A review of the action from Monday 12.16.2024
D1 HIGH FIVE
Nunu Agara, Stanford, Hopkins 9
Anna Miller, Drake, Rochester Mayo 9
Shannon Fornshell, Drake, Wayzata 7
Kelly Boyle, UNC Greensboro, Hopkins 3
Savannah White, Indiana State, DeLaSalle 3
TOTALS: 31
A day after the highest totals in the triple digits, we have zero double digiters and only managed a total of 31. Sunday the top two players would beat that total. Hopkins again provides two on the list, but neither reached 10 points, not to mention 20.
POINT PARADE
Parade starts at 25 points. If someone is not on the list email kja8067@gmail.com
A-1
Kylie Hammel, Spring Grove 25
RANKED RESULTS
AAA
#9 Delano 73, Roseville 61
A
#4 Mountain Iron-Buhl 90, Esko 69
#5 Mayer Lutheran 72, Rocori 32.
ABOUT LAST NIGHT
I was back on the road on Monday and back to the Elk River Area for a contest between visiting Braham at Spectrum. The Bombers picked up their first loss on Friday to #2AA Crosby-Ironton. The Sting had not lost yet to start the year and were a top 50 team in the QRF. But the Sting was stung 67-53 cutting the ranks of the undefeated in AA down to 15. But perhaps the biggest loss came for the Bombers when leading scorer Olivia Heikes went down with a knee injury with less than a minute to go. She was in a battle to grab a defensive rebound when the injury occurred. The mood throughout the gym was somber after that.
Braham ended the night with a 98.5 pp100, cooling off from halftime when they led 41-27 and scoring at a 120.6 pp100 clip. Heikes, who had a game high 16 points, at the break had ten plus was scorching at 250 pp100. She did cool off down to a robust 133.3 for the game. She missed out on the 31 Club by four. The host Sting finished the night at 80.3. The Bombers had several advantages that they took advantage of…primarily the offensive board category. They won the battle of the boards 48-32, and grabbed 47.7% of their misses, while Spectrum rebounded at only a 25.0% offensive margin. The full court pressure did get one more turnover, but it caused Spectrum problems all day as they tried to dribble up the sidelines. The Bombers proceeded to turn the dribbler right after midcourt into a trap. One area that can pay off immediate improvement is turning the missed opportunities at the line into points. Braham had 20 attempts but only converted seven. Spectrum only attempted eight. Partly that was the result of their offensive focus. Spectrum shot 59.6 of their attempts behind the arc (37.1 for Braham) and scored 56.6% of their points from that distance. Braham scored 26.9% in that manner and shot a healthy 53.8% at twos.
Braham established control early getting out to a 14-6 advantage and making the Sting call time with 11:58 left in the first half. By that time it was apparent the Sting was going for 3s; while Braham would take what ever was available with Heikes patrolling the high post against the zone and then stepping to the top of the key for a 3 if she did not distribute from the free throw line.
The second half saw much of the same with one stretch that was an exception. First Braham pushed their margin out to 52-33 after a &1 which misfired on the free throw leading to an o board put back by Heikes. That occurred at the 14:36 mark. Just before that Braham possession Spectrum started a string which ended up being seven straight scoring possessions and that large margin of 19 had been cut to 59-47 all with about 11:40 left. In that seven-possession sequence Spectrum connected on three 3s. But what concerned the Braham bench was the blown assignments leading to wide open shots inside in prime real estate areas. One reason for the Spectrum surge was that Braham’s Morgan Rysdam had to sit with fouls piling up. With her on the bench the defense was thrown off their game. She returned to the game and an equilibrium returned as well. The margin hovered around eleven points the rest of the way.
With the injury to Heikes, Braham’s status at the top of the 5A East standings relies on new lineups and a thinner bench. Spectrum, who lives in section 6AA will be fighting for a top eight seed in their section. There were four unbeaten teams led by Sauk Centre in that section.
DAY AHEAD
There are 132 games on tap today.
Ranked v ranked
#8AAAA Prior Lake at #10AAAA Lakeville North
R&R Plus undefeated
#7AA Proctor at #6AAA Rock Ridge