It has been almost a month since I have been out & about. I started out with three on Friday night and two more Saturday morning. The venue: venerable Kennedy, site of the MN State AAU Qualifier. Usually this event is held two weeks before the “real” state tournament. This year there is a “break” of four days before the onslaught begins again. This is in the heart of the spring calendar. Last week the D1 window was open. That D1 window will open again starting May 17-19. There were some missing in action players this week. Spring sports takes their share. Social obligations like prom and celebrations like graduation will cramp families in the coming weeks. This leaves barely any time to adjust on the fly. Teams, like all summer club teams, are still learning each other’s names and styles. Therefore, some of the pp100s you will see below are substandard—or worse. Only three teams of the ten were above 80. The gold standard of 100 was reached exactly once.
As for the contests themselves the main draw of the qualifier is the pool play the first two days. Tomorrow the #1s in the A & B pools tangle. But not all pools are created equal. Some are deep. Some are puddles. The A pool is traditionally the strongest. That is clearly the case at the 2020/Junior level. What is also clear at the 2020 level (and you don’t need glasses to see this) is the seeding process is messed up. Objective truth doesn’t count or matter. But there was a wrench thrown into the whole process when Paige Bueckers and some of her North Tartan cohorts followed Coach Starks over to Metro Stars. That split the champion from last year. Apparently, there is no path to look at rosters and figure out the correct seed. Metro Stars Starks received a #7 seed, the highest they could possibly receive in the current system. Those two collided in the fifth game below. Here are the brief summaries of the events the past two days.
FRIDAY
MN FURY 2022 UAA 61, NORTH TARTAN 9 SCALIA 38
This was a case where NT9S had two of their players missing due to spring sports. Amber Scalia and Lani Schoper both were playing softball with their high school teams. They were obviously missed. Would they have made up the 23 point difference? Neither team could find the bottom of the basket early. Could this be jet lag from sitting in rush (or non-rush) hour traffic? Oddly enough it was NT9S that struck first after four minutes had elapsed. The Fury didn’t let the four empty minutes stop them as they were clearly in command at half 37-14.
Neither team was sharp with the ball with a combined 60 turnovers. Fury had a +13 advantage on the boards.
| MN Fury 2022 | North Tartan Scalia | |
| POINTS | 61 | 38 |
| REBOUNDS | 46/22 | 33/13 |
| TURNOVERS | 28 | 32 |
| FTA/% | 2/50.00 | 9/55.56 |
| 2FG%/3FG% | 40.47/32.00 | 34.88/14.28 |
| PP100 | 78.7 | 51.4 |
| TOP SCORER | Ellie Buzzelle 17 | Lexi Imbieke 11 |
MN STARS HERSCH 54, TAYLER HILL ELITE 2021
MN Stars Hersch opened with a win THE21, but these two former champions have something in common. Those two teams used to be home for Adalia McKenzie. She may have moved to the next championship team (more about that tomorrow). Still MS10H weathered the storm better than THE21. With the score knotted at 24 at half the writers and fans were expecting a crisp second half. They got that from MS10H who outscored THE21 30-15. The Stars opened the first six minutes with a 15-3 bulge. All the Stars scored. Two starters for THE21 did not score. Better shooting, better shot selection, better shot location all delivered results. THE21 starters only had a 60 pp100. The Stars bench provided 17 points and a pp100 over 100. That helped explain the second half kick.
| MN Stars Hersch | Tayler Hill Elite 2021 | |
| POINTS | 54 | 39 |
| REBOUNDS | 32/11 | 25/11 |
| TURNOVERS | 21 | 19 |
| FTA/% | 6/66.67 | 10/40.00 |
| 2FG%/3FG% | 53.57/36.84 | 37.50/28.57 |
| PP100 | 90.2 | 67.8 |
| TOP SCORER | Kate Trachsel 14 | Jade Hill 13 |
NORTH TARTAN 17U EYBL 61, MN STARS 11 ANTL 42
NT had a 10 point lead with over four minutes to go in the first half after Lauren Jensen nailed a 3 (26-16). Jensen was 10/13 from 2s on the night for a sizzling 76.9%. Better care of the ball. Better shooting at the line and on the floor made NT the only team charted so far to crack the century mark. Jayda Johnston was hot outside with three 3s and 14 points off the bench.
| North Tartan 17U EYBL | MN Stars Antl | |
| POINTS | 61 | 42 |
| REBOUNDS | 35/11 | 35/14 |
| TURNOVERS | 6 | 13 |
| FTA/% | 10/80.00 | 7/42.85 |
| 2FG%/3FG% | 46.34/35.71 | 30.76/31.25 |
| PP100 | 105.2 | 72.4 |
| TOP SCORER | Lauren Jensen 23 | Nneka Obiazor 13 |
SATURDAY
UVA 2021 NAVY COLEY 59, MN COMETS 10 ELITE 53, 2OT
Urban Ventures Athletics (not the University of Virginia) outlasted the Comets in two overtimes to open action Saturday morning. UVA had a size advantage and worked that in on the offensive board side with seven more opportunities. Both teams had players that made a splash at the high school tournament in March and both those players reached the 20 point mark. Neither team was able to crack the code in the first overtime. Frankie Vascellero scored the game winner on the left block on the first possession of the second overtime. Kendall Coley scored on a put back with 24 seconds left for added insurance.
