Across Minnesota, section championship games are known to be intense, since only the winner advances to the state tournament.
A Hopkins-Wayzata section title showdown will be amplified. These two teams flat out don’t like each other. Ending the other’s season brings exultation.
One of the best basketball games in the state takes place Tuesday night, and you can watch it on startribune.com/live.
Hopkins (26-1) will play host to Wayzata (24-4) in the Section 6 final at the Royals Athletic Center at 7 p.m. The Trojans attempted to have the venue changed to a neutral site to no avail. Tickets to the game sold out in minutes.
Wayzata coach Bryan Schnettler had to serve a one-game suspension following a hotly contested 77-76 loss at Hopkins on Feb. 13 that determined home-court advantage for the championship.
Schnettler was upset when a foul wasn’t called as senior forward Wyatt McBeth tried to score on an alley-oop pass with 4 seconds remaining.
Wayzata committed a foul less than a second later. Before Hopkins went to the free-throw line with 3.3 seconds left, the teams’ coaching staffs exchanged words and were assessed offsetting technical fouls. Nobody was ejected from the game.
After the game, Wayzata players and coaches didn’t shake hands with Hopkins in an attempt to avoid further incident. Social media posts from the game showed fans spilling onto the court as the Trojans tried to get to their locker room.
