Royals Sink The Lakers

No one was expecting it to be close as the No. 2-ranked Hopkins girls basketball team traveled into the city to take on Minneapolis Southwest on Monday night.

And it wasn't.

The Royals took the lead just seconds into the game, held a double-digit edge within two minutes and ran away to a 90-28 defeat of the Lakers on their home floor.

"I was pleased with the effort tonight and no one was injured," Hopkins coach Brian Cosgriff said.

Not much else to say about a 62-point victory.

The Royals dominated in every facet of the contest against Southwest, who were missing leading scorer Vinishia Jackson for the contest. However, the Lakers guard's average of 13 points-per-game would not nearly have made up the evening's scoring differential.

After leading 57-19 at the half, Hopkins allowed its hosts just nine points over the final 18 minutes of play — the last three minutes of which passed in running time due to the Minnesota State High School League's "Mercy Rule."

"We did well tonight and stuck with the fundamentals," Cosgriff said. "The kids played hard and we took care of the basketball with only nine turnovers."

Guard TT Starks led all scorers with 15 points, with backcourt mates Mikaala Shackelford and Ebony Livingston recording 14 and 13 points, respectively; fellow guard Brianna Williams chipping in 10 points as 13 Royals scored in all.

"Everybody got in," Cosgriff said. "It's nice when we can do that."

Cosgriff's squad improved to 19-1 with the win, but the competition gets a whole lot sterner for the Royals on Tuesday night as Minnetonka pays Hopkins a visit for a 7 p.m. tip-off.

"It's a big one," he said.

Minnetonka enters the game ranked seventh in the state with a 16-3 overall record. Both the Skippers and Royals are currently 2-1 in the Lake Conference.