Sports
Columbia Heights Beats Totino-Grace 53-50 in Boys Basketball Section Semifinal
The Hylanders got past the Eagles to advance to the Section 3AAA final game Friday against DeLaSalle.
Tuesday’s Class 3AAA section semifinal boys basketball game was close all the way to the end, with Columbia Heights High School squeezing by 53-50.
In the first half Columbia Heights started off the scoring within the first two minutes as Andrew Hansen shot the first two point shot. Totino Grace’s Andrew Mortiko scored next. The teams ended the first half with Columbia Heights in a narrow lead over Totino Grace 24-25.
In the first four minutes of the second half Totino-Grace junior Sam Meyer started out with a three-point shot, taking the lead 27-25. Columbia Heights junior Ben Glover came back with a slam dunk to tie the score 27-27.
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Both teams continued to battle it out until the bitter end. With six-tenths of a second remaining, Totino-Grace had one more chance to tie the game: Alex Kreuser shot the ball as the buzzer rang, barly missing the three-point shot and ending the game with the final score 53-50.
Columbia Heights coach Willie Braziel said, “It’s been a long week since last Thursday's game against Henry [won by forfeit due to an on-court punch], but you have to take the good, the bad and the ugly.” Braziel said his team came out flat and it showed in this game. He congratulated Totino-Grace's coach Kevin Seim on how prepared his team was and how they were able to stop Lofton in this game. Zach Lofton is ranked the second-leading scorer in the state and averages 30 points per game.
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Columbia Heights had two players who scored in double digits: Zach Lofton had 21 points and Ben Glover had 10. Totino-Grace had three players who scored in double digits: Sam Meyer and Andrew Mortiko each had 15 points, and Alex Kreuser had 11.
Coming into this game Columbia Heights record was 21-6, against Totino-Grace’s record of 17-10. These teams last competed on March 4, with Columbia Heights winning 79-44.
Columbia Heights plays DeLaSalle High School for the Section 3AAA Championship on Friday March 18, at 7 p.m. at Blaine High School.
