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March 22, 2000
DeLaSalleterminatesCards' yearBy PAUL DUNLAP Journal Sports Editor ST. PETER -- The Minneapolis DeLaSalle Islanders are the two-time defending Class 2A state champions, but had to fight hard Tuesday night for a chance to defend it again. Scott LeSage's desperation 3-point attempt from the corner fell short, handing the Islanders a 55-52 win over Redwood Valley in state quarterfinal action at Gustavus Adolphus' Gus Young Court. Six-foot-5 forward Alan Anderson helped DeLaSalle (21-6) advance with a 15-point, 13-rebound effort. Teammate Derreck Robinson added 14 points and eight boards, and Dominique Sims scored 10 points in the win. Aaron Busack scored a game-high 20 points for the Cardinals, who end their season with a 22-5 mark. Teammates Travis Bruns and Mat Pendleton each scored eight. "I'm the offensive coach, and coach Rubischko handles the defense," Islander coach Dave Thorson said. "I'm not sure that the offensive coach shouldn't be fired tonight. I thought our defense was outstanding, and time and time again we made stops when we had to because we're tough and we're experienced. I just wished we took care of the ball better, because we gave (Redwood Valley) way too many chances." "We knew we had our work cut out for us," Cardinal coach Todd Iverson said. "They are an extremely physical team, play a lot of kids, and you know you won't get a lot of good looks with their defense. They're an outstanding team." The Cardinals started slowly off the opening tip, missing their first five shots. Arthur Gardner's 3-pointer spurred DeLaSalle to a 6-0 edge before Jason Busack's putback put Redwood Valley on the board with 3:58 left in the opening quarter. A pair of buckets from Travis Bruns pulled the Cards within 12-8, but Sims' two 3-pointers back-to-back forced Iverson to call time-out at 1:06, down 10 points. "They hit some clutch shots when they needed to," Iverson said. "They hit some in the first half, and we missed a few ... missed a couple layups, a couple free throws. There's only a few teams that play defense anywhere near what (DeLaSalle) does." Aaron Busack would respond after the breather with a dunk to end the opening quarter, and Redwood Valley fought its way back into the game by beginning the second stanza on an 8-2 run. Eric Hildebrandt's two free throws made the score 20-18 before Robinson's three-point play followed by an Anderson trey pushed the lead back to 10. Anderson ignited the crowd with an alley-oop dunk off an inbounds pass, but the Cards would hang tough. Mat Pendleton's 3-pointer with under a minute cut the Islander edge to 30-25 at the intermission. "They hurt us a little bit defensively with their screen-and-roll," Thorson said. "They're a good disciplined team, and we couldn't seem to put them away." Aaron Busack made sure of that, converting two three-point plays midway through the third quarter to keep Redwood Valley in it. He scored all 10 of the Cards' points until Jason Busack made one of three free throws at the end of the third for a 40-36 DeLaSalle lead. "He's a good player, and he's also a good spot-up shooter," Iverson said of Aaron, a 6-foot-7 sophomore. "Tonight, he added a dimension of driving to the basket, and we knew he was going to have to drive, get to the foul line, create some scoring opportunities for us." Thorson agreed. "He's outstanding -- one of the best sophomore post players in the state," he said. "We tried to front him, didn't do a very good job of it, and I give him the credit for that. He worked extremely hard." The Cardinals were in the game the rest of the way as Aaron's third three-point play followed by a LeSage putback halfway through the fourth pulled Redwood within a pair at 48-46. The lead would grow and shrink in the final minutes, as Robinson pushed it to five only to have Aaron's free throw and Pendleton's bucket off a scramble whittle it back to two in the final minute. Anderson's free throw with 51 seconds left proved to be the final point of the game after the Cardinals had a few shots at the tie. "I told (the team) that it wasn't pretty, and we've got to play smarter than we did tonight," Thorson said. "But when we had to get a stop, we did." The Islanders will face Waterville-Elysian-Morristown at 7 p.m. Friday in semifinal action at Williams Arena in Minneapolis. "What can you say -- it was a tremendous ballgame," Iverson said. "No matter which team you were rooting for, you had to leave saying you saw a heckuva game."
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