The Week that Was #9: Rewriting the record books a time or two
I had a text from one of our evaluators down by Rochester a couple of weeks back about sophomore Sacia Vanderpool of Byron. “I think she’s the best big in Southern Minnesota now,” it read. “She’s doing things I never…
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Continue ReadingI had a text from one of our evaluators down by Rochester a couple of weeks back about sophomore Sacia Vanderpool of Byron. “I think she’s the best big in Southern Minnesota now,” it read. “She’s doing things I never thought I’d see from her.” I think he’s right, and over the past couple of weeks Sacia has been meeting and beating all expectations on behalf of the Bears. In doing so she is gradually emerging from the very long shadows of 6’6 Ayoka Lee, the 2017 Byron graduate who is now at Kansas State.
6’3 sophomore center Sacia Vanderpool of Byron had 13 blocks in a game last week.Consider these performances of late: On Jan. 8, against Alyssa Ustby and Rochester Lourdes, Vanderpool had 28 points, 16 rebounds and 3 blocks. This past Monday against Houston, Sacia (pronounced ‘say-sha’) had a rare triple double with 21 points, 12 rebounds, 13 Blocks, 6 assists and a steal. Those 13 blocks broke the school record of 12 set by – you guessed it – Ayoka Lee. Vanderpool wasn’t the only Bear to break records that night as 5’6 junior guard Courtney Connelly set a school record with 9 threes (she had 31 points total) while the team made 14 threes, another barrier breaker. After all that, Vanderpool had a 17-point point performance against Triton later in the week.
I think we first wrote about Vanderpool when we saw her play at Hayfield last January. At the time she was about 6 feet tall, was a little bit slow and not particularly aggressive. Lee went down with an ankle injury in that game, which gave Sacia the opportunity to shine. She did. That earned her a move up in our spring rankings to #92 in the class of 2021.
By the time Summer Jam rolled around in June, Vanderpool had grown to 6’3, and her performance for Southern Minnesota Fury had improved substantially. She was quicker and more aggressive and showed a whole lot more polish and potential. She was still just 14 years old. When we updated the rankings in September, Sacia bolted up another 38 spots to #54. In the fall she started training with Tylor Coley in Minneapolis and will play this summer for his 2021 UVA squad that includes the likes of Nora Francois, Kendall Coley and Takara Mason.
As for the high school season? Well, Sacia has been a revelation and it is now obvious that she is a Division 1 prospect. The player rankings will be updated again at the end of the month. Guess which direction Vanderpool will be moving.
FRESH FACE OF THE WEEK: KENNEDY HERNDON, ST. PAUL ACADEMY
Saturday was a double header day for me that began with a matinee at St. Paul Academy. I went there to watch 8th grader Kennedy Herndon for the first time. She’s averaging 16 points per game for the Spartans and is far and away the team’s most impactful player. SPA was hosting North Lakes, a charter school from Forest Lake, and pretty much had their way in this one. With tremendous athleticism, really quick feet and very nice ball-handling, Herndon could have completely dominated the game and scored 30 or 40 points worth of transition buckets. But she didn’t.
Instead the diminutive Herndon patiently ran the SPA offense and used her superior court vision and sense of timing to set up her teammates for some easy baskets. Her distribution was very good, and her ability to change speeds made it easy to beat opponents one-on-one going either left or right. As a result, SPA won the game by a score of 60-28 to raise its record to 7-5. Herndon will play for the strong Fury 2023 UAA team this summer.
(2ND BEST) TEAM OF THE WEEK: WACONIA WILDCATS
It would not be difficult to pick the best team I saw this week. That would be 15-0 Farmington, which scored a convincing win over the defending 4A state champs from Eastview. The second-best team I saw was Waconia which is where I went for the latter leg of Saturday’s double header which the Wildcats won 69-53 over St. Croix Lutheran.
I thought the matchup between SCL 7th grader Laura Hauge, who we told you about last week, and 10th grader Addy Salzer of Waconia would be interesting. It was, but Salzer definitely got the better of Hauge this time around. Laura returned to earth, making just two 3-point baskets on the night after a week-long stretch in which she shot about 80 percent from beyond the arc. That included a remarkable 11-for-15 onslaught against Concordia Academy.
On this night, Waconia sophomore Sydni Olson knocked down four threes. Olson’s consistency from distance this year is one of the primary reasons the Wildcats are having so much success. Meanwhile Salzer dominated at both ends of the floor and led all scorers with 17. She was 9 for 9 at the free throw line. Senior post Courtney Freeberg and junior guard Tess Johnson had very nice performances, as well. After Saturday’s win, Coach Carl Pierson’s Waconia team is now 12-4 and is a legitimate contender to win section 6AAA.
