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St. Louis Park
Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019 • Page 15
Section time is now for girls basketball teams
Benilde-St. Margaret’s and St. Louis Park serve as hosts for opening games scheduled Wednesday, Feb. 27
By JASON OLSON
[email protected]
Behind 35-11 in the second half, Be-
nilde-St. Margaret’s closed out the Met-
ro West and regular season with a 66-26
win at Richfi eld on Friday, Feb. 22.
The Red Knights (17-9 overall, 7-7
Metro West) used 22 points from senior
forward Isabelle Fleming and 13 points
from senior guard Aiana Whitfi eld for
a second win over the last seven games,
since Feb. 5.
The Section 6-3A 2018 fi nalist re-
ceived the No. 3 seed and played host
to No. 6 Orono at the Haben Cen-
ter on Wednesday. A win moves them
into a game against the winner of the
No. 2 Waconia/ No. 7 Dassel-Cokato
game at 7 p.m. Saturday at the better
seed. Chanhassen will once again host
the fi nal at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 7.
Reigning Class 3A state champion Rob-
binsdale Cooper secured the top seed in
Section 6-3A as the Metro West Confer-
ence champs.
Park
St. Louis Park enters a daunting Sec-
tion 6-4A as the No. 4 seed and faced
No. 5 Bloomington Kennedy at home
on Wednesday.
The winner advances to face the win-
ner of No. 1 Hopkins/Minneapolis
Washburn at noon on Saturday, March
2 on the home court of the better seed.
The fi nal is at 7 p.m. Thursday, March
7 at the better seed.
Hopkins enters sections at the top-
ranked team in the state all season while
No. 2 seed Wayzata was also second
ranked in the big-school class and Lake
Conference.
Park (17-9) and Kennedy (11-15) each
settled with 9-5 records to share third
place in the Metro West Conference
standings.
Defending Class 3A state champion
Robbinsdale Cooper went 17-8 overall
and 12-2 the Metro West to win the
conference title ahead of Chaska (19-7
overall, 11-3 conference).
After a 2-3 start to the season, the
Orioles were 7-2 so far in February in-
cluding a four-game winning streak to
end the regular season that culminated
with a 74-60 win at home over Chaska
on Feb. 22.
Park led by two points at the half
and pulled away in the second half by a
36-26 margin thanks to 20 points from
senior Lindsay Olson. Sophomore Rae-
gan Alexander had 10 rebounds and
four points while senior Jordyn Turek
added 17 points and fi ve rebounds.
Sophomore Kendall Coley scored 16
points to go along with fi ve rebounds.
The win came after a comfortable
64-52 win at BSM on Tuesday, Feb.
19. Alexander and Coley each had 15
points to led the Orioles while senior
Sophie Olmen was a rebound shy of a
double-double with 10 points and nine
rebounds.
The Red Knights countered with 15
points from Whitfi eld, 12 points from
Fleming and 10 points from Patience
Williams.
Follow Jason Olson on Twitter @SunSportsJason.
Second-half surge sends Hawks past St. Louis Park
Johnson and Rayson
combine for 31 points
in a rare defeat
By JASON OLSON
[email protected]
With the end of the boys basketball
regular season quickly approaching,
St. Louis Park’s 59-49 loss at Chaska
could go a long way in determining the
Metro West Conference champion.
St. Louis Park (16-8 overall, 10-2
Metro West) opened a 29-24 halftime
lead on the road as Chaska (19-5, 11-1)
used a 35-20 run make up more than
enough, in the end, thanks in part to
27 points from 6-foot-6 Northern Col-
orado-bound senior Cole Nicholson.
St. Louis Park’s 6-foot-4 sophomore
wing Paris Johnson led the team with 20
points in the loss that snapped a four-
game winning streak, going back to a
66-46 defeat at home against Chanhas-
sen on Feb. 8. Johnson had 10 points
in that loss after being limited to just
three points in an 80-74 win over Ken-
nedy in the previous game. Johnson hit
the game-winner in the fi rst meeting
with the Hawks, a 67-65 fi nal played
Jan. 25 in which Johnson had 20 points.
