Hopkins wins 4th title of the decade

PREGAME

One storyline for this game is Osseo shooting guard and second leading scorer Aaron Anderson who played at Hopkins last year but transferred to Osseo for his junior year…Five division one signed players and three members of the Rivals150 are in this contest. Royce White of Hopkins is signed to play at Minnesota and is ranked as the 19th best recruit in the nation at five stars, Trent Lockett of Hopkins is 73rd in the nation and he's a four star Arizona State signe, and finally Osseo big Sam Dower is a three star Gonzaga signed player ranked 119th in the country…In the crowd is Gopher basketball coach Tubby Smith as well as Minnesota assistant Vince Taylor and both are here to see Royce White. Just Tubby being here has calmed many nerves of Minnesota fans who have been struggling with all the rumors coming out of Virginia…Remember three years ago Royce was in this building with DeLaSalle as a freshman winning a state title in the number 52 jersey. He's back to his roots wearing number 52 to close out his career…

FIRST HALF

Tip goes ahead to Lockett who sends it to Raymond Cowels for a lay-up and the west suburban arrogance is out already with the crowd chant "This Game's Over"…Osseo junior John Rowland is off to a hot start with two made jumpers in a minute then Bobby Fischer sinks one for an 8-6 Osseo lead…Royce already with a tip-in and a flush…Hopkins holds a 10-9 lead and it seems like they should be up more than that. The last four possessions they have went scoreless as every starter on the floor save Mike Broghammer went with a me-first play and it was unsuccessful. Coming out of the time-out you can bet that coach Ken Novak will have that taken care of…Patience on offense is working great for Osseo in terms of getting shots. A ball reversal went to Fischer who sunk a triple at the top of the key for a two point lead…Struggling to get a shot Dower steps out to the perimeter to take a 16-footer. Hopkins defense isn't allowing any looks down to Dower and Sam is having trouble holding position against Broghammer. After six minutes Dower has the one field goal attempt…Lockett takes a hard charge from Kyle Mason and Trent did a fine job of standing in and taking the collision…Aaron Anderson steps in the game and creates for Jayvin Reynolds and the Oriole lead is three at 14-11...

Lockett just performed a superb crossover to break past an Osseo defender right after a board. Impressive showing of his skill…Hopkins defense continues to disallow Dower touches. Broghammer is fronting and the backside defense has afforded Sam no room to step back and catch…Royce with a nice crossover to create space but his pull-up resulted in an airball. His perimeter game has been slow to get going today…Defensively Raymond Cowels is all over these smaller guards and that has to be intimidating. Every game it seems Raymond gets better defensively…Cowels hits a bomb trey and the game is tied at 18…This remains a tough day for Dower. He has one point off of free throws and he just can't get good position on Broghammer so his guards can enter into him. After 12 minutes he's taken two shots and two free throws resulting in a point…Hopkins is hitting the offensive boards hard and soon that is going to pay major dividends although it really hasn't been to damaging yet…

Raymond's body and athletic ability remind me a lot of a young Eric Harris when he arrived at Minnesota. The difference is Raymond's skill is shooting while Eric's skill was at point. Both are very physical with good physiques, Raymond is very active and very aggressive with agile feet defensively like Harris, and both really don't/didn't have the ability to elevate explosively. Raymond just scores in other ways including the earlier three and two floaters off the drive…Dower gets freed up a little to catch an entry, drop step, and jam for his first field goal and its Hopkins up 26-24…D.J. Phillips drops an incredible backdoor dime to Nick Djerf to tie the game at 26. Phillips has played a heady game and hasn't shown to be intimidated by Hopkins in the least bit…

