University of Florida recruit Liv McGill only scored 13 points March 7 as the Hopkins girls basketball team beat Wayzata 78-62 in the Section 6AAAA championship game at Hopkins.
But points - nine below her season average of 22 - were far from the whole story of McGill’s impact on the outcome.
“Liv is the head of the household,” Hopkins head coach Tara Starks said after the game.
And what does the head of a household do?
One of the main responsibilities is to make sure everyone gets fed, and that was McGill’s role as the Hopkins girls won a trip to state. Fifteen assists didn’t match her career high, but the point is she helped teammates find open shots.
The Royals trailed Wayzata 22-13 midway through the first half, but cut the deficit to two at halftime, 33-31.
In the second half Hopkins steadily built its lead, although the Trojans stayed close enough to make it interesting almost to the end.
McGill missed a week of practice plus the section semifinal game that Hopkins won 79-55 over Edina because of a sore foot. “In the first half [against Wayzata], Liv’s shot was off,” coach Starks said. “But I knew she would find other ways to impact the game.”
Part of that was McGill’s passing, of course, but the main ingredient she supplied was leadership. She had key rebounds, key steals, even a blocked shot as the Royals turned the tide before pulling away.
“The whole season, we’ve worked on defense all the time,” McGill said. “We knew we had to come out in the second half and get more stops.”
That wasn’t easy because junior guard Sophie Hawkinson had a hot hand for the Trojans. She led all scorers in the game with 23 points and was able to find teammates open for corner three-point baskets.
“We had our hands up [on shooters] in the second half, and we really locked down,” McGill said.
Were McGill’s teammates sure she would be able to play in the championship game, given the fact she had missed a week with an injury?
“We knew she would play,” junior guard Tatum Woodson said. “That’s Liv, always there for us.”
“Going back to state is surreal,” said junior guard Lauren Hillesheim, referring to the loss of four starers from last season’s state runner-up team.
Hillesheim talked about what McGill means to the Royals: “She always makes the right reads.”
The quality of those reads gave Hopkins four double-figure scorers against Wayzata. Woodson led the way with 22 points on 60 percent shooting. Junior guard London Harris was next with 16 points and 6-foot sophomore forward Le’Sedra Williams scored 12, with all 12 points coming on assists from McGill. Hillesheim scored six points while adding eight rebounds and four steals. Ava Cupito scored five points and Erma Walker had four.
Coach Starks praised Woodson’s shooting performance: “A big part of it for Tatum is believing that every shot is going to go in. Tatum was really locked in. As soon as she hit the first one, she was good.”
McGill’s 13 points all seemed to come at just the right times, usually after Wayzata had just taken a bite out of Hopkins’ lead.
“It feels good to be going back to state,” McGill said. “I think a lot of people might have underestimated us this year, but I knew we could do it.”
From Wayzata’s standpoint, next year will give a young team another shot at Hopkins. All 62 of the Trojans’ points in the section championship game are coming back. In addition to Hawkinson’s 23 points, other girls who helped the Trojans’ cause on the 7th were junior Allie Berns with 10 points, sophomore Kate Amelotte and ninth-grader Maren Day with nine each and junior Sarah Hyde with five.
While Wayzata loses only one player from this year’s varsity team, guard Sam Johnson, Hopkins will come back with every player except McGill. Hopkins is going to state with a season record of 26-3. Wayzata finished with a 21-8 mark.
Mark it down for next season - early in March - Hopkins vs. Wayzata for the section basketball title.
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