St. Paul Central’s Eli Moseman is developing into one of the metro area’s outstanding basketball players. He can shoot, pass, penetrate and defend.
On Wednesday, January 15, the junior guard displayed them all, scoring 31 points while leading the Minutemen to an 83-81 City Conference boys basketball overtime victory over the St. Paul Highland Park Scots before a packed gymnasium at Central High School.
The crowd reacted to every score with an enthusiasm worthy of a city rivalry.
Central won the game with a balanced scoring attack to go along with Moseman’s outstanding performance. Tesfaamlak Sturm scored 16 points, Sefi Whittington and Allan Lankfard Jr., who recently became Central’s all-time leading scorer, added 15 apiece, and Etienne Reyes chipped in 6 to round out the scoring for the Minutemen.
Sophomore Isaiah Davis led Highland Park with 23 points. Yared Yohoness had 17 to go along with an outstanding floor game. Nico Gonsalves added 15, Izaac Hooper 12, and Rob Carlson 9 to lead the Scots.
With the score tied and seconds left in overtime, Moseman sealed the game by sinking a short jumper over a Minutemen defender.
The victory put Central, the defending champs, in first place in the St. Paul City Conference.
Dr. Mitchell Palmer McDonald welcomes reader comments to mcdeezy05@gmail.com.