Hopkins plays by rules in basketball tournament win, and makes new enemies for doing so

The name of the game in the Minnesota State High School League basketball tournament is winning, so is it a problem if a team exploits the rules and wins in a way that doesn’t seem quite right?

The Hopkins boy’s team last night defeated Shakopee 49-to-46 in four overtimes. If that score seems low, remember there’s no shot clock in high school basketball, so much of the overtime looked like this.

Hopkins held the ball in overtime, then shot as time ran out. The strategy, especially with Shakopee refusing to defend the man holding the ball, allowed Hopkins to either shoot for a win or go to another overtime.


At the end, Hopkins heaved a desperation shot as time ran out.

And now will play for the state championship.

How ugly was it? No points were scored in the first overtime

Here’s the entire play by play for the first overtime (courtesy Minnesota State High School League):

HOME TEAM: Shakopee TIME SCORE MAR VISITORS: Hopkins
BLOCK by Maiers, Jake 00:03 MISSED JUMPER by Sharp, Stephon
00:03 REBOUND (OFF) by Chambers, Kamali
00:01 MISSED 3 PTR by Chambers, Kamali
REBOUND (DEF) by (TEAM) 00:00

And here’s the exciting fourth overtime:

HOME TEAM: Shakopee TIME SCORE
00:06 TURNOVR by Wright, Jacob
TIMEOUT TEAM 00:06
TIMEOUT TEAM 00:06
TURNOVR by Mitchell, Steffon 00:02 STEAL by Chambers, Kamali
00:02 TIMEOUT 30sec
00:02 46-49 GOOD! 3 PTR by Coffey, Amir

At one point in the game, Shakopee didn’t attempt a shot for 10 minutes.

The fans were not impressed: