Cooper outruns DeLaSalle 52-48

<p>I saw 8 games on the East Court at Minnetonka Saturday as part of the 1st annual Breakdown invitational. (Grant saw the 8 games on the Main Court. We have both already posted game reports on the Breakdown Web site. We will have additional, expanded coverage of the event here at Northstar Girls Hoops today and tomorrow.)</p> <p>For me, the best of the 8 games I saw was a possible state tournament preview—heck, maybe a state championship preview—between Class AAA DeLaSalle and Robbinsdale Cooper. Cooper dropped down from Class AAAA in the recent redistricting, just is time to send a deep and athletic squad under the cool, calm and collected coaching of Kiara Buford after a state title. Obviously they’re among the favorites, especially after their 52-48 win over the Islanders. Cooper was rated #1, De #3 coming in.</p> <p>The game started out at a brisk pace with De scoring out of the halfcourt set and spreading the early scoring around among 6 different players. Cooper scored on the 3, off the glass and in transition. Cooper led 15-10 at 12:30 but De put a 13-0 run on the Hawks as, again, 5 different Islanders scored. It was 23-15 then 26-17 at 7:40, and it was still 33-25 De at 3:30 as Nora Francois scored 3 buckets for the Islanders.</p> <p>That’s when Cooper began to claw back as Kierra (now known as Mimi) Wheeler had 3 offensive boards and 6 points over the final 6 minutes. She had 13 points on 6 O-boards at the half. Cooper shot just 29 percent but lived off of 2nd chances. DeLaSalle shot 54 percent but couldn’t keep Cooper off the boards. De also had 9 turnovers to 3 for the Hawks.</p> <p>The 2nd half was nip and tuck or hammer and tong all the way. Cooper once led by 5 but De tied it up at 44 and took leads of 45-44 and 48-46 in the 7 to 9 minute range. But the Islanders did not score inside of 7:30, missing 4 FG and 2 FT and turning it over 4 times. Cooper didn’t score inside of 4 minutes but scored the game’s final 6 points between 7:00 and 4:30, 4 of them by Mimi Wheeler and the final 2 by Andrea Tribble, both freshmen, by the by.</p> <p>Cooper made just 8-of-30 in the 2nd half for a total of 17-of-64 FG, but De came down to their level in the 2nd half with 6-of-19 shooting. Cooper had 22 offensive boards, De just 5.</p> <p>Cooper played 4 guards all the way, as befits their roster. Wheeler and Kiara Coops were the only forwards to play, while there were 5 guards. That’s not a lot of depth for the pace they play and their defensive intensity, and yet it was not Cooper that was dragging down the stretch. Still, they’re not as deep as I thought they might be.</p> <p>But De has depth problems of its own with backup point guard Kiana Lockett now ineligible. Lockett played for Mpls. South last year as a 7th grader. She attends school in the Mpls. public system but played 2 games for De this year. They have since been forfeited and yet, for reasons that are difficult to comprehend, she was still on the De bench in street clothes yesterday. I don’t know that she’s eligible to do that. Without her, there is no backup at the 1. Alexis Cochran-Starr looks the part but in reality she’s a 2, a shooter, and a good one, but not a distributor. So Ayanna Gardner looked a little frazzled at the end, and the Islanders overall have not yet (not against Cooper, not against Mahtomedi) brought the defensive intensity that was their trademark last March.</p> <p>De has plenty of depth up front, however, with newcomer Elaina Jones, the transfer from Como, being the most effective with 10 points, 7 boards and 2 assists. Olivia Travis and Nora Francois had nice 1st halves but kind of disappeared in the 2nd. And with all that depth up front, one Mimi Wheeler was still better than 4 or 5 DeLaSalle forwards on this particular date.</p> <p>Still, it would be foolish in the extreme to think that this settles things. De lost 11 times last year, then roared into the state tournament. You are not going to want to play DeLaSalle, or Cooper, in March</p>