ALL STAR SATURDAY
The curtain came down on the 2018 high school season as the curtain went up on the club season. I spent the day at Carleton College in Northfield in a send off to the 2018 class. The MN Girls Basketball Coaches Association selected the 10 players from each class to take part in this year’s event. Players were “drafted” with all classes jumbled together. The coaches for the Stripes: Bob Southworth and Bill Stuewe of St. Peter; Stars: Fred Kindschy and Kasey Krekling of Hayfield; Blue: Kris Hamling and Monica Beighley of Grand Rapids; and the White: Molly Kasper and Bri Zabel of Eastview, both of whom were coach and assistant coach of the year in AAAA.
Injuries prior to the game prevented these players from participating: Megan Walker, Ayoka Lee, Taylor Vold, Carmen Backes, and Bailey Becker.
The All Star committee revved up their marketing and put on an outstanding event. There was a clinic featuring Lynx players Lindsay Whalen and Rebekah Brunson in the morning and Heaven Hamling winning the 3 point contest.
The MN GBB Coaches Association inducted four new members into the Hall of Fame: Dave Morgan, former Fridley assistant and a member of the Miss Basketball committee; Dave Smart coach at Ada-Borup; Lisa Sukalski former coach at St. Michael-Albertville; and Scott Bergman coach of the 2018 AA undefeated champions at Sauk Centre.
STRIPES 107, STARS 85
As a rule All Star games tend to be ragged affairs since players don’t have a lot of practice time together and might not know the idiosyncrasies of their teammates. The certainly wasn’t the case in the first game where both teams came out on fire like acetylene torches. The Stars scored the first four times they touched the ball and built up 13-8 lead with 5:44 left in the first quarter. Then the Stripes exploded. They scored nine straight times right after that (17-4 run) and finished the half leading 30-19. The Stars were seeing stars at that point and faced an uphill climb. The Stripes continued their torrid pace in the second quarter stretching the lead out to 56-41 at half. The Stripes were cruising along with a 120 pp100 first half. Heading into the fourth the Stripes still were in command 77-58. Both teams took advantage of players getting behind the defense. The Stripes were a perfect nine for nine in transition which helped explain their sizzling 56.5% shooting from 2s. Seven Stripers were in double digits. Miss Basketball candidate Sam Haiby of Moorhead was on the Stripes. The Stars had five players make double digits. Miss Basketball candidate Maesyn Thiesen of Sauk Centre played with the Stars.
WHITE 74, BLUE 70
White rallied from a 60-47 deficit to start the fourth quarter in the final dramatic game of the series. Sydney Stapleton put White on top with 40 seconds left after her third three in three minutes (72-70). Stapleton had 13 points for the game. Leading the way for white was Rachel Hakes with 16 points. Heaven Hamling had a game high 18 points for Blue.
This had the opposite feel from the first game. There was a more physical presence in the game. Shooting percentages reflected that fact with neither team getting above 40% from 2s. The Blues took the early lead after the first ten minutes (19-13). After a 3 by Hamling the Blues led 29-16. Hakes responded on the next White possession with her own 3 which began a 14-0 run over the next four minutes. The Whites, as a result, pulled in front at half time 37-35. The momentum pendulum swung back to the Blues to start the third quarter with another Hamling 3 putting the Blues some separation at 48-39 (11-4 run) with six minutes left in the quarter. The Whites narrowed the gap to 52-47 with two minutes left, but the Blues had one last surge scoring eight unanswered points before the fourth to extend their lead to 60-47. Emma Schmidt had four of those points all on put backs.
Hamling and Sydney Lodermeier were the Miss Basketball entrants for the Blues; Megan Walstad, Miss Basketball 2018 and
Balance was a watchword for White with seven players between 6 and 13 points. White topped Blue in the long distance battle 13-7 (41% to 20%) with Stapleton knocking down four. Hamling matched her on the Blue side.
| Category | STRIPES | STARS | WHITE | BLUE |
| Points | 107 | 85 | 74 | 70 |
| Rebounds | 64 | 61 | 48 | 60 |
| Turnovers | 10 | 18 | 15 | 9 |
| 2FG% | 56.5 | 33.9 | 38.5 | 36.8 |
| 3FG% | 24.2 | 33.3 | 40.6 | 20.0 |
| FT% | 50.0 | 53.3 | 62.5 | 63.6 |
| Paint | 32 | 22 | 22 | 24 |
| Bench | 55 | 26 | 46 | 24 |
| Fast break | 38 | 14 | 8 | 18 |
| Team | PP100 | scorer | Distributor | D stops |
| STRIPES | 107.0 | Brooklyn DeKam 21 | Sam Haiby 9 | Kayla Mershon 12 |
| STARS | 85.0 | Monika Czinano 15 | Maesyn Thiesen 7 | Natalie Steichen 10 |
| WHITE | 90.2 | Rachel Hakes 16 | Megan Walstad 5 | Megan Walstad 9 |
| BLUE | 84.3 | Heaven Hamling 18 | Heaven Hamling 6 | Taylor Brown 9 |
TRENCH PLAYERS
Game 1: Brooklyn DeKam
Game 2: Sydney Stapleton
DeKam, Hamling and Jaclyn Jarnot (Stripes) made the 31 Club.