MN GBB: Saturday Action 2.1.2025; High Five; 10 Paraders; Ranked Results; Review of Orono v Marshall; and Seeding the State

Recap of action from Saturday 2.1.2025.

D1 HIGH FIVE

Amber Scalia, St. Thomas MN, Stillwater 26

Somah Kamara, Tennessee State, Cooper 22

Avery Koenen, North Dakota State, Montevideo 22

Anna Miller, Drake, Rochester Mayo 20

Marisa Frost, North Dakota State, Centennial 19

Molly Lenz, North Dakota State, Eden Prairie 19

Totals: 109

D2 HIGH FIVE

Emma Miller, UM Crookston, St. Michael-Albertville 29

Maya Fitzpatrick, Wayne State NE, Champlin Park 27

Bri Stoltzman, SW MN State, Mankato West 25

Lindsey Becher, Concordia St. Paul, Mounds View 22

Lydia Haack, Concordia St. Paul, Elk River 21

Totals: 124

Again D2 tops D1. Let us look at the differences: at the D1 level five of the six are AAAA players with Koenen from AA. The D2 lineup has four AAAA with one AAA (Stoltzman). Four of the six D1 players made state. Three of the five D2 made state. Only Scalia made a championship game for the D1s, Haack won one for the D2s and Miller got to title game. The biggest difference between the two divisions? Height. The average with the D1s: 5-10.5; D2s: 5-7. Miller is the tallest D1 at 6-3; Becher at D2 at 6-1. Smallest? D1: Lenz at 5-7; D2: Miller at 5-1. Ironic—Miller & Miller (6-3, 5-1)

POINT PARADE-10

Parade starts at 25. If there is a player missing email kja8067@gmail.com

AAAA-5

Skyler Mancini, Chanhassen 37

Madlin Freking, Anoka 30

Jordan Ode, Maple Grove 29

Katie Boulanger, New Prague 28

Cail Jahnke, St. Michael-Albertville 28

AAA-2

Ella Kuhlman, North Branch 37

Aneisha Scott, DeLaSalle 27

AA-2

Tori Oehrlein, Crosby-Ironton 40

Maddyn Greenway, Providence 38

A-1

Lauren Queensland, Grand Meadow 25

RANKED RESULTS

Winner High 101 Providence

Winner Low 42 Pequot Lakes

Loser High 69 Central MN Christian

Loser Low 16 Sauk Rapids-Rice

Biggest Margin 71 Brainerd v Grand Rapids

Smallest Margin 1 Fargo Davies ND v East Ridge; Pequot Lakes v Menahga

Most Combined: 169 Providence v St. Michael-Albertville

Least combined: 79 Rochester JM v Mankato East

Margins 30 or more 10

Margins 5 or less 7

Average 60.76

Winner Average 63.38

Loser Average 45.46

Average margin 21.92

Average combined: 112.84

Ranked Upsets: x

AAAA Ave 56.69

AAA Ave 58.11

AA Ave 67.06

A Ave 56.60

AA won by a country mile, or 7.37 points. The 67+ is the biggest class average all year. Why today? Five teams were over 80 led by Providence and the 101. Caledonia, Milaca, JWP, Crosby-Ironton were the 80s. Pequot Lakes and Menahga were the lowest at 42 & 41. The next lowest after that was 54 by St. Croix Lutheran. Keeping with that ratio of 80/40 or 5/2 for AA; the AAAA ratio was ¼; AAA 1/3; A 0/3.

AAAA

#1AAAA Maple Grove 72, #8AAAA Minnetonka 40

#2 Hopkins 69, #10 Rosemount 43

AAA

#5 Orono 59, #1 Marshall 56

Horace, ND 75, #6AAA DeLaSalle 59

Chanhassen 71, #9 Delano 66

AA

#1 Providence 101, #7AAAA St. Michael-Albertville 68

#2 Crosby-Ironton 85, #4 Minnehaha 65

#6 Caledonia 80, Maple River 37

A

#3 Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s 76, #7 Central MN Christian 69

#5 Mayer Lutheran 54, Park Chrisitan 46

ABOUT LAST NIGHT……#5AAA Orono v #1AAA Marshall

For the second straight day I charted the end of a undefeated streak. Orono has been on a tear lately and Saturday they knocked off the second straight AAA squad that was ranked above them. Thursday it was Benilde-St. Margaret’s; Saturday it was #1 Marshall. The Spartans and Tigers met at the home of the Delano Tigers. Orono traveled 16 minutes to reach Delano; Marshall journeyed 2 hours and 19 minutes.

