More than 100 boys high school basketball games were played last week, so I’m not sure Saturday’s event at Hopkins High School, sponsored of course by the guys at the Breakdown, is really a “tip off,” but it is one of the biggest and best days of boys basketball for the entire season. The early rankings are of course out and they entail a lot of guesswork. But, now, thanks to the Tip-Off, some clarity begins to emerge.
Class AAAA
#1 Park Center squandered an early 15-02 lead but hung on to edge #3 Lakeville North 81-79, while #2 Wayzata and #6 Minnetonka served notice. Wayzata edged #1AAA Totino-Grace 83-81 as Creighton-bound Jackson McAndrew exploded for 38 points and 11 boards. #6 Minnetonka defeated #4 Lakeville South 103-92. Bubbling under is #8 Hopkins, who squandered a 48-32 half-time lead on its home floor, but held on to beat #7 East Ridge 73-72.
Further down the list #10 Eastview ralled from a 31-point halftime deficit to within 74-68 before losing to #4AAA Orono. #13 Osseo defeated #8AAA DeLaSalle 69-59, #15 Farmington held form against #17 Cretin 76-62 and #19 Tartan held form against unranked Armstrong 63-49. Oh, yes, #9 Buffalo blew form totally to hell and back, losing to #7AAA Mankato East 83-51.
The thing to remember is this. Lakeville North, Park Center and Wayzata might just as well be ranked #1A, #1B and #1C. Minnetonka is a step behind and Hopkins 2 steps. The top performers in Class AAAA:
Power Forward–Jackson McAndrew, Wayzata, 6-9, sr., 38 pts, 11 reb.
Wing–JJ Semanko, Hopkins, 6-5, jr.
Point Guards–Xavier Frelix, Park Center, 6-2, soph.; Jayden Moore, Hopkins, 6-0, soph.; Cedric Tomes, East Ridge, 6-0, soph. The young guards. Everybody came to see Moore and Tomes, but the unheralded Frelix stole the show, at least in the 1st half, coming off the bench to hit 5-of-5 3s while his more heralded elders had their minds somewhere other than this basketball court on this day (Casmir Chavis and Chiang Ring 7-for-21; granted this was just the 1st half; watching at least part of every game means missing parts of others).
Meanwhile, I saw 23 minutes of East Ridge-Hopkins and, like the Park Center game, there is no box score online for the big picture. But, in 23 minutes Jayden Moore somewhat outplayed Cedric Tomes. Moore had 17 pts, 6 reb, 3 asts; Tomes 11 pts, 2 reb, 3 turnovers. On the other hand, Hopkins outscored East Ridge 61-48 while I was watching, which means that East Ridge (and Tomes) outscored Hopkins 24-12 when I wasn’t. Buyer beware.
Class AAA
Totino-Grace did nothing to endanger its #1 ranking, losing to #3AAAA Wayzata by 2. Again, there is no box score for this game.
Meanwhile #3 Alexandria didn’t help itself, losing to Class AA (OK, granted #1AA) Breck 71-68. Alex should have won this game, leading 31-26 at the half despite playing without 6-11 Chase Thompson and 6-9 U of M recruit Grayson Grove through much of the 1st half (fouls) and probably missing a dozen FT. Again, I don’t have complete stats here, but Breck came from 49-48 down to win 71-68 in the final 10 minutes. Wisconsin recruit Daniel Freitag scored 9 points with 5-of-5 FT and 3 rebounds over those 10 minutes, while Thompson scored 8 for Alex, which shot just 3-of-11 and made 8-of-12 FT over those 10 minutes.
Look for #4 Orono to move ahead of Alex after it defeated #10AAAA Eastview 74-68. This was a most improbable game, however. Orono led 49-18 at the half, then found itself hanging on to win 74-68. People were raving about Orono’s Nolan Groves, a 6-4 junior guard, who finished with 27, but was apparently running on fumes down the stretch. Eastview senior guard Ju Ju Stampley led the Lightning surge.
