Walking into the gym it’s hard not to notice Henry Ellenson.  He’s 6-foot-9 and runs side by side (or head) with just about everybody on the court.  Henry faces-up at about 240 pounds and moves around guys five inches shorter to complete plays.  He drop-stepp dunked on one Skipper and threw down two other times for 25 first half points.  He’s one of the best in the nation.  Problem for Rice Lake is, his teammates scored only a dozen first half points and every mistake they made Tonka flew the other direction and capitalized.

Tonka’s backcourt duo of Cedric Boone and Amar Miller were rapid in transition and it seemed every time they caught with pace they were able to either make a play to the rim or create for teammates.  The main benefactor was Seth Coatta who scored 22 first half points including four first half three-pointers.  Coatta found space to catch and hit passes from his teammates and he also created scores himself with a stepback, floater, and kiss off the glass on the move.  Add in the three makes behind the arc from Boone and Tonka grabbed a 47-37 lead at the break. 

The second half was a lot closer with the lead changing hands three or four times.  Henry Ellenson had a stretch where he blocked three shots in a minute and that lifted his team on a run of eight straight points.  Ellenson scored in whatever way you could think of including several lightly touched in shots on the move.  Rice Lake took a 69-66 lead after Ellenson kicked out to Parker Buckley for his third trey of the game.

At this point Justin Moes played his best basketball of the season hitting a pair of threes and a mid-range jumper.  Miller assisted on a pair of the Moes treys and Amar scored three field goals on the move including a tear drop in traffic.  Amar’s scoring highlights culminated with a nasty step-back trey after a crossover.  From there he created triples for Coatta and Boone followed by an Amar finger roll over the top of Ellenson for an 87-77 lead with 73 ticks left in the game. 

Minnetonka won 92-81 led by the 26 points and seven rebounds of Seth Coatta.  Justin Moes hit a pair treys scoring 19 points, Cedric Boone hit four three-pointers on his way to 15 points and four assists, and Amar Miller scored 14 points while chasing down eight rebounds and dishing out six assists.  For the visiting Rice Lake squad, Henry Ellenson totaled 48 points on 20 of 35 shooting plus grabbed 15 boards, blocked five shots, and dished out five assists.

Minnetonka 92, Rice Lake (WI) 81

Score by half:
Minnetonka 47-45—92
Rice Lake 37-44—81

Minnetonka: Coatta 26, Moes 19, Boone 15, Miller 14, Mattingly 9, Altenburg 6, Hedstrom 3.

Rice Lake: Ellenson 48, Widdes 10, Shearrow 9, Ashlin 5, Mattes 4, Buckley 2, Hovde 1, Crotteau 1.

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