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Shakopee boys bounce back after 'spectacular' basketball night

By Ron Haggstrom, Star Tribune, 03/18/14, 6:34PM CDT

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Bruce Kugath has never seen anything like the back-to-back buzzer-beaters in the Class 4A boys’ semifinals.

 

Shakopee coach Bruce Kugath has seen his share of basketball games. He never has seen anything like the back-to-back buzzer-beaters in the Class 4A boys’ semifinals last Thursday.

The first came against his squad. Sophomore Amir Coffey sank a 60-foot shot — behind the midcourt line — at the buzzer of the fourth overtime, giving Hopkins a 49-46 victory over the Sabers at Target Center.

In the next game, Lakeville North senior JP Macura buried a step-back 30-footer (beyond the NBA three-point line) at the buzzer as the Panthers edged Cretin-Derham Hall 55-52. Macura later would lead his team to the state title with a 43-point effort in an 84-82 victory over Hopkins.

“Two spectacular endings,” said Kugath, who has been the Sabers’ mentor since 1993. He just completed his 44th season of coaching, some of that time as an assistant coach. “How often do you see that in a state tournament?”

Kugath’s squad bounced back to beat Cretin-Derham Hall 62-56 in the third-place game.

“One unique aspect of the shot that beat us, our girls won a Section 2 semifinal game on a similar shot five days earlier,” Kugath said. Sophomore guard Taylor Koenen hit that shot to beat Chaska 60-59.

Twice as nice

For the second time in school history, the Lakeville North’s boys’ and girls’ basketball teams advanced to the Class 4A state tournament. The Panthers also accomplished the feat in 2012.

The district split into two schools — the other being Lakeville South — in 2005. When it was only one school — Lakeville — it also achieved the milestone in 2004.

The boys’ team was the state tournament runner-up in 2012 while girls’ squad finished second in 2004.

Top performances

• Junior Matthew Schoenbauer and senior Alex Palma combined to score all nine goals for New Prague/Belle Plaine/Jordan/LeSueur-Henderson/Tri-City United in a 9-7 victory over Burnsville/Farmington/Lake- ville in the championship game of the cognitively impaired division in the adapted floor hockey state tournament. The high-scoring duo scored 34 goals in three state tournament games.

• Farmington junior guard Sofia Chadwick became the fourth girls’ basketball player in school history to reach 1,000 career points. She scored a game-high 29 points in a 63-52 loss to Northfield in Missota Conference play. Julie (Bauer) Mogensen is the program’s all-time leading scorer with 1,438 points.

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