HS MBB: Michael Gravelle vs Henry Abraham Put Classic in 2019 “Breakdown Tip-Off Classic”

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Since January 2004, Breakdown Sports has hosted an event called the Tip-Off Classic, and this year was no different. Over the course of multi-part series we’ll cover some of the games and players from this year’s event.

The first game I want to cover in this series about the Tip-Off Classic, is St. Cloud Apollo vs Cambridge-Isanti. Although there weren’t any big Division one recruits from this game (yet), the match-up offered the most exciting game of the event.

Personally I was ready for the match-up between a pair of 2020 guards, Henry Abraham and Michael Gravelle. Two, under six-foot, highly competitive guards who didn’t disappointed.

Apollo was the eventual winner, defeating Cambridge-Isanti 99-82. In the first half, however, Cambridge built a 55-28 lead, largely due to Henry Abraham. Abraham provided 32 points in the first half and finished the game with 49 total. The speedy 5’10 guard has scored more points and made more 3-pointers than any Cambridge player in the school’s history.

After halftime however, the game took a widely unexpected turn, given how poorly Apollo played in the first half. The Eagles put together a 44-3 run, led by the other 2020 guard featured in the above video and this blog, Michael Gravelle. Gravelle played poorly in the first half scoring just 5 points, while accruing a number of turnovers. In the 2nd half though, Gravelle scored 26 points and netted a large number of his 11 assists and 5 steals. His second half was so good, it landed him the Breakdown Player of the Game.

Momentum turns aren’t entirely shocking, as high school sports games tend to have large runs from half to half, but the disparity in points scored from one half to the other is impressive. A 44-3 run is almost unheard of with competent competitors like the ones in this game, but being a first-hand witness to such a run, over the course of about seven minutes, was spectacular. 

Gotta love high school basketball.

Ryan Schmidt | Minnesota Sports Fan

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