Minnesota Playoff Central – Brady Williams Leads Dover-Eyota to Upset

Half of the Class AA and Class A playoffs began this week meaning Playoff Central is now on the front page.  NHR will provide you all the important notes from each day of section playoff action every day!

The Big Stage. Metro Conference Champions.   Tonight there are a couple 8/9 sub section pig-tail games but the eyes of the state are on several metro games that are for league titles and potentially section placement.  At East Ridge the Raptors and Cretin-Derham Hall Raiders play for the SEC title and likely for the top seed in the section. At the moment Eastview has earned a share of the South Suburban Conference title and they can win it outright versus Shakopee.  However, if Shakopee wins they would share the league with the Lightning plus if Prior Lake beats Lakeville North they can earn a share of the title as well. 

Upset City!  Dover-Eyota over La Crescent 65-61.  The season has been a struggle for Dover-Eyota despite Minnesota State Mankato signed forward Brady Williams averaging a double-double.  La Crescent came into the game with high expectations having beaten Stewartville and St. Charles not that long ago.  But a 33 point, 12 rebound explosion from Brady Williams, and an early 42-27 lead for D-E ended the season earlier than the Lancers had expected. La Crescent tied the game late and had a chance to win at the buzzer but a call made sent the game into over overtime.  Senior guard Greg Holst hit for threes for Dover-Eyota as well. 

Right on Schedule.   The Rochester Lourdes vs Goodhue game was expected to be one of the top games on Thursday evening.  Lourdes senior Colin Meade gave all paying customers their entertainment's worth exploding for scores on 11 second half possessions helping Lourdes, the favorite, to a 64-57 win.  Meade recorded 33 points and 12 rebounds for the Eagles who moves on to play Class AA's number one ranked team Caledonia on Monday night. 

Where’s the Czar? Last night TC Hoops Czar watched Buffalo defeat Minneapolis Southwest 56-37. Christo Polydorou had 15 for the Lakers while Brandon Maatz led Buffalo with 15.  The Czar, you can follow him at @tchoopsczar on Twitter, covers metro games most of the time so he won't be hitting section games likely until next week.  That said, that's no reason to forget about this segment of Playoff Central.  Speaking of Buffalo, Bison senior Tony Dahl is expected to make his season debut tonight against Wayzata.  Dahl tore his ACL eight months ago and was recently cleared to play.  

Tip of the Hat to the Career. Gunnar Reed of Lewiston-Altura and Luke Schwartzhoff of La Crescent are two seniors who saw their seasons end before March Madness even started.  Schwartzhoff is a 19 point per game 6-foot-7 big that is headed to UW-La Crosse next year while Gunner Reed is a strongly recruited 6-foot-4 wing by D3 schools and a 23 point per game scorer.  Lewiston-Altura was 22-4 coming into the game but Pine Island earned the win 53-50.