46th Visitation Tourney: Quarterfinal Round Standouts
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A night at the Viz. I was able to attend the championship quarterfinal games at Visitation Academy. This long standing tourney always produces the opportunity to watch the top teams and top players in the St. Louis Metro area. Edwardsville…
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Continue ReadingA night at the Viz. I was able to attend the championship quarterfinal games at Visitation Academy. This long standing tourney always produces the opportunity to watch the top teams and top players in the St. Louis Metro area. Edwardsville has been a staple in this tourney and obviously with Illinois not playing they are not in the event. Otherwise, some of the same schools are here and are trying to make it to the finals. The four games featured some players that are a bit under the radar, or having success in an area they are not as known for. Here is a recap of their stand out performances that helped their teams advance.
- Saniah Tyler Saniah Tyler 5'7" | PG Incarnate Word Academy | 2022 State #43 Nation MO is a 5’7 2022 Point Guard from Incarnate Word. I know Saniah is a very highly ranked player that has multiple power 5 offers, so she certainly is not under the radar. On the other hand a player that hit 7 threes as a freshman and averaged 1 per game as a sophomore, hitting 4 in a game is a big deal. Prior to the quarterfinal matchup she had hit 2 in the first 5 games this season. Saniah hit these shots in the first half when Marquette was hanging tough and giving the Red Knights a battle. It may have been a much different result than an 11 point lead at half had Saniah not burried those shots. This is an important improvement in her game. Any smart coach or defender is going to play off a point guard that is as tough off the bounce as Saniah. To round out her game she has to be able to consistently hit the open jumper and in this game, she was on target.
- Tkiyah Nelson Tkiyah Nelson 5'10" | CG Whitfield | 2023 State MO is a 5’10 2023 Wing from Whitfield. TeTe had a huge game at a very important time for her team. She led the team in scoring with 16 in a low scoring battle with Cardinal Ritter. TeTe was perfect from the 2 point range and the free throw line along with 2/5 from behind the 3-point line. She played hard, ran the floor hard and reaped the benefits of that hard work with a few easy baskets gained by running the floor in transition. TeTe is a long and smooth athlete that can do a little bit of everything on the basketball court. On a team like Whitfield with plenty of other talent she is often a weapon that can just pick her spots and let the game come to her. In this game because of matchups there were plays run for her and she also handled the ball a little more than usual. In a game where many of the players on both sides are very familiar with each other it was a very tight game. Somebody needed to step up and in this contest, it was TeTe.
- Julia Coleman Julia Coleman 6'0" | SF Westminster | 2023 State MO is a 6’0 2023 Wing from Westminster. Julia a player that is known around the St. Louis area, but probably not the household name for casual fans as her two 2022 teammates, Brooke Highmark Brooke Highmark 5'8" | PG Westminster | 2022 State MO and Carlie Vick Carlie Vick 6'2" | C Westminster | 2022 State MO . She is a very good athlete that excels on the defensive end of the floor. She is often going to be tasked with guarding one of the top scorers on the court and shows the length and athletic ability to guard just about any position. In this game Julia used her defensive ability to get steals and create scoring chances and ran the floor very well in transition. For the season Julia is averaging 9.7 points per game but in this tough quarterfinal matchup she had 16 points, which is her season high. Julia is also a very good rebounder capable getting to many missed shots on both ends of the floor. With her height and athletic ability I think the upside could be very high for Julia, keep an eye out for her.
- Gabriela Moore is a 5’5 2021 Point Guard from Webster Groves. Gabriela walked away from the last game of the night as probably the brightest shining start of the day. Playing for a top team like Webster Groves that was the #2 seed and expected to battle IWA in the final was a good place to be when the brackets came out. However, to be lined up with a tough Lift for Life team in the quarterfinals without their top two scorers was a bit of a daunting task for the Stateswomen. That is where Gabriela came in to the spotlight. Lift for Life is a relentless defensive team that will hound you all over the floor and reach in for steals anytime they can. Fouling is not a huge concern for the Hawks. Gabriela had a big responsibility as the point guard to handle the pressure and not turn the ball over too many times. The fouling resulted in Gabriela going to the line 20 times where she converted 16 of them. Gabriela had 29 points on the night which was huge. Even bigger is that she had 24 of those in the second half.To be fair, I would not want to make it seem like she has never scored, she had 24 in a loss at Kirkwood last week, but this is not normally her role. She has had to step up with other players missing and she has done an excellent job of it.