Out & About: St. Paul Central/Mpls South

#13 posting 3.17.2007
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MN TOURNAMENT
AAAA CHAMPIONSHIP
ST. PAUL CENTRAL minutemen 81,
MINNEAPOLIS SOUTH tigers 63

#1 St. Paul Central capped their unblemished season with their third state tournament title in their history with a repeat win over Minneapolis South. With the win Central takes their place in the Mount Rushmore of MN Great teams like Rochester Mayo '97, and Minneapolis North '98.

SPC put their stamp on the game early with three straight scores on their first three possessions. They led 8-0 before South scored at 13:59 on a Tyisha Smith pull up J. Central had cooled off with five possessions coming up blank. They soon got their mojo back on a 4/5 scoring sequence. South never really was out of Central's range as the Tigers cut the lead to 5-14 on a shot by Gabrielle Roberts at the 7:22 mark. That was going to be as close as South was going to get on the night. There was a lot of energy and adreneline flowing through both teams veins. A couple of key parts in the first half: 1. Hannah Cheese left the floor and never returned icing her left shoulder; 2. Ephesia Holmes picked up foul #4. That put a big crimp in South's attack and defense. Central took advantage of the situation with a 10-3 run to close the half. Angel Robinson led all scorers with 9 at halftime. Central led 32-21.

Central was on fire to start the half with five straight scoring possessions. It was an 11-5 run over the stretch. The game became one of accelerations punctuated by periodic stalls by both teams. Central's superior size provided many second chance points. They had 15 on the night. Central kicked it up a notch with their pp100s & floor%. In the first half it was, for them, a struggling 74.4 pp100 and .395. In the second half things were humming with a 108.9, .556 ratio. Leading the charge in the second half was Kiara Buford with 17 points. She finished breaks and knocked down a three. South did however cut the margin to 9 at the 14:57 mark on a steal and lay up by Hill 43-34. That was as close as the Southerners were to get. SPC put together a four possession run with Buford initiating the action with four straight points all on the move. At mid point of the second half South strung together 7 straight offensive possessions. Central didn't have the same luck, but did match South, or close to it, with 5/7. The only question was going to be if they would break the AAAA final scoring record of 80 set back in 2000 by Osseo in their 80-53 win over Eastview. Shayla Johnson answered that question as Central now holds the record.

NUMBERS EXPLAINED
player, points, possessions, pp100, floor %

ST. PAUL CENTRAL
STARTERS
Kiara Buford 19, 15, 126.7, .600
Megan Howard 4, 6, 66.7, .333
Georgie Jones 11, 10, 110.0, .600
Angel Robinson 16, 20, 80.0, .400
Theaira Taylor 11, 14, 78.6, .429
BENCH
Cyonna West 0, 3, 0.0, .000
Ebony Black 18, 18, 100.0, .500
Abby Gust 0, 1, 0.0, .000
Shayla Johnson 2, 1, 200.0, 1.000

MINNEAPOLIS SOUTH
STARTERS
Tayler Hill 15, 25, 60.0, .320
Gabrielle Roberts 6, 8, 75.0, .375
Hannah Cheese 0, 1, 0.0, .000
Tyisha Smith 13, 18, 72.2, .333
Ephesia Holmes 21, 25, 84.0, .360
BENCH
Taqouia Hammick 3, 3, 100.0, .667
Mareshah Anderson 0, 3, 0.0, .000
Jenny Houle 5, 4, 125.0, .500

TRENCH PLAYER
Kiara Buford

BY THE NUMBERS
St. Paul Central 81, 88, 92.0, .477
Mpls South 63, 87, 72.4, .345
made 3s: MS 5, SPC 1
made fts: MS 20, SPC 14
bench: SPC 20, MS 8

DEFENSIVE WRAPS
ST. PAUL CENTRAL
Georgie Jones 12.5
Angel Robinson 9.5
Ebony Black 5.5
Theairra Taylor 4.5
Kiara Buford 4
Megan Howard 3
Cyonna West 2
totals: 41

MINNEAPOLIS SOUTH
Tyisha Smith 8
Tayler Hill 6.5
Ephesia Holmes 5
Gabrielle Roberts 4
Jenny Houle 2
Mareshah Anderson 1.5
Taqouia Hammick 1
totals: 23

next up: tomorrow morning