This time around Blake Hoffarber and his Hopkins teammates won't get an Espy. Just another state championship. It was one year ago that Hoffarber threw in a miraculous shot at the end of overtime from the seat of his pants that helped the Royals to a Class 4A state title and landed Hoffarber a place in Minnesota sports history.
This year Hoffarber and his teammates methodically took apart a Robbinsdale Cooper team that had posted a few miracles of their own to get to the title game, winning 69-53 at Target Center. Hoffarber finished with a game high 19 points. He also grabbed 6 rebounds and had 3 assists for the Royals who are state champs for the 3rd time in five years.
In the first half Cooper ran out to a 12-7 lead thanks to a pair of three pointers by Jermain Davis. But Hoffarber's three with 11:46 to go tied it at 12. The lead then changed hands several times and was tied at 24 with 6:41 left in the half. That's when the Royals went on a 9-0 run that proved to be decisive in the win. The Royals led 38-29 at the half. Cooper would get no closer than 9 points the rest of the way.
Tyler Nicolai finished with 14, Dan Vandervieren 13 and Steven Duncan 10 to lead Hopkins who finished the season with a 24 game winning streak (30-2). Jefferson Mason and Dennis Williamson had 13 apiece in the loss for Cooper (27-4). It was Cooper's best finish ever. They took third place back in 1975.
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