Maple Grove Boys basketball team ran into another hot-shooting team on Thursday night in their loss to #7 ranked Park Center.  The Pirates, led by Quinton Hooker and Joshua Matthews shot 54% from the field in comparison to 37% for the Crimson.

The Pirates used an effective fast break to score 4 layups in the first 5 minutes of the game to jump to a lead of 8-12 points in the first half, to lead 41-29 at intermission.  The second half was similar Maple Grove’s first game at Buffalo, when they clawed their way back.  In this case, Park Center led by 21 with less than 9 minutes to play, when the Crimson made a run.  Sparked by inside scoring from Erik Olson and slashing drives to the basket by Brycen Wojta, Park Center saw their lead dwindle to 9 after an Olson free throw.  The Crimson got a steal, but could not convert.  Park Center went down, scored, and never looked back. 

Hooker, who plans to play at UND next fall, hit big shots from a variety of locations, and several times put back his own shot, finishing with 27 points  Maple Grove was able to hit 3 point shots early, but quickly cooled off, as they shot 6 of 22 for the game. 

Olson scored a career high 19 points and added 15 rebounds for the Crimson.  Jake Wieneke added 10 points and 7 assists.  Wojta scored 24 points on the night as he passed the 1000 point mark for his career.  He currently has scored 1016 points during his 4 years as a point guard for the Crimson.

Maple Grove will play at Minnetonka at 5:30 on Saturday against New Prague.