His shooting flipped a 19-11 hole into a 38-38 tie at intermission and it seemed like this could be the season the No. 2-2A Polars nip the Royals after losing by three points or less on three separate occasions since 2018.

“It was a 0-0 game at that point and we were right where we wanted to be,” Minneapolis North coach Larry McKenzie said.

However, one of the best players in the state took the game by the reins, quashing any chance of an upset as Hopkins ripped through the second half with an 84-66 win in their first home game at the Lindbergh Center since Jan. 3.

Zeke Nnaji soared above defenders all night, consistently grabbing rebounds for put-backs. And, when the ball didn’t find the basket, more often than not the whistle blew as defenders hung from his arms.

“From the start, we knew they didn’t have a lot of size so the plan was just to go inside and make them foul because we knew they were aggressive,” Nnaji said. “I just kept pushing the refs to make those calls and I was making my free throws.

The 6-foot-11 senior shot 18 times from the line, making 15 and finished the game with 36 points (18 points in each half), his largest total recorded to MN Basketball Hub.

“Zeke can hold his own and he’s one of the top players in the nation,” Hopkins coach Ken Novak Jr. said. He’s very versatile and [he did this] without even shooting outside as well as he normally does.”

Only three of Nnanji’s nine buckets were mid-range jumpers.

Meanwhile, Campbell, the Polars leading scorer heading into the game with an average of 17.1 points, went cold. He missed his first four three-point shots in the opening four minutes of the second-half while Hopkins inched away with a nine-point lead.

“We knew the first three minutes were going to be critical and we just could not execute. McKenzie said. We didn’t really run our offense and we got caught up in their flow.”

Things got much worse for the Polars about six minutes later, when Campbell picked up his fifth foul of the evening defending an in-bounds pass 84 feet from the basket.

“He’s a great player, a double threat that can drive and shoot so when he was taken out that’s when we could tell that was about game,” Nnaji said.

With their sharpshooter out, Minneapolis North tried to hold firm as Nasir El-Amin, Willie Wilson and Davon Towny Jr. combined for 21 second-half points, but the deficit ballooned and would never deflate below double digits after Campbell’s departure.

The Royals continue its run against top-ranked competition next week with games against No. 1-3A DeLaSalle and No. 7-4A Wayzata, the current leaders of Hopkins’ Lake Conference.

Minneapolis North hopes to shake off the loss and continue their dominance in the City Conference with games against Minneapolis South, Henry and Washburn next week.