Minnesota State Boys Class 4A Semis Set

The top four seeds prevailed in Wednesday's Minnesota State Boys Basketball Tournament Class AAAA quarterfinals. The four teams will play Thursday at the Target Center with the two winners advancing to Saturday's finals. Minnesota head coach Tubby Smith and son Saul were at the Target Center, while Vince Taylor caught a game at Marucci Arena.

Minnetonka 66, Bloomington Kennedy 59

Minnetonka (26-3), the top seed, scored the first six points of the game and jumped out to a 35-14 lead over Bloomington Kennedy (19-9). However, the Eagles refused to go away as they cut the lead to 38-25 at halftime. Iowa signee Anthony Tucker led all scorers with 15 first-half points. C.J. Erickson, who is headed to Evansville, added nine points. Kennedy was led by Alfred Jaryan with eight points.

Kennedy stayed competitive in the second half, but could only cut the lead to five points. Minnetonka tried to keep the game close as they were just nine of 22 (40.9%) from the free-throw line in the second half.

Tucker led all scorers with 27 points as he made 10 of 19 from the field. Erickson had 13 points and eight rebounds and point guard Andy Burns added 11 points and four assists.

Kennedy was led by Jaryan with 16 points. Carlton Starr had 15 points and Bobby Fong added 13.

St. Cloud Tech 79, Cambridge-Isanti 68 St. Cloud Tech (28-2) made 16 of 24 second-half shots (66.7%) as they bested Cambridge-Isanti (19-11).

Tech was led by junior Nate Wolters with 21 points on eight of 11 shooting from the field. Collin Stinogel added 16 points and Alex Hanks chipped in with 11.

Cambridge-Isanti was paced by Chadd Mathson's 23 points on 10 of 16 shooting. Braden Johnson had 16 points in the loss.

Henry Sibley 68, Rochester Mayo Henry Sibley (25-5) made six of eight three-pointers and sank nine shots from beyond the arc to pull away from Rochester Mayo (24-5). Mayo led by one point at the break 25-24.

Mayo led 33-32, but Sibley went on a 9-0 run with three-pointers from Peter Leslie and Noah Kaiser. However, Mayo rallied to take a 49-48 lead. Leslie and Kaiser keyed a 10-0 run with each hitting a three and they never trailed again.

Henry Sibley had all five starters in double figures. Leslie was a perfect five of five from beyond the arc as he led all scorers with 19 points. Kasier was four of seven from three-point range as he finished with 15 points. Mike Bruesewitz, who recently committed to Wisconsin, had 13 points and nine rebounds. Chris Halvorsen had 11 points and Maurice Hernandez added 10.

Lucas Kuipers, who signed with Rice, led Mayo with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Loyola of Chicago signee Jordan Hicks had 15 points and ten caroms. Hal Sundt added 11 points in the loss.

Robbinsdale Cooper 54, Burnsville 52 Robbinsdale Cooper rallied from a 33-24 halftime deficit to edge Burnsville in a game marred by free throw difficulties.

Burnsville scored the first basket of the second half to jump out to a 35-24 lead and was up 47-45 when Rodney Williams hit a three-pointer to give Cooper their first lead since the game was 8-7.

Burnsville cut the lead to 53-50 with 1:37 to go. However, the two teams combined to miss the next 13 free throws (eight by Cooper, five by Burnsville).

Tarell Clark cut the lead to 53-52 with 19 second left. KenQuane Brown made the second of two free throws to put Cooper up 54-52 with 12 seconds to go. Clark lost the ball in traffic with five seconds left and Cooper ran out the clock.

Rodney Williams paced Cooper with 17 points and added 10 rebounds and two blocked shots. He had five dunks and two three-pointers. Minnesota head coach Tubby Smith was in attendance to watch the talented junior. Qunicey Beathea had 12 points and Jon Bright added 10 points and 12 caroms.

Tarell Clark paced Burnsville with 17 points, but he was just three of 17 from the line. Clark, who was bothered by a hand injury, added nine rebounds. Sophomore Devon Knopke added 15 points.

Cooper was just eight of 24 (33.3%) from the line, while Burnsville made just 11 of 31 (35.5%).