Hopkins rolls over Blaine

PREGAME

Good crowd in the building early for Hopkins vs. Blaine…Tubby Smith, Ron Jirsa, and Joe Esposito are representing the Gophers here while James Ware from Santa Clara is watching his recruit Raymond Cowels as well as checking out others…

FIRST HALF

Cowels is defending hard on Blaine's top player Dylan Rodriguez to start the game…Several of the Blaine kids look very hesitant early, almost scared. Those jitters need to simmer soon as it's 4-0 already…The early Royce White spotlight sees him with a block, a deflection, an airball pull-up 17 footer, and two new forearm tattoos…Blaine point Dan Robel is having a horrible time getting the ball up the floor against Marcus Williams and Royce White is now defending Rodriguez and doing a solid job…Eight minutes in and the score is 7-0. Both offenses really struggling although Blaine more obviously. Hopkins has missed a ton of open shots while the Bengals can't find any open room against a strong Hopkins defense…White with a strong baseline move taking one dribble, jump-stopping, absorbing contact, and finishing while being hacked…

Blaine scores first point at the 9:40 mark of the first half…White scores a three-point play getting a strong o-board, taking the contact on his back, and finishing…Mike Broghammer gets a steal and goes coast to coast with a two handed jam to make the score 14-6. I think Mike traveled on that and so did Blaine coach Ted Critchley who just got a technical sharing his feelings…Marvin Singleton has stepped into the game to score a pair of field goals in the paint. Blaine just can't play physically with Hopkins and the Royal defense is absolutely lock down right now…Broghammer scores with a jump hook and it's 23-6….Very impressed with how well Hopkins is playing together and also very impressed with the way Royce is moving his feet to defend Dylan Rodriguez. This is some of the best defense I have seen Royce play…White has had two turnovers where he decided to go one-on-one instead of swinging the basketball. Those two attacks were just too early in the offense. If Royce gets the ball back on a reversal when the defense has to shift he will destroy people one on one but when he attacks right away the defender is on top of him and the help is in immediate position to get in his attacking lane…Raymond hits double figures already showing off that beautiful stroke. Santa Clara, you got a steal…Hopkins hits two straight cutters with Broghammer and Trent Lockett slicing through the lane to catch and produce…44-13 Hopkins ahead at the half…

SECOND HALF

Blaine only took 12 first half shots compared to the 32 of Hopkins. Thirteen first half turnovers have that type of stat, so will giving up nine offensive rebounds…

White scores attacking from the wing to his right, he took one dribble through the lane, and when in the paint he scored a touch shot floating it over the defense. That move was done with a ton of ease…Rodriguez is having a terrible shooting day right now. The Hopkins defense has limited him…White with back-to-back buckets scoring with an o-board then stealing a pass and getting an open floor dunk. The Bengals honestly still look scared and it doesn't help that Southwest State commit Billy Giddings has yet to get on the scoreboard…With just under ten minutes to go the Hopkins starters look to be done up 59-20…Honestly Blaine fans, this is the officials fault? Lots of referee blaming…

Giddings just fouled out scoreless with 8:30 to go…Blaine's Zach Romashko is an interesting sophomore to watch at 6-foot-6. He just scored a very good jumphook and Zach has good size for a 10th grader…BTW, we are at running time with this game and Hopkins has put bench players 9 through13 in…Final score is 68-26…

Hopkins was led by the 12 points from Broghammer and the 11 each from Cowels and White. Lockett and Singleton each put up seven minutes. Only Broghammer played 20 minutes or more.

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