SATURDAY TWO-FER

With the express purpose of knocking off as many AAAA teams as

possible before too much more of the season rolls on (there are seven more weeks before sections), I was able to cross off three AAAA teams today. Interstate 35 was the tie that binds this story together—-from the north I charted Duluth East at Roseville. After that game I sprinted to Owatonna for some Big 9 & 1AAAA action with Rochester Century the guests. It was not a great day for the top 100 with only Owatonna in the mix of the three teams I haven’t charted. I had already charted Roseville when they played Stillwater.

I have 11 AAAA teams left and 36 teams left in the top 100 for the QRF. That means I have charted 83% of the AAAA teams and 64% of the top 100. There is always churn in the top 100 however. AAAA will not be adding any teams this season and so that is a hard, secure number.

ROSEVILLE 45, DULUTH EAST 19

This was a defensive struggle with an asterisk. Roseville held the Greyhounds to under 20 points and did not once put any full court pressure on. In all shooting facets, DE had issues. They left 12 points on the table at the free throw line going 40%. In the two point category they were at 23% and in the land of the 3s they were 17%. The Greyhounds were held scoreless for the first eleven possessions. They finally struck gold with a second free throw after seven and a half minutes of action by Macy Hermanson. DE didn’t get a field goal until the 4:56 mark of the first half when Shay Callaway found her way to the right side of the rim.

Roseville forced 29 turnovers just by playing ordinary man to man defense. There was to viscious press or double teaming. Roseville also was  very liberal with there substitution patterns. The Raiders were coming off a Friday game. They could have easily doubled there totals.

OWATONNA 78, ROCHESTER CENTURY 58

Owatonna wrapped up there third win against a Rochester school this week. Earlier they downed JM and Mayo. Tonight it was Century’s turn. This game was a study in contrasts from the first game of the day with Owatonna scoring more in 18 minutes than Roseville did in the entire game. This game featured teams that pressed full court. That is why the possession count moved to 88. The Huskies had 19 transition opportunities; Century 10. Owatonna shot 53% in twos. Both teams got the ball inside. Century actually won that battle with 41 attempts to 37 for Owatonna. The main differential in this contest came at the free throw line with the hosts converting 17 of 30 while Century attempted 18 but was only able to cash in four times. That was a bone chilling 22%—–that was 18 points off of Duluth East.

Owatonna came out of the games with Jenna Zeman knocking down a 3 within the first 6 seconds of the game. The fate of the game was well established seven minutes in with Owatonna up 20-7. That lead mushroomed out to 40-17 with 5 minutes left in the half. Century, behind Kiara Lindsey’s hot hand went on a 16-5 blitz to close the gap to 46-33 at the break. The margin hovered close to 20 the rest of the way.

Despite the big contrasts, if you look at the pp100 you see Owatonna was only 5 points ahead of Roseville.

Team	PP100	scorer	Distributor	D stops
Roseville	83.3	Jayda Johnston 12	Jada Hood 5	Jada Hood 10
Duluth East	34.3	Shay Callaway 12	Two with 2	Ashlynne Guenther 6
Owatonna	88.6	Sydney Schultz 26	Jenna Zeman 8	Two with 10
Rochester Century	65.9	Kiara Lindsey 30	Rylee Kanne 8	Kiara Lindsey 10

TRENCH PLAYER:

GAME 1: Jada Hood, Roseville

GAME 2: Sydney Schultz, Owatonna