First, the games. Then, down below, you’ll see my all-star selections.
Game 1–Fridley 106 Park Center 69. First of all, how did Park Center get to be so bad? But, secondly, Fridley is a great story. Senior forward Aubrey Cochran scored 37 and senior guard Brandi Washington 23. Senior guard Mya Karsten, a lefty point guard, chipped in with 22. She has recovered from 2 torn ACLs and, oh, yeah, she is the kicker on the Fridley football team! 5-11 junior guard Lyric Singleton led Park Center with 34. Amazingly enough, Park Center led 39-38 at the half, then got outscored 68-30 in the 2nd.
Game 2–Hill Murray 44 Becker 41. Hill Murray ran out to an 18-5 lead and my friend said, “This game is over.” Au contraire. Becker came back to lead 33-30 but Hill Murray reasserted itself in the late going, closing out on a 14-8 run. 6-1 sophomore Mya Wilson, the #1-rated sophomore in the state, led with 22 points. These are a couple of young teams and neither of them could have shot much over 25 percent. The difference was Wilson who shot a respectable 6-of-9 in the 1st half. Becker was led by the 8th and 9th grade sisters Adele and Andersyn Changamire with 11 and 9.
Game 3–Crosby Ironton 62 Jordan 52. There’s a full game report in another post. Highlighted are the D1 recruits–Tori Oehrlein of C-I and the Minnesota Gophers, and Morgan Staloch of Jordan and St. Thomas.
Game 4–Alexandria 54 Stewartville 49. The gym was all abuzz as Alex came back from a 30-19 deficit. Stewartville’s Jayci Rath picked up her 4th foul at 16:00 and the Tigers up by that 30-19 score. She stayed in the game and picked up her 4th foul at about 13 minutes. After that it was almost all Alex. They still trailed 36-27 at 11:30 but caught up at 39-all at 5:47 and pulled ahead from there. Chloe Scholl, MaCee Linow and Allie Haabala scored all of Alex’ points down the stretch. Stewartville junior guard Audrey Shindelar, a Mankato State recruit, led all scorers with 24.
Game 5–Prior Lake 55 Rochester Mayo 52. The Lakers led 31-19 at the half but sleep-walked through the 2nd half to allow Mayo back in it. Mayo freshmen Amelia Mills and Maggie Dyer impressed. Mills is a 5-7 point guard who scored 22, Dyer is a strong 6-0 big who scored 14 on dribble drives and off the offensive glass. The Fisher sisters Hanna, the senior, and Tori, the soph, scored 17 each.
Game 6–Wayzata 64 Eastview 33. My buddy Kevin Anderson, who is the source of the so-called AP Poll girls rankings, was kicking himself about having Eastview #7 and Wayzata unranked. For the record, Kevin does his rankings for the Minnesota Basketball News, which then distributes the rankings through the Associated Press. It’s one-man poll, but the AP sends it out as “the AP poll.” Wayzata senior guard Sophie Hawkinson, who is going to North Dakota State, was the best player on the court.
Game 7–Delano 74 Cretin Derham Hall 37. OK folks, Cretin’s Tara Seifert is a hell of a coach. It’s just that right now Cretin is just way too young. T-Gunny (as a high school star down in Iowa, Tara went by the nickname of T [short for Tara] Gunny) had 2 8th graders and a 9th grader on the court for much of the game. 5-6 8th grader Isabella Deleeuw led the Raiders with 10 points. Delano was led by 6-0 soph Addie Iverson with 17 and a couple of junior guards with 24 between them.
Game 8–Eden Prairie 83 DeLaSalle 70. This was the best game so far, EP led most of the way–30-21 in the 1st, 63-54 in the 2nd. But you know how it is with DeLaSalle. Even when they’re trailing they make you feel like they’re in control, like they’ve got the momentum, they’ve got their opponent where they wanted them. But the Eagles Rae Ehrman and Tori Schlagel had other ideas. Ehrman’s smooth, unhurried drives to the rim bedeviled the Islanders all day and she finished with a remarkable 38 points. Schlagel wasn’t looking to score so much, at least not until she was, but down the stretch her big strong power drives were equally unstoppable. She finished with 15.
DeLaSalle, meanwhile, stayed close by swarming the offensive boards and swarming EP’s ballhandlers. They got within 54-52 at the 10 minutre mark but EP won the 4th quarter 29-18. Erhman already had 21 but she added 3 buckets and 10-for-10 FTs down the stretch. Schlagel scored 7 in the final 10. Sophomore Laila Moses and freshman Anaya Shaffa led De with 18 each. On paper, Schlagel has only 2 inches on DeLaSalle point guard Aneisha Scott. On the court it looked more like 4, and Schlagel gave Scott fits , holding the prolific Islander to 13 points.
Game 9–Goodhue 68 Breckenridge 50. This is one game I did not see, as the EP-DeLaSalle and St. Michael-Rosemount games were opposite this one, and they were two of my big school priorities. All I can tell you is that the sophomores Aubrey and Lola Christiansen scored 27 points between them for Goodhue. So don’t even think that Goodhue’s Class A dynasty is in any danger of falling any time soon.
Game 10–St. Michael-Albertville 76 Rosemount 72. This game is reviewed fully in a separate post. It was better even than the EP-De game.
