Regular season hoops nears end in Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center

Basketball teams across the northwest metro battled last week in pursuit of a positive end to their regular season.

Rebels girls

Champlin Park girls basketball opened the final week of the regular season with a hard-fought 61-46 loss to Anoka at home on Feb. 21. Nine Rebels scored in the game against Anoka, with Nyomi Crushshon and Savannah Belongia leading the way with eight each.

The Rebels ended their regular season on a high note on Feb. 23, beating Coon Rapids 87-65 to conclude their conference play with a 9-10 record, 10-16 overall.

Nyomi Crushshon led the scoring with 25 points, while Mariah Pates added 15 against Coon Rapids and Erin Kaluza scored 13. Natalia Tolentino scored 11 points.

Champlin Park girls basketball will take part in the Section 5AAAA tournament as the fourth seed, hosting fifth seed Spring Lake Park on Feb. 28.

Rebels boys

The Rebel boys opened last week with a close but key 76-74 win over Anoka on Feb. 21, outlasting a comeback by Anoka in the second half to improve their record to 8-9, 13-11 overall. Preston Thielke led the team’s scoring with 32 points.

Champlin Park then ended the week with a second win, this time 83-77 over Coon Rapids at home to improve to 9-9 in Northwest Suburban play, 14-11 overall. Thielke scored 21 more points, while Jevon Kiros added 16 and Mo Jallah scored 15.

Champlin Park will play one game the following week to conclude the regular season, hosting St. Michael-Albertville on Wednesday, Feb. 28.

Centaur boys

Brooklyn Center boys basketball opened last week with an 87-39 loss to Richfield on the road on Feb. 21. Demari Neal led the Centaurs’ scoring against their Tri-Metro Conference opponents.

The Centaurs then played their final Tri-Metro conference game of the season, losing 83-42 to Cooper on Feb. 22 to end the conference season with a 1-14 record.

Brooklyn Center will conclude its regular season the following week, traveling to play Patrick Henry and Hiawatha on Feb. 27 and 29 respectively.

Park Center boys

Park Center boys basketball continued a positive run in conference play last week with a 96-57 win over Anoka on Feb. 22, improving their Northwest Suburban record to 12-3, 21-3 overall.

Park Center will end the regular season with two non-conference games, hosting Rochester Mayo on Feb. 26, before traveling to Columbia Heights on Mar. 1.