It seems that every game I have charted lately, OK the last three specifically, has the same story line. Team A builds a healthy lead only to see Team B storm back. Thursday Goodhue hung on for the win; Friday Mayer Lutheran got the comeback victory; Saturday it was Orono’s turn to hang on. The game got to crunch/clutch time and the Spartans survived thanks to Mya Moore. The Creighton-bound 2000-point scorer added to her mark with eight of the last nine Orono points in a 59-56 win at the Breakdown event at Delano Saturday afternoon. Orono was riding high at 50-38 after a 9-0 surge with only 7 minutes remaining. But the same clutch Mya Moore, added too many fouls to remain on the floor and had to spend time on the pine. Marshall snapped out of their offensive blues and went on an 18-6 tear to knot the game at 56. It started with Bigler grabbing a rebound and scoring the full court lay-up & one. The next possession, Avery Fahl delivered a three from up top. That twelve-point lead was now down to six. Marshall’s d cranked it up forcing three turnovers in the next five Orono possessions. Marshall kept attacking the rim and tied it up with 46.3 ticks left on #24’s steal and layup. Sydney Bauer was fouled on the left block and made what would be the game winning free throw. On the next Marshall possession, the Tigers tried two more drives but were thwarted twice on the left side with Bauer blocking both attempts. Mya Moore was fouled with 5.1 left and added two insurance points with a pair of free throws. Marshall’s long distance contested three was deflected to preserve the victory.

For the game Marshall’s 36-29 advantage on boards did not secure the win. The Tigers had a 41.7% offensive rebound mark to 27.6% for the Spartans. Marshall had four more free throws attempted and three more made than Orono. Orono was better with the ball (barely) with 20 turnovers to 23. The Spartans coughed it up every 17.8 touches, better than the 14.5 of Marshall. One big separation in the game was the shooting percentages. Orono was hot with 58.62% from 2s at 17/29 and solid 6/20 from 3s (but only one conversion in the second half). Marshall was not hot at the start with only 28.7 in the first half. It got better, but not nearly the level of Orono. For the game the Tigers were 14/33 or 42.4%

The one area that Orono dominated was scoring off the bench. Starters alone Marshall “won” 56-46. If you notice 56 was the Tigers final totals. Orono had 13 points off the bench to help secure the win. Also, Orono’s starters delivered 97.9 pp100 to 86.2 for Marshall. So even though the totals were smaller, they were more efficient. Part of that separation has to do with Orono’s length on defense.

As for the crunch/clutch performances the teams responded better than they did most of the game as the sense of urgency was palpable. Marshall checked in with 133.3, fifty points better than the 83.6 they had for the game and almost doubled their sluggish first half effort of 70.6. Orono “lost” the crunch time point battle 12-9, but they definitely responded with a 112.5 pp100, again better than the 88.1 pp100 for the game.

The individuals you would expect to produce in crunch time did. Mya Moore scored eight of her game high 23 points with a pp100 of 200 in that four-minute stretch. Taleigha Bigler had six points in crunch time of the dozen Tiger total. Both made the 31 Club. Moore right on the nose with 31. Bigler was two better at 33. Moore scored 23 with 5 d stops and three distributions. Even though the d stops were not that high perhaps, her presence on the floor was a distraction to the Marshall ball handlers. She attempted 16 set up passes. Bigler had 22 points with 8 d stops and also had three distributions on ten set ups.

UNBEATEN

Heading into last week 11 teams were unblemished. Heading into this next week there are now six. AAAA has been empty for a while. A joined them this week with Hillcrest Lutheran falling on Thursday to WHN and Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s dropping to Mayer Lutheran on Friday. I charted that game and then charted Marshall’s exit off the list as they lost to Orono on Saturday at Delano. That leaves just one remaining in AAA—Monticello. Three AA teams fell by the wayside with all three succumbing on the Friday Night Massacre: KMS lost to MACCRAY; Sauk Centre lost at Minnewaska; and Menahga lost to Rock Ridge.