Royce had been sitting for a long time with two fouls and he came back in and missed two lay-ups with Dower between Royce and the rim…Royce is now to physical for Sam pushing Dower away from the basket and forcing a difficult jumphook that Sam missed…Dower crushes a Marcus Williams shot off the glass and back the other way Rowland hits another big three-pointer to make this a 30-29 game…D.J. Peterson of Hopkins has played a very good game defensively and he's scored transition lay-ins on turnovers he forced…Tubby is put on the big screen and gets an ovation from the crowd while the "Tubby" chant starts. Osseo called a time-out to settle down likely for the last shot…Aaron Anderson forces a tough shot attempt very early in the possession and the ball is pushed the other way for the second Royce White jam of the game, 33-29 at the half with Hopkins up…Hopkins is shooting 39 percent at 13 of 39 from the field. They have 12 o-boards already. Osseo had 12 first half turnovers and the Hopkins interior defense held Dower to five first half points on one of five shooting in 18 minutes…

SECOND HALF

Royce misses a pull-up but gets his board, bangs off Dower like Sam wasn't there, and finishes easy. Then the next time down Royce hits a three-pointer and this game has the feel of Hopkins starting to run away. The point that really hurt was when Osseo called a time-out to get a final shot in the first half and then Hopkins scored three points late. Add those in and we have an 8-0 run with a score of 38-29. Now Lockett with a steal, a lay-in, and this game feels like it just became to much to overcome, 40-29 Hopkins…Rowland hits a three and then Dower scores a lay-in making the score 40-34…Royce misses two free throws and he has really struggled from the line lately…Rowland makes a three and the lead is down to three at 42-39 but Dower can't hold off Broghammer who posts Sam deep in the lane and scores a lay-in for Hopkins…Royce flushes hard off a baseline pass and that was an emphatic dunk to put Hopkins ahead seven points at 46-39…

Hopkins now ahead 54-49 and Jon Rowland has sunk two more three-pointers from well behind the arc. This is a junior who is making a name for himself…D.J. Peterson is aggressively getting on the offensive glass for another pair of scores. His four field goals have all been of the hustle variety…Broghammer has missed a couple second half bunnies but he stepped out to hit the 16-footer without issue and its 56-49…With three and a half minutes to go the game is at 60-53. Hopkins just can't put Osseo away as the Orioles are playing solid halfcourt defense but on the other end Osseo can't free themselves up for a good shot and have turned the ball over two of the last three possessions…Dower has blocked a handfull of shots in the second half swatting away attempts that appeared to be heading into the rim…Dower gets an offensive rebound then hits a fade away shot and Osseo definitely has life…Royce comes back the other way and attacks hard to the rim scoring with a floating touch over two Orioles, 62-55 Hopkins…Rowland hasn't got free to get a shot off in the last several minutes and Osseo could really use his touch right now…Lockett makes a pair of free tosses and with a 67-57 score with 30 seconds left you can crown the Hopkins Royals champions for the fourth time this decade. This is actually the 6th championship in school history for Hopkins…Final score is 69-59…Hopkins finishes the season undefeated so three of the four champions in Minnesota were able to do that this year…Royce would break the scissors when cutting down the net…

Hopkins had 21 offensive rebounds and forced Osseo into 21 turnovers and that's pretty much the reason for the final score right there. Royce White made nine of 21 shots and one of five free throws to score a game high 20 points with seven rebounds. Broghammer totaled 11 points (on three of 11 shooting) and 13 boards, Cowels scored 11 points (three of ten shooting, one of seven from beyond the arc), and Lockett nine points and six rebounds while shooting three of eight from the field. Marcus Williams finished with six assists.

Leading Osseo was the 17 points from John Rowland who shot five of six from beyond the arc. Sam Dower made six of 13 shots and three of five free throws scoring 15 points with 16 rebounds and four blocks.

The all-tournament team at class AAAA is Nate Wolters and Alex Hanks from St. Cloud Tech, Moses Alipate and Ellis Libby from Bloomington Jefferson, Aaron Anderson, Sam Dower, and Nick Djer from Osseo (where the hell is John Rowland?), and Mike Broghammer, Trent Lockett, and Royce White from Hopkins…

Click here to load a slide show of the game. press the F11 key on your PC for a better view. Press F11 again when finished to return your menus. Thanks to Jesse Johnson for his cover and slide show images.

Click here for post-game audio with Ken Lien and Michael J. Much.