Also in AAA, #6 Stewartville might swap places with #5 Delano after beating Delano 62-58. Stewartville sophomore guard Max Iverson is emerging with 23 points in this game. And, then, there’s #7 Mankato East who blew #9AAAA Buffalo away 83-51 to run its record to 4-0 with an average margin of victory of 32 points. #8 DeLaSalle lost to Osseo, but you can never count the Islanders out.
Meanwhile #2 Benilde-St. Margaret’s was holding its own soiree where it handily defeated Edina 64-44, so the Red Knights should stay at #2. After that I’d say #3 Mankato East, #4 Orono and #5 Stewartville for now, with Delano, Alex and DeLaSalle all in the mix.
The top performers in AAA:
Center–Brady Wooley, Orono, 6-9, junior, who left the court late in the 2nd half along with an Eastview counterpart, both bleeding profusely after a little tete-a-tete under the Orono hoop. He finished with 17 points.
Power Forward–Chase Thompson, Alex, 6-11, junior.
Small Forward–Carson Schweim, Mankato East, 6-7, senior. Scored 24 points to lead East’s rout of Buffalo.
Point Guard–Nolan Groves, Orono, 6-4, jr., 24 points
Shooting Guard–Max Iverson, Delano, soph., 23 pts in a losing effort.
Class AA
#1 Breck defeated a Class AAA power, so it would be hard to move them down. Still, neither team seemed to play really well in this one. #2 Lake City’s not moving up after losing to #4 Albany 67-49 though one should know that Lake City was without all-state 5-10 senior guard Hunter Lorentson in this one. I saw the 1st half and Albany, trailing 35-30 at the half, didn’t look that great, either, but obviously they had a nice 2nd half with a 37-14 advantage. And #5 Minnehaha beat Class AAA St. Thomas 74-66 behind senior guard Lorenzo Levy’s 29 points.
But #3 Holy Family is the team to look out for. They looked better than Breck even though they lost to #1A Cherry 73-69. The emergence of 6-8 post Brayden Carlson, along with guard Kole Hanson and Luke Graff, make the Fire a threat. Still, right now I’d keep Breck at #1, with Holy Family #2, #3 Albany, #4 Minnehaha and #5 Lake City.
The top performers in Class AA:
Center–Keegan Ryan, Lake City, 6-5, senior, 15 pts
Power Forward–Sam Hondl, Albany, 6-7, junior, 13 pts
Point Guard–Daniel Freitag, Breck, 6-2, senior
Combo Guard–Lorenzo Levy, Minnehaha, 5-10, senior, 29 pts
Shooting Guard–Zeke Austin, Albany, 6-3, junior, 22 pts.
Class A
That leaves Class A, and we’ve already posted a detailed report about Cherry’s 73-69 win over Class AAA Holy Family. The only other Class A action was quite unfulfilling as #3 Dawson-Boyd clobbered #2 Cass Lake-Bena 88-39. Drew Hjelmeland scored 30, Gunner Liebl 22 and Brayson Boike 17 for the winners. Dominic Staples-Fairbanks scored 20 for CLB, but it must also be noted that the Panthers were without all-state guard Kaydin Lee. Still, it would seem that you’d have to move Dawson-Boyd up to #2.
The top performers in Class A:
Center–Drew Hjelmeland, Dawson-Boyd, 6-6, jr., 30 pts
Forward–Brayson Boike, Dawson-Boyd, 6-7, jr., 17 pts
Point Guard–Isaac Asuma, Cherry, 6-3, sr., 26 pts
Shooting Guard–Gunner Liebl, Dawson-Boyd, 6-0, soph., 22 pts
Shooting Guard–Douglas Staples-Fairbanks, Cass Lake-Bena, 5-11, sr., 20 pts
Overall Top Performers
Center–Drew Hjelmeland, Dawson-Boyd, 6-6, jr., 30 pts
Power Forward–Jackson McAndrew, Wayzata, 6-9, sr., 38 pts–11 reb
Point Guard–Isaac Asuma, Cherry, 6-3, sr., 26 pts
Combo Guard–Lorenzo Levy, Minnehaha, 5-10, sr., 29 pts
Shooting Guard–Nolan Groves, Orono, 6-4, jr., 27 pts
6th Man–JJ Semanko, Hopkins, 6-5, jr.