RETURNEE OF THE WEEK: AMME SHEFORGEN, CAMBRIDGE-ISANTI
Junior guard Amme Sheforgen has played some great summer ball over the past few seasons for the Minnesota Heat, and was an impact player at St. Francis from the 8th grade on up. Midway through last season, however, Sheforgen moved up the road to Cambridge-Isanti and had to sit out a year of varsity ball to do it. Sheforgen’s extended JV stint came to an end 10 days ago when she eased into the varsity lineup at Buffalo. It was a decent debut, but Amme looked more like her old self the next time out. She scored 16 points in a win over Princeton and followed that up with 14 on Thursday at Chisago Lakes.
Cambridge (11-6) has some nice pieces, and the team is definitely on the upswing after going 4-23 last year. Every time Sheforgen was on the floor Thursday, C-I went on a run. When Amme (pronounced like Amy) was in the game at the same time as junior post Jana Swanson, sophomore guard Kaylee Clement and freshman guard Mikayla Aumer, the Bluejackets could use their speed and size to pressure the ball handlers in a big way. They cashed in a result. Unfortunately that rarely happened in the second half because of some curious substitution patterns that I believe cost them the game. Cambridge used 10 players throughout and failed to have their big guns on the floor together down the stretch when it really mattered. As a result it was Chisago Lakes that prevailed by a score of 50-43. It was only their fourth win of the season.
Senior forward Navaeh Galloway was surrounded by her Minnehaha Academy teammates as she celebrated 1,000 career points.NOTABLE PERFORMANCES
Eden Valley-Watkins remains undefeated in class 2A and senior Emma Schultz continues to dominate for the Eagles. Schultz had a career-high 34 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 steals in a win at Melrose. She was 12 of 13 from two-point range and 10 for 11 at the line. It was similar against Holdingford a week earlier as she shot 11 of 13 from the field, including 2 of 3 from three, for 26 points. Schultz is an unsigned senior who is closing in on a D3 commitment. I’m surprised no D2s have stepped up to the plate. They should.
Senior Kacie Borowicz became the 20th player in Minnesota history to hit the 3,000-point mark.At 14-2, Red Wing continues to impress. Their only losses are a two-pointer to Mankato West and a three-pointer to Rochester John Marshall, both high quality squads. The Wingers are the only team to beat Waseca this season. They did it by playing great defense. On Tuesday it was Red Wing’s offense that was in the spotlight as the Wingers made 18 threes in a 63-point win over Winona. Senior Lindsay Reps had a career-high 26 points. Junior Kyli Nelson scored 20, while up-and-coming 8th grader Sydnee Nelson had 14 on her 14th birthday.
REWRITING THE RECORD BOOKS
Roseau’s Kacie Borowicz (North Dakota) scored her 3,000th career point this week, a truly remarkable feat. She is only the 20th player in the history of Minnesota girls basketball to reach 3,000. Remarkably, she is the third Roseau player to do it, including Megan Taylor (class of 1997) with 3,300 and Kacie’s sister Kylie Borowicz (2017) who had 3,225. Later in the week Kylie was the one setting records, as the MSU-Moorhead sophomore established a new school standard with 9 threes in a game en route to a 37-point performance against Augustana. That was just one point off the single game record for the Dragons, who have now won 14 games in a row.
1,000-point senior Anna Harvey with Lakeville South coach Angie Iverson-Ohnstad.Three more players who topped the 1,000 career points barrier came to our attention this week. Senior point guard Anna Harvey of Lakeville South (Lehigh) joined the 1,000-point club, as did forward Faith Alberts of Parkers Prairie, who is only a sophomore. Senior Lydia Lecher of Concordia Academy did the deed this week, as well, as did senior Nevaeh Galloway (Bemidji State) of Minnehaha Academy. Let us know if we missed any.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Bloomington Kennedy will honor one of its outstanding graduates this week as Kenisha Bell will have a banner raised in her honor at halftime of Tuesday’s game with Cooper. The University of Minnesota star graduated from Kennedy in 2014 and played in the state championship game twice. She went on to earn Big East Freshman of the Year honors at Marquette before transferring home to Minnesota where she has had an outstanding run. Bell is considered a likely pick in this spring’s WNBA draft.
This week kicks off in a big way with five quality games Monday at St. Kate’s. That’s where the Minnesota Fury’s Martin Luther King Day Classic will take place starting at noon. The lineup includes:
- 12 p.m. – Eastview vs Simley
- 1:45 p.m. – Tartan vs Cooper
- 3:30 p.m. – Chanhassen vs Hutchinson
- 5:15 p.m. – Chaska vs Farmington
- 7:00 p.m. – Stewartville vs Rosemount
Other quality games this week include Red Wing at Mankato West and Wayzata at St. Michael-Albertville on Tuesday, Waconia at Holy Family and Lakeville South at Lakeville North on Friday, plus Rogers at Big Lake on Saturday. I expect to see six more teams for the first time to add to the 113 seen since Thanksgiving.
Top photo: Byron guard Courtney Connelly celebrated her school-record 9 three-pointers with teammates on the same night that post Sacia Vanderpool had a school-record 13 blocks.