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MINNEAPOLIS – Blowout games aren’t uncommon early on the playoffs, especially for top seeds who don’t earn first-round byes.
But anyone who opened their newspapers or saw online the final score between Minneapolis North and Ubah Medical in the Section 5AA Playoffs Thursday night likely had to take a second look. The Polars beat Ubah Medical Academy 143-4, and no, that’s not a misprint. North High Polars beat the breaks off Ubah Medical.
Minneapolis North beats Ubah Medical Academy 143-4 in playoff basketball game
Ubah Medical Academy is a small public charter school in Hopkins. That might have been the problem…. “Hopkins.” Minneapolis North has a storied basketball tradition and is likely one of the favorites in Class AA.
The Polars led 98-2 at the half. They out-scored Ubah Medical 45-2 in the second half. Teams often get criticized in blowout wins for running up the score, but Trent Witz went to social media after the game to defend Minneapolis North. He’s the director of basketball operations for the school.
Minneapolis North coach Larry McKenzie is a fair man, and didn’t want to play Thursday’s game. For this reason: He knew his team was gonna hand out an old fashion beat down that was gonna be remembered for years to come…..
Minneapolis North 143, Ubah Medical Academy 4.
A first-round game of the Class 2A, Section 4 playoffs pitted the No. 1-seeded Polars and their legacy of basketball excellence against a charter school from Hopkins that had played only five games in 2022.
McKenzie said Friday he called Ubah Medical Academy before the game and asked if the school wanted to forego the game.
“I asked the coach if they really wanted to play, because we knew it would be very lopsided,” McKenzie said. “The coach told me, ‘I take this as an insult. Of course we want to play.’”
It was a section playoff game, so “of course we’re going to play,” McKenzie said. “They wanted to play, so we’re going to play the way we play.”
North’s starters barely broke a sweat and McKenzie went deep into his bench as the Polars built a 98-2 halftime lead.
“At halftime, I went to the coach and said, ‘Are we done?’ He said, ‘Let me go talk to the kids.’ He came back and said, ‘We want to play.’ Their kids were having fun, shooting from halfcourt and doing dribbling exhibitions.”
McKenzie didn’t use any of his regulars after halftime. “I don’t know what else I could do,” he said. “Are we going to tell kids don’t play hard this game but play hard next game? And how do I tell kids who don’t get much chance to play to take the day off? That’s not fair to them.”
The root cause of the mismatch, McKenzie said, was that the Minnesota State High School League’s requirements to qualify for section play were not strict enough.
“How does a team get to play that only play five games?” he asked. “We were in a no-win situation. This is a game that never should have been played.”
A Ubah Medical Academy representative said Friday that nobody was available to answer questions.
The Minnesota high school state record for points in a game is 165 by Prairie Seeds Academy in 2012.