Game 11–Orono 71 Minnehaha 67. I saw a big of this game during halftime of the St. Michael-Rosemount game. And of course Addie Mack was unstoppable while I was watching and probably throughout, as she finished with 32 points. But, Orono was better as junior Maya Moore, Evelyn Miller and Amelia Schwendimann combined for 48. Orono led by 16 at the half, and was hanging on by its fingernails at the end.
Game 12–Providence 82 Maple Grove 75. Providence of course features 5-8 junior guard Maddyn Greenway, who committed to Kentucky last week, while Maple Grove features 6-0 senior wing Jordan Ode, who committed to Michigan State last year. But this was not the Greenway vs. Ode show. They’re such different players. For Greenway, basketball is a game that is played with the ball in her hands, going down hill all the time, and almost always to the rim. Ode is more of a classic scorer, moving around without the ball and dependent on her teammates to get her the ball in right spots. Well, at this level one Greenway going downhill is worth two Ode’s spotting up. In other words, Maddyn scored 39, Jordan 16, and Providence held on to win 82-75.
The surprise for Providence was their “balance.” Say what? Greenway scores 39 and they’ve got balance. Well, Emma Millerbernd added 15, Beckett Greenway 10, Mckenna Schaefer 10 and Hope Counts 8. With the transfer/departure of Ari Thompson, Providence was expected to be kind of one-dimensional. Well, Beckett Greenway is growing up and Mckenna Schaefer, the big unknown, looked last night like she’s ready. So Providence beats Maple Grove, who beat Eden Prairie, who beat DeLaSalle. How many teams does that leave that might be better than Providence. Well, maybe Hopkins and Minnetonka?
Game 13–Duluth Marshall 73 Albany 26. Say what? Duluth Marshall lost Regan Juenemann to Crosby-Ironton, but they gained Cairin Berger from Esko and 6-7 8th grader Gabija Krasauskaite and, so, guess what. They’re pretty good. Of course, the #1 freshman in the state Chloe Johnson leads the way as she did yesterday with 23 points. But, now, she’s got a point guard in Berger and doesn’t have to handle the ball all the time herself. Berger also added 12 points, while returning junior guard Anna Saari scored 18. Thebig girl scored 10. Meanwhile, Albany is perennial power, but apparently not this year. They of course lost Alyssa Sand to St. Thomas and Kylan Gerads to St. Cloud State. They return just one of their top 7 and she contributed 4 points. So it’s going to be a long year in Albany.
Game 14–Minnetonka 60 Benilde-St. Margaret’s 53. Minnetonka junior Lanelle Wright won the battle of the point guards from Benilde’s Kendall McGee, rated the #3 senior in the state, but who missed all of last year with an injury. Individually the score was 23-10. Newcomer Ari Peterson added 11 for Tonka while Zahara Bishop scored 21 for Benilde.
Game 15–Sauk Centre 80 St. Clair 36. Sorry folks, did not see this game nor is a box score posted.
Game 16–Hopkins 43 Lakeville North 41. I’m guessing there was some blood on the tracks after this. I did not see the game, nor is a box score posted.
Best Of
Best Game–St. Michael-Albertville 76 Rosemount 72
Best Defense–Cali Jahnke, St. Michael–6 steals, 2 of them leading to scores in the final minute brought the Knights from a 72-69 deficit to the win.
Best Shooter–Rae Ehrman, Eden Prairie–5 3s, 6 2s, 11-of-11 FT, 38 points
Best Scorer–Maddyn Greenway 39 points
Best Reboiunder–Tori Oehrlein. Crosby-Ironton 17
Best Passer–Oehrlein 8 assists
Honorable Mention Defense–Morgan Staloch of Jordan on Tori Oehrlein of C-I, and Tori Schlagel of Eden Prairie on Aneisha Scott of DeLaSalle
First Team All-Stars
Maddyn Greenway, Providence 5-8 junior guard 39 pts-7 reb-6 ast-4 stl
Rae Ehrman, Eden Prairie senior wing 38 pts
Cali Jahnke, St. Michael-Albertville 6-2 junior guard 29 pts-7 reb-6 stls-1 blk
Amisha Ramlall, Rosemount 5-9 soph guard 29 pts-5 reb-4 ast-2 stls-1 blk
Lanelle Wright, Minnetonka 5-9 junior guard 26 points
Second Team
Addie Mack, Minnehaha 5-9 senior guard 32 pts
Tori Schlagel, Eden Prairie senior guard
Sophie Hawkinson, Wayzata 5-8 senior guard 18 pts
Morgan Staloch, Jordan 6-0 junior guard 16 pts
Zahara Bishop, Benilde senior 21 pts
Diaper Dandies (sophomores and younger)
Amisha Ramlall, Rosemount 5-9 soph combo guard 29 pts-5 reb-4 ast-2 stls-1 blk
Tori Fisher, Prior Lake soph shooting guard 17 pts
Chloe Johnson, Duluth Marshall 6-0 frosh combo guard guard 23 pts
Amaya Shaffa, DeLaSalle 5-6 frosh shooting guard 18 pts
Maggie Dyer, Rochester Mayo 6-0 frosh power forward 14 pts
Second Team Diaper Dandies
Laila Moses, DeLaSalle 5-9 soph shooting guard 18 pts
Mya Wilson, Hill Murray 6-1 soph wing 22 pts
Arshia Ramlall, Rosemount 5-7 soph shooting guard 15 pts 5-of-11 FG-3 reb
Amelia Mills, Rochester Mayo 5-7 frosh point guard 21 pts
Gabija Krasauskaite, Duluth Marshall 6-7 8th grade post 10 pts
