The Week That Was #6: Holiday cheer with a side of slippery
It wouldn’t be holiday tournament week without a little intervention by Mother Nature, would it? After two days of clear sailing, the weather queen struck early Saturday morning with icy streets and treacherous driving conditions across the state. Following a couple of miles of Zamboni-like travel in St. Paul I made the adult choice and decided that a long, slow, white-knuckle crawl to Northfield probably wasn’t the best way to spend my day. So after camping out on Thursday at Hill-Murray, and putting in an 18-hour day Friday covering the Breakdown Granite City Classic in St. Cloud, my trip to the tournament at St. Olaf College was off. Plan B featured a short-but-not-exactly-sweet journey to Roseville for day two of the Raiders’ holiday event.
Over three days I saw 15 games, 30 teams and some very nice performances. Here are a few highlights and accolades from those games, along with a flurry of milestones and an additional tidbit or two. Tournament play continues Monday and Tuesday. We’ll have numerous recaps and evaluations from the events later in the week.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Winner – Ellie Dague, junior guard, Henning. Ellie has been on an odyssey of injuries over the past two years. I’ll spare the details at this point, but the 5’11 point guard is back and playing at a very high level. She was the primary reason I travelled to St. Cloud and Ellie did not disappoint. She showed us her incredible ambidextrous tool kit just like in days of yore, scoring 20 points against Holy Family in multiple different ways. That came on the heels of a 29-point, 8-rebound, 7-assist, 4-steal performance 24 hours earlier against Foley. We’ll have a complete feature this week on Dague, who holds a scholarship offer from the University of Minnesota.
Runner-up – Adeline Kent, sophomore guard, Becker. The explosive 5’8 guard has been consistently productive all season for the Bulldogs, scoring between 17 and 23 points in pretty much every game, and usually providing a spark when Becker needs it most. This weekend was no exception as Adi scored 22 points on Friday versus Spring Lake Park and followed that up with 19 more Saturday against a stingy Hutchinson defense.
NEWCOMER OF THE WEEK
Winner – Maddie Hanson, sophomore guard, Mounds View. Maddie hasn’t really been on our radar to this point but she certainly is now. The 5’7 guard was on fire in Thursday’s game against Tartan, making 7 of 8 three-point attempts and scoring 25 points in all. She’s got a quick release and a high arc, and what we saw Thursday has our attention. On Friday Hanson was ‘only’ 3-for-6 from behind the arc for 11 more points. Maddie will play next summer for the Minnesota Heat’s top 2022 squad where she joins other luminaries such as Paige Peaslee of North Branch, Justine Jameson of Park Cottage Grove and Hannah Heffernan of Roseville.
Runner-up – Olivia Pekron, junior forward, Forest Lake. It’s not often that a junior is considered a ‘newcomer’ when we evaluate prospects, but it does happen. Pekron has been a revelation this year, and is a huge part of why Forest Lake already has eight wins. She’s strong, athletic and physical. On Thursday against Hill-Murray she showed us some finesse, too, with a particularly impressive spin move that drew oohs and aahs from those in attendance. Pekron entered the season ranked #144 among the 2021s, but the Minnesota Stars Zabel forward will be moving up in short order if she continues to play at such an elevated level.
Eric Zoske of Austin.COACH OF THE WEEK
Winner – Eric Zoske, Austin. It’s funny what different coaches perceive as appropriate attire for going about their business. For men we see a lot of khakis and polo shirts and pullovers with team logos. Some dress it up a little with jacket and tie, such as Marty Johnson at Rockford and Jody Ledahl at Cambridge-Isanti. Coach Zoske took ‘formal’ to a whole other level this week, however. In the spirit of the season, Zoske reeeeeaaaally got into the spirit. The photo says it all. Until further notice Coach Zoske is the front runner for the Prep Girls Hoops Sartorial Splendor Coach of the Year award. The fact that the Packers are 10-1 and in good position to return to the state tournament makes Eric a candidate for the actual Coach of the Year award, too.
Runner-up – Jen Wagner, Forest Lake. What Wagner has done so far with the 8-2 Rangers is highly impressive. After losing her top six players to graduation, Wagner has quickly regrouped and is getting maximum performance out of players with limited varsity experience. Her key athletes – kids like Maddie Krieger, Logan Anderson, Greta Krieger and Olivia Pekron – have stepped up big time and are playing with loads of confidence.
PLAY OF THE WEEK
Winner – Alyssa Gerth, junior guard, Andover. With just 4.6 seconds remaining on the clock, and the score tied at 61 in their opening game of tournament play at Roseville, Andover’s Gerth was inbounding the ball under the Woodbury basket. When it became clear that all of her teammates were covered, Gerth went to plan B, banking the ball off the back of Woodbury’s Lexie Paulson, regaining possession and calmly going up for a reverse layup to win the game. Cue celebration. “It was not our primary option,” said coach Blake Nicols of the Huskies, “but we teach the kids to look for that if a defender is guarding the inbounder that way. Alyssa picked that up in fall league.” Gerth finished the game with a season-high 16 points. She followed that up with 21 points on Saturday in a strong performance against Rogers. Gerth may deserve more credit for her defensive abilities, however. “She’s one of the best on-ball defenders I’ve seen,” Nicols said. “She’s really quick and active defensively.”
MILESTONES
When a top player makes a routine free throw in the middle of a basketball game and the bench erupts with spontaneous glee, you know something is up. That something is normally a major milestone. That’s what happened Saturday night in Roseville as Andover senior guard Sydney White made such a free throw and her Huskies teammates went nuts. It was the 1,000th career point for White, the #26 player in the Prep Girls Hoops class of 2020. She’ll take her scoring prowess to the Northern Sun conference next season at the University of Sioux Falls.
White wasn’t the only player to hit a major milestone in the past few days. As illustrated in the banner photo, senior Alyssa Ustby of Rochester Lourdes reached the much rarer 2,000-point mark in a win over Owatonna. The North Carolina commit followed that up the next day with a 37-point performance against Burnsville as Lourdes ran its season record to 9-1.
Natalie Bremer of Lake City (photo left) scored 29 points against Rochester John Marshall to pass the 1,000-mark. The 5’11 sophomore guard is having an outstanding season, averaging 23 points per game.
With photos as available, here are several others who made it big this week. As always, send info if you know of other players who have accomplished something special.
Junior forward Jenna Johnson of Wayzata scored 17 points in a win over Forest Lake to cross the 1,000-point barrier. Junior Jordyn Lamker of Maple Grove scored 16 points in a 70-35 win over Brainerd to reach 1,000 career points. Chaska had a double dose of career excellence at the Park Center tournament as both junior Kaylee Van Eps (left) and sophomore Mallory Heyer (right) passed the 1,000-point mark in the same game. Heyer scored 27 points in the 85-65 win over Lakeville North while Van Eps had 22.ONE MORE THING
We haven’t written much about forward Nancy Soro of Rochester Mayo, but we will in the near future. The Spartan senior is having an outstanding season, averaging 18 points and 9 rebounds per game. Soro, who plays AAU for Air Minnesota, also has an interesting back story. Click here to read Pat Ruff’s article about Soro that was published this week in the Rochester Post-Bulletin. Soro is pictured below (front row, far left) with her Air Minnesota teammates last summer.