FRIDAY FIVE FROM MILL CITY
The July recruiting window officially opened today, and the Twin Cities were home of the Mill City Invitational co-hosted by the MN Fury and WI Flight Elite. Once upon a time this event was in April, but they saw an opening in the local landscape and moved their event to the unoccupied weekend. Both programs affiliated with Adidas in the last twelve months and this event has a heavy influence in that direction. There are not a lot of other Minnesota programs from the big families like MN Stars or MN Suns that sent squads to Chaska/Chanhassen. North Tartan sent a smattering of teams.
I camped out for the first five games on court #2, the “feature” court. Of course every game featured one of the co-hosts. The best game of the day came when the co-hosts squared off against each other in game #2. Fury affiliated teams ended the day 3-2; Flight Elite Teams were 2-0 when I charted. Woe unto them that were not associated with either of the two flagship programs. Those teams could not get past 52 pp100, a dreadfully low number. The last two games devolved to running time. The winners pp100 window went from 112.1 to 66.7.
How does this compare to the first day of the Summer Jam? The average pp100 was 73.21 today, back in June the SJ Friday came up with a pp100 of 87.71, 14.5 better than today.
Game 1: SILVER
SOUTHERN MN FURY 2019 53, MN FURY 2020 YELLOW 44
This was the battle of #11s. For SMF19 Katie Tornstrom carried the load with 23 points including four 3s. Taylor Janssen, Camp MVP on Monday at the MN Top 100 Expo, led her MF20Y with 17. When both players were on the floor their teams thrived. When both sat the situation became precarious, more so for MF20Y. When the starters sat the collective pp100 went from 105 to one above freezing—-33. It should be pointed out that the Southerners are a year older. A fact that will be pertinent in the next game.
GAME 2: GOLD
WI FLIGHT ELITE 10 EAST 61, MN FURY 2021 GAUNTLET 56
WFE10E rallied to upend MF21G in the most compelling game of the day. MF21G led 24-13 after an Erin Lamb 3 in the first half. WFE10E could score in bunches and they had a 7-0 surge to cut the margin to four. This game had the yo-yo consistency with MF21G pulling out to 8 (28-20) only to see WFE10E closing to one (40-39) and then back to 8 (49-41). A 10 point surge capped by an old fashioned &1 by Rayna Briggs gave WFE10E their first lead in the second half with 3:49 left. Destinee Bursch gave MF21G their last lead at 52-51 with 3:12 to go. The key moment came at 1:10 with both teams tied at 55. A strip and lay up by #4 (no name provided) propelled Elite to the win with a 6-1 finishing kick. Note that this was the second straight game with an older team prevailing over youngsters.
GAME 3: GOLD
WI FLIGHT ELITE 9 GAUNTLET 48, OSA CRUSADERS 16U GAUNTLET 35
Physically WFE9G imposed their will on the smaller OSAC16 sister gauntlet team. This was a rather sloppy game with neither team cracking 10 touches without turning it over. Balance was the watchword for Flight with five players between six and eight points. Clearly these two teams are behind the two teams in game two. Flight led 25-18 at the break.
GAME 4: GOLD
MN FURY 2021 GAUNTLET 56, SD NETWORK 30
Fury 2021 bounced back from their loss an hour ago with a running time win over SD Network. Defense (or lack of offense depending on your point of view) was the determining factor. Network was on the fritz shooting with only a .176 eFG%. That contrasted with a .292 for Fury. Fury shined behind the arc with seven 3s and a .467 shooting percentage. Things got away from Network in the second half. Fury led at the break 32-21 (and won the second half 24-9). It would have been tight, but the Fury had enough to win after 16 minutes.
GAME 5: PLATINUM
MN FURY 2019 GAUNTLET 64, WI BLIZZARD 17U HAWLEY 27
It helps to belong to a circuit. For the second straight game a Fury team cranked up the pressure and defense and used running time to beat the Blizzard. The Blizzard only was able to muster 17 percent from two point range. Just like their younger sisters, the Fury had the nets twitching from 3 where they connected eight times and shot 40 percent. By half Fury had enough to win 37-14.
| TEAM | Points | PP100 | Top Scorer |
| Southern MN Fury 2019 | 53 | 88.3 | Katie Tornstrom 23 |
| MN Fury 2020 Yellow | 44 | 75.9 | Taylor Janssen 17 |
| WI Flight Elite 10 East | 61 | 79.2 | Paige Banks 20 |
| MN Fury 2021 Gauntlet | 56 | 71.8 | Erin Lamb 16 |
| WI Flight Elite 9 Gauntlet | 48 | 66.7 | 3 with 8 |
| OSA Crusaders 16u Gauntlet | 35 | 51.5 | Nicole Avila-Ambrosi 14 |
| MN Fury 2021 Gauntlet | 56 | 91.8 | Destinee Bursch 10 |
| SD Network | 30 | 48.4 | Brynn Alfson 11 |
| MN Fury 2019 Gauntlet | 64 | 112.1 | McKenna Hofschild 13 |
| WI Blizzard 17u Hawley | 27 | 46.4 | Ashley Groshek 7 |
TRENCH PLAYER:
GAME 1: Katie Tornstrom of SMF19, 23 Points, 176.9 pp100, 9/11 from the floor; 29 in 31 Club
GAME 2: Paige Banks of WFE10E, 20 points, 153.8 pp100, 4/4 from 3; made 31 Club with 2 to spare
GAME 3: Anna Lutz of WFE9G, 7 points, 100 pp100, 26 touches with 1 turnover best on team, 20 in 31 Club
GAME 4: Destinee Bursch of MF21G 10 points, 125 pp100, 18 in the 31 Club
GAME 5: McKenna Hofschild of MF19G, 13 points, 100 pp100, 23 in the 31 Club
PLAYER OF THE DAY: PAIGE BANKS—-the only 31 Clubber in the bunch.