#12 posting 3.6.2008
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information
Here is another Spy Out & About
4AA SEMIFINALS
Mpls. Roosevelt and Jordan jumped out to big early leads in their section 4AA semi-final games at Mounds Park Academy, and both advanced to the Saturday afternoon final at Delano High School. But that is where the similarities between the two games end.
Mpls. Roosevelt 67 St. Croix Lutheran 63
Roosevelt roared out to a 35-13 lead over St. Croix Lutheran at the 6:00 mark of the 1st half behind a mix of full and half court pressure defenses and the strength and leaping ability of Kiara Strickland and Suriya McGuire in the paint. Strickland and McGuire had already combined for (an unofficial) 20 points, 10 rebounds (5 on the offensive glass), 6 blocks, 4 assists and a steal by this time. The Crusaders were unable to get comfortable in their offensive sets and were forced to hurry their shots. The result was (unofficially) 6 for 24 shooting.
Still, St. Croix Lutheran was able to settle things down from that point forward, working their way back within 42-27 at halftime. Freshman guard Kayla Hulsebus scored 6 of the Crusaders’ 14 points down the stretch, and a put-back by Andrea Huessner at about 0:03.5 brought St. Croix within 15.
None of that seemed to matter as Roosevelt stretched their lead to 49-32 at 14:52 of the 2nd half. But the Teddies appeared to call of the dogs at that point, abandoning the full court pressure that previously had been so successful. Only on two additional possessions did Roosevelt apply full court pressure. And its half court zone was repeatedly penetrated by the Crusaders the rest of the way. St. Croix was able to easily penetrate the zone with passes to their posts at the free throw line, and good things usually happened after that. The Crusaders scored 8 points in a row to get within 49-40. Then after going almost 3 minutes without scoring, they out-scored Roosevelt 20-12 to get within 62-60 at 2:45. There were 3 consecutive 3s in less than a minute from 9:25 to 8:27. Huessner provided one of those and 3 more 2 pointers during the run.
But Strickland and McGuire scored the last 7 Roosevelt points, and McGuire provided the final exclamation point by blocking a St. Croix 3 with about 1 tick remaining on the clock. Strickland finished with an unofficial 25 points and McGuire unofficially with 13, 7 rebounds and 6 blocks.
Jordan 72 Mpls. Washburn 41
Jordan got out to a double-digit lead over Washburn at 17-7 at 10:52 of the 1st half. The last time Washburn was within single digits was at 33-24 at about the 1:00 mark. But Jordan scored the last 3 points of the half to lead 36-24 at intermission, and after Washburn opened the 2nd half with a free throw, Jordan scored 10 points in a row to open up a 46-25 lead and never looked back. Washburn never got the lead below 20 points after that, and the Jaguars finally doubled Washburn up at 66-33 at 5:14 of the 2nd half.
Brittany Chambers took control of the game from the beginning, hitting a 3 on Jordan’s first possession. By the time Jordan led 17-7, she was already 3 for 3 from the field, 2 of them on put-backs, with 3 rebounds and 4 steals. At the half she was 5 of 6 from the field with 6 boards, 5 of them on the offensive end, and a total of 12 points. Leah Dietel (unofficially) had 9 points and 10 rebounds at the intermission. Liz Shay was pretty much the whole story for Washburn with 7 for 16 shooting and 16 of Washburn’s 24 1st half points.
Chambers sat down at the 2:41 mark of the 2nd half with Jordan safely ahead 70-39. She had added just 4 more points in the 2nd half, for an unofficial total of 16, plus 5 rebounds in the half. Leah Dietel added 16 2nd half points for an unofficial total of 25, plus 17 rebounds total. She scored on a couple pretty give-and-go plays, a baseline drive and several put-backs. She threw up two or three 3s without success, however.
Jordan made some defensive adjustments at half-time, too and Shay was unable to score for Washburn in the 2nd half.
Tonight’s MVPs—Kiara Strickland of Roosevelt, and Leah Dietel of Jordan
Marc Hugunin
Thanks for the report.
Next up: Tomorrow morning