It was another big day for girls basketball in Minnesota. Coming on the heels of last weeks Breakdown Tip, the day after turkey day saw 16 games at Hamline and White Bear Lake. We’ll have a separate report on the feature game, which was Dowling Catholic’s 78-72 win over Benilde-St. Margaret’s at White Bear. The other big winner was Class AAA Orono, who shocked defending AAAA state champion Minnetonka 62-59 at Hamline.
In fact, Orono’s win over Minnetonka came after Tonka had fashioned a 32-22 halftime leader, more or less as might have been expected. But, the 2nd half was all Orono, to the tune of 40-27 Orono. The Moore sisters, 5-10 junior Mya and 5-8 freshman Ally, combined for 33 points. The further surprise was that it was the freshman Ally who scored 19 of those 33 points, and it was the freshman Ally who made the game-winning 3 at the final buzzer.
A second feature was the East Ridge-St. Michael-Albertville matchup at White Bear, or shall I say the matchup of the #3 and #4-rated juniors in the state, according to Prep Girls Hoops. They would be 6-3 Cali Jahnke of St. Michael and 6-1 Vienna Murray of East Ridge. Well, neither team ever found any offensive rhythm, instead committing multiple turnovers on both sides and settling for heavily contested shots. St. Michael pulled away from a 16-14 lead at 6 minutes of the 1st half to lead 27-18, then 27-22 at the half. East Ridge never got closer than 5, and soon it was 41-28. East Ridge did get within 45-37 at 5:00 and cut a 58-46 deficit to the 58-52 final. But St. Michael was never in any real jeopardy.
Janhke scored 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting, but managed just 3 rebounds, no assists, 2 steals and a block while turning it over 7 times. In the absence of a better team offensive rhythm, she forced up some shots, some of the turnovers coming on some of those forced efforts as the shot clock wound down. Coach Kent Hamre is currently using erstwhile power forward Abby Hoselton as his primary ball handler and as one of my fellow basketball geeks noted, the Knights could use a little bit of Emma Miller right now. Murray, meanwhile, scored 19 points on just 2-of-7 2s and 4-of-7 3s. She added 3-of-4 FT, 3 rebounds, 2 steals and 3 turnovers. Murray is the better ball handler and 3-point shooter of the 2, while Jahnke is the more mobile slasher and defender. We do not know anything about the college plans of either, but both are very much in demand.
Perhaps the 4th best game of the day was DeLaSalle’s 68-62 win over Minnehaha at Hamline. Maryland-bound Addie Mack starred as always with 31 points, but DeLaSalle had more weapons including Aneisha Scott with 21 points and Maddie Blaylark with 16.
Jordan defeated Stewartville 56-39 in a game that was closer than that. It was 26-all early in the 2nd half and the Tigers led 32-31 around the 12 minute mark. Guard Savi Borowicz scored 7 of the next 9 points to make it 41-32. The Tigers got within 41-34 but no closer. Borowicz finished with 22 points We got to see Jordan’s Morgan Staloch and the Tigers’ Jayci Rath, who on day will be teammates at St. Thomas, guard one another. Staloch got the best of things with 15 points to Rath’s 5, not to mention the win. Audrey Shindelar scored 15 for Stewartville.
Sam Wills, the 6-foot combo guard for Visitation who is bound for Harvard, put on a show for Vistation. She scored 29 points on her own according to my friend Kevin Anderson, while having 22 assist opportunities. In other words, her passes led to 22 shots, of which 9 were made, and so of course she gets 9 assists. She also had 22 defensive stops. Not a bad day’s work. As a result, Class AA Visitation beat Class AAAA Roseville 75-58.
Lakeville South defeated Waconia 66-51 as senior forward Dani Coleman scored 26.
There were not a lot of great games otherwise. If your definition of not a great game includes blowouts, well, how about Rochester Mayo 94 St. Louis Park 27. It was 55-14 at the half. Ouch! Mayo freshman Amelia Mills (the point guard) and Maddie Dyer (the power forward) combined for 34 points.
Continuing with the blowout category, how about St. Paul Como Park 65 Bloomington Kennedy 32. And, then, Cretin-Derham Hall demolished Holy Family 75-30. This is the same Cretin team that was blown out last week by Delano 74-37. Well, yesterday, Class AAA Delano kept it rolling with a 72-46 route of Class AAAA Edina. Meanwhile Class A Mayer Lutheran routed Class AAA Grand Rapids 64-20 as the Keaveney sisters, Clara and Isabelle, combined for 33 points. Meanwhile, Providence kept the private schools unbeaten against public schools for the day by beating the host White Bear Lake Bears 79-54.
The latest games were not closer, at least not at the final buzzer. We didn’t see the following: Eastview 60 Anoka 45. Hopkins 62 Iowa City West 40. And Chaska 64 Centennial 36. Yet a 3rd future Tommie, Centennial’s Autumn McCall, had to be Ms. Do-Everything. She managed 13. Myah Maull scored 18 for Eastview.
The Best of the Best
Layla Trytten, Dowling Catholic 5-9 Sr CG 31 pts-5 reb-3 ast-2stl. She is rated the #41 player in Iowa and is not yet committed.
Sam Wills, Visitation 6-0 Sr CG 29 pts-9 asts. Harvard.
Addie Mack, Minnehaha 5-9 Sr CG 31 pts. Maryland.
Katie Muller, Dowling Catholic 6-1 Soph SG 18 pts-7 reb-2 stls.
Ellie Muller, Dowling Catholic 6-3 Jr PF 13 pts-5 reb-4 asts-3 stls-2 blks.
2nd Team
Cali Jahnke, St. Michael 6-3 Jr SG 20 pts-3 reb-2 stls.
Zahara Bishop, Benilde 5-10 Sr SG 23 pts-3 reb-2 stls.
Ally Moore, Orono 5-8 Fr SG 19 pts
Dani Coleman, Lakeville South 6-1 Sr Wing 26 pts. Sioux Falls-bound.
Mya Moore, Orono 5-10 Jr GPG 14 pts.