Minnesota Playoff Central: Two Tickets Punched TONIGHT

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We have hit that time of year..... two section championship games will be played TONIGHT! Let's break it down!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Playoff Central</strong>. Two games for the state tournament tonight (we break that down in the Big Stage). </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Class A basketball really takes center stage as Northern Minnesota Class A (5A, 6A, 7A, and 8A) are all in their semi-final spots tonight. The always interesting 5A has Braham vs Upsala and Nevis against Sebeka. Other big games include Park Christian facing Pelican Rapids in the section semis, MIB faces Deer River in a big one, and then Northern Freeze and Stephen-Argyle try and spoil everybody's hope for a Fertile-Beltrami vs Red Lake County section title game. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Also tonight we have section semi-finals in Class AA in Northern Minnesota with 6AA, 7AA, and 8AA. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>The Big Stage</strong>. The Taylor Center. Minnesota-State Mankato. A back to back you want to be in attendance for as two tickets will be punched for state. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Belle Plaine vs Waseca for state. The Tigers and Jays have played twice already and Belle Plaine won both games, but both games were close (88-84 and 82-75). Can Belle Plaine slow the state's leading scorer in [player_tooltip player_id='2121332' first='Deron' last='Russell']? Can Waseca's small line-up stop [player_tooltip player_id='2118474' first='Ethan' last='Martin']? Belle Plaine is a bit bigger and a big deeper which is why they won the first two games.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>JWP vs Springfield for state. JWP's losses have been to really good Clas AA teams. They have played Springfield already scoring 93 points in a 13 point win. Springfield has really started playing well as of late led by 6'4 big [player_tooltip player_id='2399032' first='Bryan' last='Buerkle']. After a pair of struggles against Madelia and CMC, the Tigers bounced back to crush/blowout/destroy TMB, Cathedral, MCW, Loyola, and of course Madelia earlier in the week. Springfield turned a 13 point loss to Madelia into a 30 point win one more later. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Upset City</strong>. Our new Cinderella...... The Blake Bears! The nine seed! They took out Holy Family over the weekend and last night they defeated Minneapolis North. [player_tooltip player_id='2118459' first='Carson' last='McMichael'] is red hot in March and he had 27 points to beat North with help from freshman [player_tooltip player_id='2838884' first='Trameill' last='White']. Now Blake has to get by the new section favorite, four loss Maranatha Christian. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Top Performances</strong>. [player_tooltip player_id='2436914' first='Kellen' last='Troup'] led Minnehaha Academy to a 90-66 win over Concorida Academy. [player_tooltip player_id='2436914' first='Kellen' last='Troup'] scored 31 points making five threes while also grabbing 12 boards. Troup continues to play at a very high level.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Wayzata knocked off Edina 91-62 (51-23 half time lead) and the [program_tooltip program_id='2075965' first='Trojans' last=''] got that blowout win with [player_tooltip player_id='1560867' first='Christian' last='Wiggins'] scoring 25 points and [player_tooltip player_id='1560807' first='Isaac' last='Olmstead'] back in the line-up! </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1560839' first='Xavier' last='Frelix'] scored 23 points hitting three threes and grabbing seven boards allowing Hopkins to beat Buffalo 66-48. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Liberty Classical beat Hope Academy 79-56 led by the 27 points from [player_tooltip player_id='2842383' first='Sam' last='Rupnow']. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Tip of the Hat to the Career</strong>. [player_tooltip player_id='1858796' first='Ezra' last='Cunningham'] led St. Paul Academy to 20 wins this year which is a very big deal as he helped that program in a big way. The senior forward averaged 22.2 points and 8.3 rebounds a game this season and should move on to be a good college basketball player. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->