Class AAA: Austin, BSM and Minneapolis South are rolling

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We go Three Up, Three Down with the best in Class AAA as of late, and some teams that have hit a rough patch but should bounce back. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Three Up</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Austin (11-6)</strong>. Austin has now won three games in a row improving to 11-6 and starting to think about a potential section final run. The Packer just had maybe the biggest win of the season knocking off Stewartville for a huge section 1AAA win and they did it 75-70 last night! [player_tooltip player_id='2381757' first='Cole' last='Hebrink'] put up 24 points, seven rebounds and three assists and [player_tooltip player_id='1560869' first='Banyaan' last='Omot'] had 15 points and 11 boards which will allow the Packers to start thinking two seed. Hebrink is scoring nearly 19 points a game while [player_tooltip player_id='2381766' first='Xzayveun' last='Severin'] is scoring 16 points a game as a junior. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Minneapolis South (15-5).</strong> The Tigers have won ten games in a row with their last loss coming the first week of January. North is the local darling of the community? Got em twice in a week. Camden is the young hot name drawing all the cameras? Beat em by two scores at least twice. Washburn was the last team to be them? Got their revenge. Tech? Park Center? Southwest? Got em, got them, got them too! </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='2435232' first='Jumair' last='Wright'] is playing like a Class AAA All State player and a First Team Level Sophomore All State talent. He is averaging 22.6 points, 4.7 rebounds and 5.6 assists a game with shooting splits of 55/70/34.5. He's also getting help from [player_tooltip player_id='2409303' first='Ramadan' last='Ibrahim'] scoring 18.4 points a game shooting 39 plus percent at the arc and role guys Laviance Gales and [player_tooltip player_id='2409295' first='Ridwan' last='Ibrahim'] have both stepped up big as well. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Benilde-St. Margaret's (9-11)</strong>. The Red Knights lost some games early and I think the young team became an afterthought but they've picked up three wins in a row as we start the home stretch. BSM hit a stretch losing six of seven games and it was likely tough but they have rebounded to beat St. Louis Park, Jefferson and St. Thomas as they draw closer to .500. Juniors Connor Watts and [player_tooltip player_id='2140671' first='Milton' last='Nuahn'] led BSM with 17 points and 14 points per game respectively. Senior Jaidyn Garibaldi has also put together a nice year for the team. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Three Down</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Faribault (7-11).</strong> I think we pretty much knew this was coming as the Falcons have lost three in a row and their backcourt just can't match that of their opponents. Frontcourt? [player_tooltip player_id='2115655' first='Ryan' last='Kreager'] and [player_tooltip player_id='2118832' first='Breuer' last='Wolff'] are excellent players, both top 50 level seniors. Wolff is playing a lot of main ball handling role. And senior Brandon Petricka has stepped up to be a threat as well scoring 14 points per game! They just don't have the creators others do which is how they were just beaten by Albert Lea (7-12) and crushed by Northfield (84-48). That said......</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Faribault is a threat with their frontcourt and each and every one of their final eight games is winnable. Don't be surprised if the Falcons go on a late season run. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>St. Thomas Academy (9-10). </strong> STA has won four in a row and they were thinking about a 3AAA title but then the competition got tougher and they lost to BSM, Tartan and South St. Paul. That said...... when you look a bit deeper, STA won those four in a row and then they pushed the Titans harder than anybody in their league has losing by two scores, and they lost to SSP by two scores. St. Thomas will be the favorite in all but one of their last seven games and I could see them finishing 16 or 17 wins this year. [player_tooltip player_id='2119593' first='Lars' last='Osteraas'] is scoring 22 a game and they have four quality options in Lars, [player_tooltip player_id='2464625' first='Dominic' last='Baez'], [player_tooltip player_id='2421555' first='Max' last='Hayes'] and George Anderson. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>St. Cloud Tech (8-11)</strong>. At one point Tech was the surprise of Class AAA but they have lost seven of their last nine games. That said, they lost to Fergus Falls by a score, lost to Sartell by two scores, and lost to Minneapolis South but a single point. They have a lot of winnable games to finish the season and try and go .500 for the regular season. [player_tooltip player_id='2569247' first='Jiech' last='Jiech'] (a 6'4 junior wing) is averaging 22 points and 6.4 rebounds a game and [player_tooltip player_id='2873622' first='Nick' last='Brakes'] is scoring his 13.4 points a game making half of his shots plus grabbing four boards a game with two steals a night. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->