The Meltdown closed up shop today with other destinations ahead on the summer cavalcade of tournaments. Some teams had flights scheduled that put a crimp in the tournament schedule. That meant a game I was hoping to see did not happen at all. In fact I only charted two games all day and one of them was not on the feature court. Court 2 had a hodge podge of games with only the 2020 championship taking center court. Even the 2020 semifinals were shunted to the side. My preference would have been three semis for 2020, 2021, and then 2022 followed by the title games right down the line. But the 2021s, due the 3 pm start time never was played. It would have featured the MN Fury and MN Stars Hersch teams. The 2022’s title game didn’t even take place in the same building—–they were off at Jefferson after establishing a presence at Edina on Saturday and Sunday. As it was I charted the NT 17U team twice: the victory in the semis vs CSS Bison and the championship game against sister EYBL team All Iowa Attack.
GAME 1: NORTH TARTAN 17U EYBL 62, CSS BISON 53
NT17 overcame foul troubles to Lauren Jensen in the first half (where they trailed by seven) to defeat the Bison. The Bison got into foul problems of their own with both Nyayongah Gony and Olivia Hollenbeck getting into foul problems. The Bison took advantage of Jensen’s second foul which parked her on the pine with 11 minutes to go in the first half. The Bison jumped up 25-18 breaking free from a 17 all tie in six minutes. At the 3:43 mark Jensen returned to action. By the break NT was back in front 32-28 with Maty Wilke’s triple to end the scoring for the half. Wilke had to carry the ball handling duties with Jensen’s departure. On top of the Wilke drew Whitney Brown and held her to only three 3s and kept her off balance offensively all day. With eight minutes left NT pushed their advantage forward 53-37, a 21-9 start to the half. Brown had six of her nine points the last 1:18 of the game as the Bison cut the lead to eight. As is the case most of the time, better shooting tipped the scales to victory. Five of the eight NT players had pp100s over 100. Three players reached double digits. By contrast the Bison only had two of their seven make the century mark.
| NORTH TARTAN 17U EYBL | CSS BISON | |
| POINTS | 62 | 53 |
| REB/OFF | 34/11 | 40/18 |
| TURNOVERS | 16 | 18 |
| FTA/% | 14/71.42 | 17/58.82 |
| 2FG%/3FG% | 53.12/30.00 | 36.84/25.00 |
| PP100 | 95.4 | 80.3 |
| TOP SCORER | Lauren Jensen 19 | Olivia Hollenbeck 13 |
GAME 2: ALL IOWA ATTACK 17U EYBL 71, NORTH TARTAN 17U EYBL 48
This was the second time this summer All Iowa Attack traveled north and took home the top prize in a North Tartan run tournament. In June they won the Summer Jam. This time it was the Meltdown and they did it without Teah Wetering who was playing on a stress fracture in June. The Attack also didn’t have Caitlin Clark in either event. The Attack has had a run of success the past three years with three straight appearances in the EYBL title game winning it all in 2018. Attack is the only program to have accomplished that feat. As is typical of the Attack they utilized their strong catch & shoot game blistering the nets for 56% and 45% from 2s and 3s with ten 3s on the day. If they aren’t cashing in from downtown, the are racing to the rim. They were 11/17 on layups. Balance & depth belong to Attack. They had seven players score between 14 and 7 points. Four players reached double digits, three of them off the bench. NT had three players score more than 7. Lauren Jensen led all scorers with 17, but it was a hounded and labored 17. Attack knew who she was, and Jensen was constantly forced to break free from her defender. The starters only had 59% of the touches compared to the exhausted NT starters with 83%. NT was 2/6. Attack eventually put running time on NT in the last two minutes of the game.
NT lost Zhane Thompson in the first half to an ankle injury. The overworked NT team then was down to seven players.
| ALL IOWA ATTACK 17U EYBL | NORTH TARTAN 17U EYBL | |
| POINTS | 71 | 48 |
| REB/OFF | 30/5 | 29/10 |
| TURNOVERS | 7 | 11 |
| FTA/% | 19/78.94 | 8/62.5 |
| 2FG%/3FG% | 56.62/45.45 | 33.33/35.00 |
| PP100 | 122.4 | 81.4 |
| TOP SCORER | Hannah Stuelke 14 | Lauren Jensen 17 |
TRENCH PLAYER
GAME 1: Maty Wilke of NT17 EYBL (& Beaver Dam, WI) with 17 points, 170.0 pp100 and a 26 score in the 31 Club. Plus Wilke kept the NT ship afloat when Jensen sat with fouls in the first half and her defense against Whitney Brown kept a lid on the Bison overall.
GAME 2: Maya McDermott of All Iowa Attack 17U EYBL (& Johnston, IA) with 10 points, 142.9 pp100 and a 23 in the 31 Club. On a per minute basis McDermott made the 31 Club on the nose.