Crimson Crush Blaine on Senior Night

Senior Night should honor the players, have fun and get a win. The Crimson got all three in a splendid night of high school basketball.

The student section was lively and a goodly crowd was there. To be a senior on a high school basketball team at the AAAA level is its own reward. For each of the six seniors, the journey may have ups and downs, but it is never slow.

The Crimson came out of the gates quickly and raced to a 12-5 lead after Jake Wieneke's steal and dunk. He also hit a pair of goals from downtown and added another throw down as the student body went nuts. It was 19-9 before anyone could finish the last of their boneless wings. After Grant Kaufman's NBA 3, it was 30-20. But when Erik Olson picked up his second on a tic-tac foul, the Bengals scored two inside hoops to make it 30-24. Austin Paul stopped the bleeding as he hit the shot that this fan feels is endangered, the pull-up J from 12 feet.

It was 36-26 at the half, and DJ Rekstad won the 3 point contest again as The Sniper went down early.

The Crimson used the first few minutes of the second half to determine the game's outcome. Wieneke hit a 3, then Olson and Wieneke scored inside. When Kaufman drew rain with another 3 it was 46-30 and the JV's were getting loose. Later in the half, when Olson snared one of his 9 rebounds, he kicked the outlet to Wojta, who threw a long pass to Wieneke for the layup, making Wojta the single season record holder for assists. It was fitting that the pass went to Wieneke. Brycen probably threw him that same pass in 5th grade. Wojta continued to set up his teammates all night, on his way to 11 assists. As the game went on, Olson was able to get good leverage with his lower body and the ball came his way as he scored on 3 of 4 trips. His tip-in of a Brandon Barta miss made it 54-35 and the JV's were checking their laces. When Austin Paul, who got the first start of his career, scored his 10th point on a sweet pass from Jake Wieneke to make it 73-44, "hully gully ivy" his grandpa(s) just about came off the bleachers. Wieneke finished with 22, Olson 19, Kaufman 13 and Paul 10.

Senior night ended with a 84-51 victory, and a great post game fete of food and fellowship. The win closes out the regular season at 16-9, the best record since 2009.

But the real winners are all of us. We have had a chance to watch this team compete against the best teams and players in the state. We have watched stand up men do the right thing as great representatives of our school. Stuff like that isn't measured by wins and losses.

The Crimson end up in a 4 way tie for 3rd in the conference with Elk River, Champlin and Armstrong. Coaches are meeting Saturday morning to determine the rankings. Park Center and Osseo will have the top 2 spots and Coon Rapids will be 8. Everything else is TBD/TBA. Seeds 1-4 will host at 7 pm on Thursday. Everyone is looking to put together six in a row.