One factor that damaged the Comets chances was their 7/23 lay up shooting. UVA had less attempts than the Comets made. UVA favored dialing long distance to the tune of 27 three point attempts, 15 more than the Comets.
| UVA 2021 Navy Coley | MN Comets 10 Elite | |
| POINTS | 59 | 53 |
| REBOUNDS/OFF | 46/14 | 44/7 |
| TURNOVERS | 10 | 19 |
| FTA/% | 7/42.85 | 10/60.00 |
| 2FG%/3FG% | 41.30/22.22 | 42.22/25.00 |
| PP100 | 77.6 | 71.6 |
| TOP SCORER | Frankie Vascellero 20 | Julia Bengston 21 |
NORTH TARTAN 17U EYBL 55, METRO STARS STARKS 53
Let’s face it, this is why I came on Saturday. This was the D-I-V-O-R-C-E game, but Tammy Wynette was not in the house, but it seemed everyone else was. Not a chair was to be found. After the acrimonious parting of ways last year this had the earmarks of a real battle. Perhaps this was the preview of the title game next week. In that case both teams have plenty to work on. Clearly the bench is an issue for both teams. NT had the infusion of Ava Hill today (she was absent yesterday) and she contributed 8 points. The rest of the bench 2. The Metro Stars bench 5. It was also clear to me that NT is more dialed in on defense. Some Metro Stars players are a bit too casual on D, like transition D after there are turnovers, but just the approach needs juice.
As for game flow, both teams were “up.” Zhane Thompson scored her only points on NT’s first possession (second overall). The defending champs were up 5-0 after a Lauren Jensen put back. Paige Bueckers answered with an &1. The early going had NT with advantages of 4. The tide turned and Metro Stars stretched their lead to 25-16 after a lay up by Liza Karlen, a NT EYBL player on the 2019 team last year. A time out by NT and subs came in for Metro Stars. Any momentum was halted. Lauren Jensen came to the rescue with a 3 and and old fashioned three on consecutive possessions and it was game on again. Ava Hill’s steal and lay up right before half gave NT a 32-29 lead.
Metro Stars tied at 40 with nine minutes left. It wasn’t going to veer off that trajectory the rest of the game. Metro Stars led 51-48. Maty Wilke tied it with a 3. There were two minutes left in the game. Hill scored on a drive to give NT a 53-51 bump. Karlen tied it with an elbow shot with close to 30 seconds remaining. NT called two time outs in the last 11.5 seconds. The first attempt was to free Wilke. Vanessa Alexander got a piece of it. With 4.4 ticks to go it was out of bounds on the right lane. Mallory Brake started right, ended left, received the pass from Wilke, scored and then NT celebrated.
By the way, how did the layup % go for these high level teams? Metro Stars was 7/16 and NT 5/15.
It should be noted that Paige Bueckers had the highest 31 Club score of the weekend (so far) with 40.
Get ready for a rematch in eight days.
| North Tartan 17U EYBL | Metro Stars Starks | |
| POINTS | 55 | 53 |
| REBOUNDS | 47/22 | 35/13 |
| TURNOVERS | 16 | 13 |
| FTA/% | 9/77.78 | 16/56.25 |
| 2FG%/3FG% | 33.96/26.67 | 44.18/15.38 |
| PP100 | 83.3 | 79.1 |
| TOP SCORER | Lauren Jensen 16 | Paige Bueckers 25 |
TRENCH PLAYERS
FRIDAY
GAME 1: Ellie Buzzelle of MN Fury 2022 UAA (& Rogers) with a game high 17 points, a game high 121.4 pp100 and a 31 Club score of 23. Buzzelle knocked down three 3s.
GAME 2: Kate Trachsel of MN Stars 10 Hersch (& Prior Lake) with 12 points, a 109.1 pp100 and a 31 Club score of 17.
GAME 3: Lauren Jensen of North Tartan 17u EYBL (& Lakeville North) with a day’s high 23 points, a 153.3 pp100 and a 31 Club score of 30, the best of the day.
SATURDAY
GAME 1: Frankie Vascellero of UVA 2021 Navy Coley (& Holy Angels) with 20 points, a 117.6 pp100 and a 31 Club score of 38.
GAME 2: It must go to Malloy Brake of North Tartan 17u EYBL (& Hastings) to break the deadlock and give NT17EYBL a big (if two point) emotional win. Brake scored 11 to send NT to 7th heaven.