Section 4A final opens the door for some new faces at state
When the section 4A finals tip off Friday night at Anoka-Ramsey Community College there will be something missing: the Maranatha Mustangs. For years, the 4A final has been their show, the final stop on the way to the state tournament.…
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Continue ReadingWhen the section 4A finals tip off Friday night at Anoka-Ramsey Community College there will be something missing: the Maranatha Mustangs. For years, the 4A final has been their show, the final stop on the way to the state tournament. No more. Maranatha has moved on to class 2A, leaving center stage to their long-time foes from Heritage Christian Academy. The Eagles took full advantage of that seismic shift and will duke it out Friday against an impressive Mayer Lutheran squad for a ticket to the big show.
Heritage coach Lori Crellin has mixed feelings about the departure of their rival. “We always loved coming up here and battling Maranatha. It's definitely different not having them in our section,” she said. “I would rather play the tough teams. I firmly believe that you should play up and have teams on your schedule that are going to battle. You are going to be better at the end. We played 26 games to get ready for the post season and I am excited to see what our girls will do on Friday.”
The Maple Grove-based school opened the regular season against Wheaton-Herman-Norcross and closed it against Mountain Iron-Buhl. In between they faced Hermantown, Maranatha (twice), Concordia Academy and Minneapolis North. Mayer Lutheran took a similar approach by playing Watertown-Mayer, Lyle-Pacelli, Eden Valley-Watkins, Hayfield, Norwood-Young America (twice), St. Peter, Glencoe-Silver Lake and Maranatha. They also played Heritage at the end of January and buried the Eagles by 26.
Semifinals were not without drama
How the two teams got to the finals was very different. In Tuesday's semis, Mayer Lutheran dispatched Christian Life Academy by 39. Heritage faced adversity. Less than four minutes into the game, when point guard Taylie Scott was whistled for her third foul, it was pretty clear what the official had done: She had given underdog Lester Prairie a legitimate opportunity to win.
To understand the magnitude of Scott's departure you need to know just how important she has been to Heritage for the past four years. Scott is a top 20 player in the class of 2019, and has topped the 2,000-point mark in high school ball. She was the quarterback for the much-heralded Crossfire Theisen squad and will now play for the top North Tartan team. Scott is a hard-nosed guard who plays as physical as anyone. She loves to go to the rim, loves to take contact and can score from anywhere. Yes, it was a big loss. Crellin was livid. While her team tried to compose itself during the ensuing timeout, the coach went nose-to-nose with the official who had made three highly questionable calls. Crellin is one of the most poised and professional coaches around, but how she escaped a technical in this case is beyond me.
Out of the time out, Lester Prairie's talented freshman Marissa Radtke buried a long three to stretch the Bulldogs' lead to eight. That’s when the Eagles went to work, eventually pulling even at 20 and building a lead as large as 13. In the second half, Heritage ran away with it and posted a 67-45 victory. “We obviously had to have somebody step up in the point guard role and Taylor Schuck and Lauren Robbins were both pretty crucial in that spot,” Crellin said. “Jordan Allen was just crazy out there with her blocked shots and her movement in the post. Annika (Simonson) was having great movement with the ball, making cuts to the bucket, and our guards were finding her tonight.”
Allen, a 6'1 post ranked #45 in the class of 2020, had the game of her life, shooting 9 for 13 for 21 points to go with 16 rebounds and 8 blocks. Simonson, a 6'1 post ranked 68th in the senior class and a 1,000-point scorer, elevated her game substantially, totaling 12 & 10. And the freshman Schuck, a top 100 prospect, used her speed, quickness and seemingly limitless self-confidence to record 14 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists. “It was a total team effort. It was impressive,” Crellin said. “That goes to show that it's not just one player who controls our outcome. It's five players on the court which I think is a pretty deadly combination right now because you have to come out and defend each and every one of them. That's pretty huge.”
Last year's section final between Lester Prairie and Maranatha was one of the most exciting games of the year. The atmosphere was incredible, with two boisterous student sections and half the population of Lester Prairie shoe-horned into the gym. Fortunately, the fire marshal turned a blind eye to the situation. Can Friday's final possibly top that?
“When we played at Mayer they shot the lights out,” Crellin said. “I think they were 62 percent from two and 70 percent from three. We shot 39 percent that night, but we are a different team now than we were then… I think it's going to be a great matchup. One of us will move on and one of us will stay home, but I'm confident that our girls are going to bring it.”