Photo Gallery: DeLaSalle vs. Robbinsdale Cooper
It’s not easy being at the top.
In March, Robbinsdale Cooper won its first state championship in program history, defeating Northfield to win the Class 3A title.
This year, Cooper dropped its first two games, even with a number of key pieces returning.
Friday offered a chance to get on track against DeLaSalle, ranked No. 3 in Class 3A by Minnesota Basketball News. Cooper took advantage, in a 63-58 win that showed the Hawks are still a team that can contend among the state’s best.
The difference was a bit of added chemistry.
“Our bond,” senior guard Aja Wheeler said. “We realized we needed to win in our building. We couldn’t go 0-2, 0-3, 0-and-[whatever]. State champions don’t come out the gate like that.”
Cooper got sophomore guard Andrea Tribble back for the first game this season, and that helped the Hawks sort themselves out, even if she had a modest night in the box score.
“I just think to help us flow a little bit, a little more chemistry on the floor,” coach Kiara Buford said. “I think when my bench players got to come in, they felt more comfortable in their role.”
Cooper and DeLaSalle were locked in a low-scoring, sloppy game early on. Not long into the second half, the Hawks cleaned up their play and got the ball inside to Arthel Massaquoi (18 points) and Kierra Wheeler (11 points) more.
Cooper's lead was as much as 19 points, and was still 13 with just under three minutes to play. DeLaSalle staged a late comeback to get within three with 27.6 seconds left, but the Hawks held on to beat a team that was previously ranked No. 1 in Class 3A.
“I feel like we had more heart, had more hustle,” Aja Wheeler said. “We wanted it more. Losing hurts, we’re not used to that. So we realized if you don’t wanna keep losing, you’ve gotta keep playing.”
The Hawks fell out of the top 10 this week, but are still the reigning 3A champions. They’ll likely get every opponents’ best shot all season.
“We know we’ve gotta bring way more energy than we did last year, knowing that people wanna knock us off,” Wheeler said.
Cooper lost four seniors from last year’s squad, and it’s been a work in progress to bring along some sophomores who have bigger roles, like Jayla Reliford — who made two game-sealing late free throws — and Tribble.
The pressure and pride that come with defending a title can do good and bad for a team.
“I think it’s double-sided, where I think we’re really excited knowing that we could get back to that point,” Buford said. “But I think it’s a little bit too, bittersweet, for some of the kids that didn’t play as much during those games, and to understand they have so much work to do to get back to that point.
“So kind of realizing that and staying humble and being hungry, because we have a lot of development to do this year to get back to the [type of] team we had last year.”
That development is coming along, though, and the win over the Islanders certainly helped.
“We got our bond back together, our groove,” Wheeler said.
There’s no rest now either, with the next week featuring a home game against No. 6-2A Minnehaha Academy, and trips to No. 1-4A Hopkins and No. 2-4A Wayzata.
But getting a win over a tough team like DeLaSalle is a good way to get off and running.
“It does, because our games only get harder from now,” Wheeler said. “Knowing we can beat DeLaSalle, we’re gonna be more confident going into our next games.”