1560882' first='Cedric' last='Tomes'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1560851' first='Hamze' last='Yusuf'] as Mr. Basketball finalists that missed out on state. [player_tooltip player_id='1560740' first='Dothan' last='Ijadimbola'] and [player_tooltip player_id='2121332' first='Deron' last='Russell'] have qualified for state. Tonight [player_tooltip player_id='1560827' first='Kale' last='Misegades'] gets his chance and then in the Wayzata/Hopkins game it will be either [player_tooltip player_id='1560778' first='Nolen' last='Anderson'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1560867' first='Christian' last='Wiggins'] at state, or it will be [player_tooltip player_id='1550877' first='Jayden' last='Moore'].

Playoff Central. First of all, we apologize for telling you all of Class AAA was going to be decided last night, 7AAA pulled a fast one on us with the game being played Friday (tonight) instead. That is Grand Rapids vs Hibbing at Duluth East. The other seven Class AAA spots at state? They are ALL one seeds: Northfield, Mankato East, Minneapolis South, DeLaSalle, Totino-Grace, Richfield, and Sartell. All one seeds made state.