The Girls Breakdown Tip-Off opened with a matchup of 2 Class AA top 5 teams and 2 if Minnesota brightest girls basketballl stars. #2 Albany defeated #5 Duluth Marshall 84-65, though Marshall’s Chloe Johnson outscored Albany’s Alyssa Sand 28-26. Sand, a 6-3 post, is the #11 senior, according to Prep Girls Hoops, while Johnson is regarded as the state’s top 8th grader, though the 8th graders are not yet subject to the more or less formal or official rankings.
The game was close with 9 lead changes through the 1st 12 minutes. The game’s last lead change came on Kylan Gerads’ 3rd bucket at the 6 minute mark, putting Albany up 16-15. Quickly, Sand and Amanda Pelzer each scored 3 buckets and by halftime Albany led 36-23. Duluth was the hunter from that point on, and after Albany scored the 1st 6 points of the 2nd half, they never got closer than those 13 points at 53-40. Again, Albany scored the next 7 points to lead 60-40 and that was all she wrote.
Sand was completely dominant inside, scoring 26 points on 12-of-17 shooting. 7 of her points came off the offensive glass. She will be playing D1 basketball next year at St. Thomas. It was hard to guage her upside here because nobody for Duluth Marshall ever put very much of a body on her. Her resume´rests to some degree on her 29 points and 21 rebounds in last year’s Class AA state tournament final against Providence, who cannot be similarly accused of not putting a body on people. Still, returning to yesterday, it is certainly true that Duluth’s star, Chloe Johnson, had stronger competition out on the perimeter than Sand had on the inside.
That would be a reference to Albany’s very fine point guard, 5-9 senior Tatum Findley, who is quick and aggressive with excellent handles, and who is somewhat underrated as Prep Hoops #102 prospect among Minnesota seniors. At a minimum, she would be a solid performer for the right D3 program. She scored 21 points yesterday on 7-of-14 shooting with 4 assists, 3 steals and just one turnover. Senior shooting guard Savanna Pelzer, just 5-4, also performed admirably, scoring 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting.
Still, Albany’s #2 star is 5-11 power forward Kylan Gerads, the #24-rated Minnesota senior who will be playing at St. Cloud State next year. She scored 10 points in each half on 9-of-15 shooting with 12 rebounds and 4 steals.
Still, most eyes were on Chloe Johnson, Duluth’s 5-11 8th grade phenom who is described as a combo guard. She scored 19 ppg last year as a 7th grader. She has a beautiful shooting stroke. In fact, I’d say she is more of a shooter than a scorer at this stage in her young life, as evidenced by here 5-of-8 shooting from 3 point range (and 3-of-4 FT) as compared to her 5-of-10 on 2s. Not too shabby but not equal to 8-of-12 on open jumpers and FT. She is active enough and has enough court awareness to amass 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocked shots yesterday in addition to her scoring.
Riding shotgun for Johnson is 5-10 junior shooting guard Regan Juenemann, who also scored 19 ppg a year ago. Yesterday she scored 15 on 6-of-14 shooting, including 3-of-7 3s and 2-of-2 FT. She added 3 boards, 2 assists and 3 turnovers. She, like her teammate, has a good basketball IQ and is pretty fairly rated as the #15 junior in the state. She is not yet committed to the college level but is considered to be a mid-major or D2 prospect.
Obviously, Albany’s supporting cast brings a little more mojo than Duluth’s, but Marshall guards senior Ada Skafte and sophomore Ana Saari are both top 200-rated players.
Albany will be favored to return to the state tournament next March, though Section 6AA is loaded as always and they will have to get past Sauk Centre, primarily to do so. Meanwhile, #5AA Duluth Marshall will face #4AA Crosby-Ironton, among others, in Section 7AA. That matchup would pit Chloe Johnson, possibly #1 among the 2028s, against Tori Oehrlein, #2 among the 2026s. But, one pundit who knows a lot about such things told me that someday we will think of Chloe Johnson as the best Minnesota player since Paige Bueckers. All the more reason to stayed tuned.