Busy night in the high school world. I did travel to a game with that extensive report later.
HIGH FIVE
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Lauren Jensen, Creighton, Lakeville North 21
Callin Hake, Nebraska, Chanhassen 16
Paige Meyer, South Dakota State, Albany 16
Lily Fandre, Lehigh, Eagan 10
Kiani Lockett, Creighton, Minnetonka 9
TOTAL: 72
Creighton again has two members. The South Suburban features two players.
POINT PARADE
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AAAA
Lanelle Wright, Minnetonka 33
Jordan Ode, Maple Grove 30
Tori Schlagel, Eden Prairie 30
Bre Knight, Cambridge-Isanti 27
AAA
Samantha Voll, Monticello 30
Ajiem Agwa, Austin 28
Kendra Harvey, Byron 26
AA
Reagan Juenemann, Crosby-Ironton 34
Tori Oehrlein, Crosby-Ironton 34
Maddyn Greenway, Providence 30
Brylee Miller, Fairmont 29
Rylie Cother, Jackson County Central 26
Alyvia Engler, Plainview-Elgin-Millville 25
Audrey Shindelar, Stewartville 25
A
Avaya Dobis-Fontaine, Chisholm 35
Leah Carter, Westbrook-Walnut Grove 25
MILESTONES
Kendyl Lodermeier of Goodhue reached 1000 points in the 71-64 win over Kasson-Mantorville.
ABOUT LAST NIGHT
Maple Grove 56, Wayzata 55
The host Crimson overcame a nine-point deficit to rally to a 56-55 over the Trojans. Wayzata built up their second nine-point lead with 14:02 left in the game (36-27) after a lay up by future Gopher Sophie Hawkinson. Wayzata also had a first half nine-point lead before MG cut it to four (29-25) at the half. Six unanswered MG points in the next two minutes made it a one possession game. With eight minutes left the score was knotted at 47. MG had a brief 52-51 lead after a trey by Bella Hanna with about 2:20 left. Two free throws by Maren Day put Wayzata back in front 53-52. Katie Kelzenberg added a bucket inside with a minute left for their final points. Jordan Ode, who led all scorers with 30 points, converted a pair of free throws with 51.4 left narrowing the margin to one. Wayzata turned it over on their next two possessions while MG missed at the line twice. The Trojans last turnover came with under 41.6 left. After getting the rebound on the missed MG free throw Wayzata was trying to wind the clock down but was doing so close to midcourt. Bella Hanna got the steal and hit Ode for the game winning lay up with 8 seconds left. After both teams called time Wayzata had a deflection with only 0.2 seconds left. It is hard to get a quality shot off from the left sideline in that time.
In a one-point game the final possessions are scrutinized more closely than in an early first half situation. Again, it was a mega dribble that foiled Wayzata’s hopes. 15 bounces did not free the potential shooter. In the previous Wayzata possession playing too far away from the three-point line prevented execution.
Of the four factors (rebounds, turnovers, field goal attempts, free throw attempts) the FT attempts proved to be the tipping point. MG attempted 19 and made a dozen with Ode a perfect eight for eight. Wayzata had fewer attempts (ten) than MG made (twelve). MG got to the line every 15.21 touches. Wayzata got to the line every 39.6 touches. Another key stat was the effectiveness of the bench. MG’s bench scored ten with a pp100 of 125 while Wayzata’s bench delivered only three points with a pp100 of 30.
Wait…Didn’t I just chart these two on Saturday? The answer to that was yes. But this season I am going to see the best available game, if the weather and roads co-operate. It appears this choice was a good decision. Compared to Saturday both teams’ efficiency dropped. MG, despite falling to Providence on Saturday checked in with a pp100 of 91.5. Yesterday it was 81.2, 10.3 less. Wayzata fell further. Saturday against Eastview it was 97. Against MG it was 79.7, a drop of 18. Also, the defensive pp100 changed. Wayzata held the Lighting to 49.3 on Saturday. Does that mean Wayzata’s defense got worse over two days with MG improving about 32 points? No. It means MG has better offensive talent than Eastview.
Future Big 10 players were at the forefront of this game. MG’s Ode, headed to Michigan State had a pp100 of 120 with a 31 Club score of 40. Her pp100 improved over Saturday’s 72.7 against Providence with a 28 in the 31 Club. Sophie Hawkinson is bound for the Gophers and her pp100 was only 61.1 last night. Saturday it was 17 better at 78.3. She was a member of the 31 Club then with a 34. Last night she was not a member with 27, still the high for Wayzata.
Furthermore, as for overall performance, the key insight of this and many other games/teams is the drifting I see on lay ups. No balance. Afraid of contact. And lower percentages. Both teams got shots off in prime real estate, but could not convert. Both teams were only 4/12 on the left block (33%). The right block was better at 10/21 but still below 50%. Not counted in those totals are pure layups (whether transition or half court). There the left side was right at 50% at 6/12; the right side for reasons explained above—the drift—was even worse at 5/14. Combined lay ups 11/26. Add into the block totals and we get 25/59. This is probably the biggest reason the pp100s were not over the century mark.
RANKED TEAMS
AAAA
#1 Hopkins 93, Princeton 38
#2 Minnetonka 85, Moorhead 33
#3 Maple Grove 56, Wayzata 55
#4 St. Michael-Albertville 86, Rogers 76
#5 Eden Prairie 72, Eagan 55
#1AA Providence 70, #7 Eastview 65
#8 Prior Lake 67, Chaska 55
#9 Rosemount 71, Woodbury 29
AAA
#2 Alexandria 81, Brainerd 76
Rochester Lourdes 63, #3 Stewartville 52
#5 Mahtomedi Cooper
Orono 64, #8 New Ulm 30
#9 Rock Ridge 71, Cromwell-Wright 50
North Branch 52, #10 Two Rivers 50
AA
#1 Providence 70, #7AAAA Eastview 65
#3 Crosby-Ironton 95, Pine City 32
#5 New London-Spicer 50, West Central 39
#6 Rochester Lourdes 63, #3AAA Stewartville 52
#7 Sauk Centre 65, St. Cloud Cathedral 41
#8 Jordan 77, Dassel-Cokato 46
Caledonia 50, #9 Winona Cotter 37
#10 Visitation 90, Blake 53
A
#1 Goodhue 71, Kasson-Mantorville 64
#2 Mountain Iron-Buhl 75, Mesabi East 30
#4 Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 74, Henning 24
#6 Kittson County Central 72, Climax-Fisher 27
#7 Breckenridge 64, Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton 51
#9 Hancock 63, Canby 29
Lester Prairie 63, #10 Central MN Christian 58
DAY AHEAD
There are only three Thanksgiving Eve games today, all in the metro, two in the NW Suburban. Champlin Park at Blaine holds the most interesting matchup.