St. Louis Park’s 6-foot-6 senior An-
thony Rayson fi nished with 11 points at
Chaska on Friday after being limited to
single digits against Benilde-St. Mar-
garet’s (seven points in a 54-41 win on
Feb. 19) and Richfi eld (fi ve points in a
90-62 win on Feb. 15). Rayson had a
season-high 26 points to help guide the
Orioles to a 69-61 win over Stillwater
on Feb. 16.
Finishing out the scoring against
Chaska on Friday was eight points
form Jacob Houts and fi ve points each
from Anthony Odens and Keyshon
Howard.
St. Louis Park remains a very formi-
dable squad winning 13-of-15 games
stretching back to a 105-83 win at
Chanhassen on Jan. 11.
The latest winning streak reached
four games following a 54-41 victory
over Benilde-St. Margaret’s on the Ori-
oles home fl oor Feb. 19.
Redden and Wolfe qualify for
Minnesota state wrestling meet
BSM is poised to be represented in Class AA meet at 106, 170 pounds
By JASON OLSON
[email protected]
After coming up short
against No. 4 Minne-
apolis Roosevelt 42-41
in the Section 5AA team
quarterfi nal match, No. 5
seed Benilde-St. Marga-
ret’s turned its attention
to qualifying as many in-
dividuals as possible for
the Class AA state meet
which begins Thursday at
Xcel Energy Center in St.
Paul.
Totino-Grace topped
Orono to represent the
section at the team tour-
nament which is Thurs-
day, Feb. 28.
BSM build an 18-0
lead three matches into
the dual with pins inside
the fi rst minute by Mat-
thew Litchy and Matthew
Redden at 106 and 120
pounds, respectively. Javi-
er Trujillo won a forfeit at
113 pounds. Pins by Luke
Fredin and Malik Jaiteh at
138 and 145 pounds gave
the Red Knights a 30-12
edge with seven matches
left. BSM forfeit 152
pounds before Andrew
Nylander (160) earned a
fall followed by George
Wolfe with a 15-0 tech fall
at 170 pounds to add fi ve
points instead of the six
team points from a fall.
Roosevelt closed out the
match with the maximum
team points to move on by
one point.
Individual sections
Redden moved back to
106 pounds for the indi-
vidual tournament and
captured the section title
with a fall, 1:14 into the
fi nals against Richfi eld
senior Vishall Manikaran.
Redden, a freshman, won
both matches by opening
period falls to improve to
22-11 on the season.
Wolfe, a sophomore,
also qualifi ed for state with
a true-second place win at
170 pounds. He pinned
Orono’s John McCuskey
in 3:11 for the win-and-
qualify match after hand-
ing Cooper’s Sylvester
Togba a fi rst-round pin for
third place. Wolfe enters
state with a 22-8 record.
Jaiteh stood on the
138-pound podium in
fourth place after losing
a 6-4 decision in his third-
place match against Toti-
no-Grace’s Eric Spaeth.
Fredin, Nylander and
Daniel
McCoy
each
placed fi fth at their respec-
tive weights, 132, 160 and
182 pounds, respectively.
Follow Jason Olson on Twitter
@SunSportsJason.
St. Louis Park led 25-22 at the break
and extended that lead on a 29-19 run
in the second half for the conference
win over the crosstown rivals.
Johnson led all scorers with 19 points
followed by Howard with eight points
and seven points each from Cole Ewald
and Rayson. BSM countered with 13
points from Nick Peterson and eight
points from Derric Standifer. Six dif-
ferent Red Knights added four points
or fewer.
The Orioles close out the conference
and regular season against Blooming-
ton Kennedy (6-17, 2-10) on Friday,
March 1. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. at St.
Louis Park High School.
Follow Jason Olson on Twitter @SunSportsJason.
Looking
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13
the deeper in the state with the top two ranked
teams in the big-school class (Hopkins and
Wayzata).
Benilde-St. Margaret’s welcomed Orono in
the Section 6-3A quarterfi nal on Wednesday
in the game between the sixth and third seeds.
The winner faces the winner of No. 2 Waco-
nia/No. 7 Dassel-Cokato at the better seed at 7
p.m. Saturday, March 2. Top-seed and defend-
ing Class 3A state champion Robbinsdale Coo-
per received a fi rst-round bye and will host the
Delano/Mound Westonka winner on Saturday.
The fi nal is set for 7 p.m. Thursday, March 7 at
Chanhassen High School.
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