Best Buy Holiday Classic Wednesday's Recaps

The Best Buy Holiday Classic has become one of the state’s top holiday tournaments. Teams hoping to win a state title would be wise to win this tournament. The past two champions went on to win the state title and 2009 Best Buy Holiday Classic runner-up also won the state crown. This year’s field features seven in-state teams and a team from Nevada. The following is a recap of Wednesday's games.

Wednesday’s Results
St. Paul Johnson 94, Durango 75
Chanhassen 63, Minneapolis Henry 58
Hopkins 102, Duluth East 73
Henry Sibley 65, Minnetonka 63

St. Paul Johnson’s full-court pressure was too much as they defeated Durango 94-75 in the opening game of the Best Buy Holiday Classic. The Governors jumped out to a 26-13 lead as Wayland Johnson had back-to-back dunks. They led 45-28 at halftime.

Missouri State signee Marcus Marshall lead Johnson, who improved to 3-2 with the victory, with 20 points. De'Vonta Durr added 19 and Johnson and Quashington Smith-Pugh had ten points each for the Governors. Tyler Jones lead all scorers with 25 points as the Trailblazers fell to 4-4. Tyler Watts had several crowd-pleasing dunks as he added 14 points and Tre'Vonn Wells had 11 for Trailblazers.

Chanhassen rallied to defeat Minneapolis Patrick Henry 63-58. Henry led 32-27 at halftime. The Patriots jumped out to an 11-4 early lead and was up 21-11 as Sean Atkins scored nine points and junior Darius Hill added eight for the Patriots.

Kevin Jensen, who signed with Division II University of Mary, led Chanhassen with 23 points. Hill had 17 points and Atkins added 15. Tim Gill scored ten points for Henry.

Hopkins showed that they are determined to win their second straight Best Buy Holiday Classic as they defeated Duluth East 102-73. The Royals lead 57-34 at halftime and used their entire bench most of the second half.

Zachary Stahl led five Royal players in double figures with 23 points. Siyani Chambers, and Philip Stribling had twelve points each and Nicholas Jorgenson and Demitrius Martin scored eleven points each.

Duluth East (1-5) was without their top player, senior Johnny Woodward, who is sidelined with a shoulder injury. However, Point guard Taylor Stafford showed that he can put the ball in the basket when he scored a tournament-record 39 points. Mat Lochner added ten points.

Henry Sibley (4-3) won the “Tom Dasovich Bowl” as they defeated their former head coach and knocked off Minnetonka 65-63. Henry Sibley used their outside shooting to jump out to a 17-7 lead over Skippers as they made five three-pointers. The Warriors led 35-29 at halftime.

Their strong shooting kept them in the lead most of the second half. Dante Grant, who heated up in the second half hit a 28 footer, but skippers’ senior Joe Risinger counters with a three-pointer of his own to cut the lead to 62-57. Adam Huessner, who had four 3-pointers in the first half, was fouled with 1:08 to go, but he misses front end of one on one. Minnetonka jumper Riley Dearring scores inside basket to tie the score at 63-63. Sibley center Alex Stafford was fouled going to the basket with 2.6 seconds left and it is ruled an intentional foul. He made both free throws, Sibley turned the ball over with 2.2 seconds left, but Tommy McDermott's last second shot hit the front rim.

Dante Grant lead the Warriors with 21 points. Huessner added 17 points. Risinger lead Minnetonka with 22 points. McDermott added 13 and Dearring had 12 points.

Thursday’s Schedule
4:00 Durango vs. Minnetonka
5:30 Minneapolis Patrick Henry vs. Duluth East
7:00 St. Paul Johnson vs. Henry Sibley
8:30 Chanhassen vs. Hopkins