Jaguars beat Minneapolis North in Minnetonka (updated)

Brian Goodwin maintaining his dribble after getting pushed on the left wing by Minneapolis North's sophomore Jamil Jackson. Goodwin managed to slice and dice the North defense multiple times while draining 13 field goals and 16 free throws to set a new single-game school scoring record.

A little hand-checking tonight...here's Tanner Heinsius dribbling against the pressure near the half court line.

Jordan Wosmek working against a tenacious North full court press.

The Jaguars boys' basketball team won 90-75 tonight over Minneapolis North to improve to 5-0 this season.

Brian Goodwin finished with a school-record 46 points. Billy Borgerding had 20 points including four threes and three very important three-pointers in the second half. Nick Benton was also in double figures with 10 points.

**Update: the second half...
James Kuefler got two free throws just 13 seconds into the second half. Just 30 seconds later Brian Goodwin got one of his patented slicing layups for a 45-32 lead, and it appeared that the Jaguars were about to pull away from the Polars. With 14:55 left, Goodwin's coast-to-coast layup put the Jaguars up 47-39, but from then up until the 9:46 mark, things got really, really dicy for travel-weary B-B-E. The Polars got two free throws, an outside shot, two bonus free throws and a layup to suddenly get a 49-45 deficit. They cut it to 51-48 with 11:06 left, but Goodwin again sliced up the defense for a 53-48 lead just seconds later.

At 10:43, North got a shot in the paint, and at 10:26, they hit one of two bonus free throws to make the score 53-52. Just seconds after that, Goodwin hit two bonus free throws, and with 9:46 left Billy Borgerding nailed a three to spark new life into the Jaguars. The Polars never really threatened after that, and two Nick Benton free throws with 8:45 left put the lead back to 10 points, 62-52.

I have a lengthy video of D-Mac's interview with Minneapolis North's head coach, Larry McKenzie, taken prior to the game. I could get quite a story out of just that. He has been part of a mini-turnaround of sorts for the formerly-troubled Minneapolis high school that almost was shut down 2 years ago. They're bringing it back from the brink with a new staff and new attitude. The motto on their boys' basketball MSHSL Internet page is "New Coach, New Direction, New Beginning".

I was very impressed with the fast pace Minneapolis North liked to run with. They tried running a half-court offense, and that worked at times, but you could tell those kids wanted to run and run and run. Fortunately, our Jaguars thrive on that style of play. What's crazy is that North had mostly sophomores and freshmen players on the court. They will be playing "lights out" basketball next year. They could even become a state-contender by the end of this season. I had a great time visiting with a number of very basketball-passionate yet down-to-earth and friendly North parents. Tomorrow I'll talk more about those conversations.

Interesting factoid: a grand total of 54 fouls were called in tonight's game.

Here's some first-half video:


Loading the bus now and heading home. I've got about 200 photos to go through from the game plus a fair amount of video.

20:50: we're pulling out from Tonka Center and heading west. The televisions on our bus just started playing the classic Christmas-time movie "Home Alone" which is being a very nice distraction from my blogging. It will help get me in the mood to switch gears dramatically from tonight's game to tomorrow morning's Christmas program at Trinity Lutheran Church. ##happyjournalist

21:42: driving past Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted high school in rural Howard Lake. I just heard that the bond referendum they passed will allow them to build a middle-school addition to their 9th-12th grade facility. That building was opened in 2008.

22:10: "Home Alone" just got to the good stuff...with Macaulay Culkin's character shooting Joe Peschi's character right in the jewels with a pellet gun through the doggy-door to the kitchen. ##lovethismovie ##ilovemyjob

22:18: done blogging until after I get home. We're almost to Kimball and should be arriving at the high school at about 23:00. It's been quite a day!