Can any class remain unblemished? Right now, AA has the best crack. Providence has been mowing down opponents including ranked AAAA squads.

AAAA-0

None.

AAA-1

Monticello

AA-4

New London-Spicer, Providence, Royalton, Crosby-Ironton

A-0

none

STREAKING

There are new leaders in AAA and A with the unbeaten teams taking one on the chin. The last unbeaten in AAA—Monticello—takes the lead there. Two teams share the top spot in A, Spring Grove and Mountain Iron-Buhl. Cromwell-Wright faces MIB Thursday with 7A seeding implications. SG has two games this week, one against Decorah, IA.

The one team that is staying on the list that may be a surprise is unranked AAAA Owatonna with 13 straight wins.  Four of their wins in this streak have been by five points or less (clutch/crunch time category) including both wins this week against Red Wing (51-46) and Austin (54-52).

Providence has been roaring along now with 30 straight wins across two seasons. Three games await this week including ranked Hill-Murray on Friday.

AAAA: 13 Owatonna

AAA: 19 Monticello

AA: 30 Providence (11 last year +19 this year)

A: 11 Mountain Iron-Buhl & Spring Grove

QUEST FOR..

THE QRF

My car was healed on Thursday, just in time for some mini-road trips that have helped slice into the QRF and Top 10s. Marshall & Minneapolis North were check listed this week.

1-10 10/10-1.000

1-20 19/20-1.000

1-30 27/30-.900

1-40 36/40-.900

1-50 41/50-.820

Biggest fish left to fry…. Gravity defying Owatonna at #21.

TOP 10s

Progress made with two classes now 100%

AAAA 10/10-1.000

AAA 10/10-1.000 Marshall completed this list

AA 7/10-.700 up with the addition of Caledonia

A 4/10-.400 up with the addition of Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s

Those three added makes it 31/40 or .775

#1s EACH SECTION

Slowly chipping away at the list. Added Marshall; Caledonia; and Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s

AAAA 8/8—1.000 Lakeville North moves back in front in section 1.

AAA 7/8-.875 just missing Rock Ridge from section 7.

AA 5/9-.556 (section 3AA is split) missing JWP in section 2; Fairmont section 3 south;  Sauk Centre section 6; DGF section 8

A 5/12-.417 (splits in 3, 5, 6, 8)

Overall, 25/37 or .675

SEEDING THE STATE

The door keeps revolving in AAA. Orono with statement wins over Benilde-St. Margaret’s (their second) and #1 ranked Marshall propels the Spartans to the top slot this week. The other three top spots remain the same. Class A sees the most adjustments below #1 Goodhue.

AAAA

  1. Maple Grove (5)
  2. Wayzata (6)
  3. Eden Prairie (2)
  4. Eastview (3)
  5. Michael-Albertville (8)
  6. Lakeville North (1)
  7. Anoka (7)
  8. East Ridge (4)

AAA

  1. Orono (6)
  2. Marshall (2)
  3. Alexandria (8)
  4. Monticello (5)
  5. DeLaSalle (4)
  6. Stewartville (1)
  7. Rock Ridge (7)
  8. Cretin-Derham Hall (3)

AA

  1. Providence (5)
  2. Crosby-Ironton (7)
  3. New London-Spicer (3)
  4. Minnehaha (4)
  5. Sauk Centre (6)
  6. Caledonia (1)
  7. Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton (8)
  8. Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton (2)

A

  1. Goodhue (1)
  2. Mayer Lutheran (4)
  3. Mountain Iron-Buhl (7)
  4. Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s (2)
  5. Hillcrest Lutheran (6)
  6. Kittson County Central (8)
  7. Central MN Christian (3)
  8. Walker-Hackensack-Akeley (5)

THE WEEK AHEAD

The first full week of February sees Tuesday totals dropping somewhat, but still the week’s leader with 124 games. Friday is right behind with 121. The Saturday window drops to only 24. The last Breakdown event takes place at Alexandria with their Winter Lakes Classic. Three games await in that boy/girl combined event.

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