ST. PAUL — Success in the lane paved the way to St. Paul Central’s 64-46 victory over Stillwater in the quarterfinals of the Section 4AAAA boys basketball tournament on Wednesday, March 6 at St. Paul Central High School.
The fourth-seeded Minutemen (20-6) outscored the Ponies 30-19 in the second half to pull away, ending Stillwater’s season with a 13-14 record.
Central advances to face top-seeded Cretin-Derham Hall in the semifinals on Saturday, March 9. The other semifinal features second-seeded East Ridge (20-7) hosting third-seeded Tartan (23-4) after both were comfortable winners over White Bear Lake and Woodbury in the quarterfinals.
Central finished unbeaten to win the St. Paul City Conference and won 14 consecutive games during one stretch this season, but entered the postseason on the heels of consecutive losses to Minneapolis Southwest and Minneapolis Washburn. The Minutemen jumped out to a 34-27 halftime lead against the Ponies, scoring the bulk of their points in the paint.
Stillwater, meanwhile, made just 2 of 19 three-point attempts in the first half and committed 10 turnovers.
“We came out of the gates slow,” Ponies coach Brady Hannigan said. “When we’ve done that we’ve been able to go to the locker room and regroup and say we need to get to the rim, but we just were never able to get our groove.”
Stillwater closed within three points early in the second half, but Central was able to pull away from there.
“We were just a step slow defensively, on screen coverages, help side, closeouts, rebounding,” Hannigan said. “We gave up seven first-half offensive rebounds and probably close to that in the second half. Our turnovers and their offensive rebounds gave them so many extra possessions.”
Central, led by Elijah Moseman with 18 points, made just four 3-pointers in the game. Allan Lankfard Jr., added 14 points and Vontae Lewis chipped in with 10.
“I think we matched up well and we had the size advantage, but were just a step slow defensively,” Hannigan said.
One of eight seniors playing in their final game for the Ponies, Brett Hilde finished with 11 points while junior Joe Fredkove added 10.
“We had a hard time getting the ball in the hole,” Hannigan said. “Collectively, we settled for way too many 3-pointers and didn’t put enough pressure on the rim and making them work hard to defend us.”
Stillwater defeated the Minutement 91-59 in the section quarterfinals a year ago. This marked the first postseason victory for Central since defeating Tartan in 2021.
“They’re a very solid basketball team and we also had one of our poorest performances of the year,” Hannigan said. “The combination of those two tings didn’t work very well for us.”
Inconsistency plagued the Ponies throughout a season that started with little of its scoring back from the previous season.
“We had very good moments and some moments where we needed to be better,” Hannigan said. “It was a very up-and-down season, but we grew as a team. We didn’t completely have the consistency we needed all year, but this was a group of kids that was enjoyable to be around and worked hard.”
Stillwater 27 19 — 46
St. Paul Central 34 30 — 64
Stillwater (pts): AJ Taban 2, Brett Hilde 11, Jaden Jones 3, Joe Hoheisel 3, John Dieterle 2, Joe Fredkove 10, West Dell 3, Henry Zollar 6 and Lake DeJongh 6.
St. Paul Central: Elijah Moseman 18, Etienne Reyes 6, Vontae Lewis 10, James Kennedy 7, Finnegan Bloedel 9 and Allan Lankfard Jr. 14.
Stillwater 58, Woodbury 40
At Oak Park Heights, the Ponies celebrated Senior Night with a 58-40 Suburban East Conference win over Woodbury on Friday, March 1 at Stillwater Area High School.
Poor shooting plagued both teams in the first half. Woodbury (9-18) jumped out to a 12-3 lead after six minutes, but was limited to just nine points in the last 12 minutes of the half as the Ponies evened the score at 21-all. Stillwater eventually pulled away while outscoring the Royals 37-19 in the second half.
But Stillwater made things tough for the Royals, who made just 29 percent of their shots in the second half. The Ponies also outscored Woodbury 14-2 at the free throw line.
“We held them to 19 second-half points and we were able to do that without fouling,” Hannigan said. “We did a good job rebounding as well.”
Stillwater’s Henry Zollar led all scorers with 14 points and teammate Brett Hilde added 13.
Marquivion Beasley finished with 13 points to lead the Royals.
Woodbury 21 19 — 40
Stillwater 21 37 — 58
Woodbury (pts): Liam Frommelt 4, Marquivion Beasley 13, Vincent Uliano 6, Isaiah Tisdle 6, Finn Norman 5 and Mitchell Erickson 6.
Stillwater: AJ Taban 4, Jack Runk 3, Brett Hilde 13, Jaden Jones 4, Aiden Hammond 7, Joe Hoheisel 7, John Dieterle 2, Joe Fredkove 4 and Henry Zollar 14.
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