Pool Play at the MN Magic Invite

Pool Play has completed at the MN Magic Invite with Sunday providing a full morning and afternoon of tourney games leading up to the Mr. Basketball banquet. I had planned on covering Friday's action, but the Emperor and her majesty made a cameo appearance in the kingdom last night. I love basketball, but I love free food even more as the Czar requires HUGE amounts of calories to maintain his waistline. You'd be surprised how many hot dogs you can survive on.

9 games today that I covered. In retrospect I probably would have gone thru the player list and done it that way, but I was looking for the best games of each session. We'll see if I can pull that off in 2 weeks for the Sabes Invitational. Note that all the stats are from my stat sheet and with the exception of points (which is easy to double check), could be way off. I do my best with all the notes I'm taking, but if I'm off its on the low side.

15U action
My 1st 2 games of the day were 15U games. Game 1 saw the MN Suns comeback from 9 down in the 2nd half to beat the Madison Spartans 51-50 in my 2nd best game of the day. Very interesting officiating late as the Spartans had a couple of calls go against them in the final seconds. Darian Pittman (MCA) had 10 points and 6+ rebounds. and Siyani Chambers (Hopkins) had 3 points. Chad Potas (Wayzata) had 10 points and 12 boards. Tre Burnett and Miles Chamberlain didn't disappoint and they should be the next in a long line of star guards for Steve Collins at Madison Memorial. Burnett with 9 and 7. Chamberlain with only 1 FT but 6 rebounds, 3 ast, 3 stl and 2 blks stuffing the stat sheet. Unselfish with good vision. These 2 as the wings in the 1-2-2 defense were really disruptive getting deflections.

Game 2 kept the Southern Wisconsin (Swish that is) theme vs the metro (Magic Elite) . The Magic led early but 1-8 FT shooting in the 1st half for them vs 10-11 with a buzzer beating 3 gave the Swish a 33-28 halftime lead. Jonah Travis (Magic) and #19 WI Frosh Jordan Noskowiak lead their teams in the 2nd half and Alex Richard has a big game for the Swish for a 63-57 Swish win. #9 WI Frosh Bryan Tordoff with 10, Noskowiak with 13 in the 2nd half to finish with 18. Richard with 16. Jonah Travis (DLS) with 9 and Daron Garvis (Richfield) with 13 for the Magic.

Pool Results:
1st Place: WI Southern Swish, MN Heat, MN Comets, WI Swing.
2nd Place: Magic Elite, MN Suns, MN Wrath, Magic-Wolfe
3rd Place: MN Bulldogs, Madison Spartans, WI Playmakers, MN Fury
4th Place: 43 Hoops, Old Skool, Magic-Crawford, Central MN Flyers

Sunday Preview:

Suns vs WI Southern Swish could be an interesting semi but I wouldn't be surprised to see a Magic Elite pool rematch for the title here either.

16U action
Game 3 of my day was the MN Fury North vs the TNL Express. Back and forth 1st half, with the Fury raining down 3s. Michael Lindberg (West Lutheran) with all 17 of his points (5 3s) in the 1st 10 minutes and Ian Berg with a couple of triples in the 1st half but its 33-32 TNL at the break. In the 2nd half, Jayson Sewer (Richfield) goes wild. After 3 1st half points, he has 20 in the 2nd half and dominates the game. TNL rolls to a 70-56 win. Sewer with the best individual performance I saw all day with 23 pts, 5 rbs, 4 ast, 4 stls. Jasper Duberry (Champlin Park) with 14 pts and Kyle Zimmerman (also CP) with 14 pts and 9 rbs. For the Fury, besides the 17 from Lindberg, Ian Berg (Sibley East) with 14 pts. Austin Rink (PACT) 4 pts and 7 rbs. Josh Hanson (MCA) with 5 pts and 11 rbs.

The MN Xplosion gave TNL all they wanted in the next pool game before losing 72-62 in a game that I caught bits and pieces of.

I caught the last 3/4 of the MN Comets Elite vs MN Magic elite game. After arriving with 8 minutes left in the 1st half and a 12-8 Comets lead, I saw the game go back and forth the entire way. 21 all at halftime, 41 all with 4 minutes left and 45-43 Comets with 2 minutes left. Alex Hanks (St. Cloud Tech) with a bucket with 1:20 left makes it 47-43 Comets. Taylor Filipek misses and Erik Tengwall (New London-Spicer) knocks down 2 clutch FTs with 1:02 left to push it to 49-43. Jon Crockett counters with a triple with 36.3 to play. Hanks misses the front end but the Magic can't convert and the Comets get a nice win 52-46 over the Magic.

Which led me to my final game of the night, MN Glory vs Magic-Phillips. The Glory get down 15-0 after about 4 minutes, 41-19 at half and its 67-47 Phillips winning. Deron Murphy (Kennedy) with 25, Walter Franklin (DLS) with 14 for the winners. Nolan Toft (Nevis) with 7 to lead the Glory.

Pool Results:
1st Place: MN Comets Elite, MN Fury South, TNL Express, Magic-Phillips
2nd Place: Magic Elite, WI Pirates, MN Xplosion, Big Game Sports
3rd Place: MN Panthers, MN Select, MN Fury North, MN Comets Stars
4th Place: 94 Ft of Game, MN Magic #4, Magic-Blake, MN Glory

Sunday Preview:

Comets Elite vs MN Xplosion is an interesting quarterfinal. Big semifinal with TNL vs Magic Elite in a speed vs size matchup. Winner will probably get Comets Elite and if its the Magic Elite, that should be a dynamite rematch of pool play.

17U action
The middle of my day has 4 games of 17U action. MN Glory vs MN Comets Stars was my 1st game. Glory roll here 85-57. Matt Zager (Shakopee) impressive with 19 pts and very aggressive. Josh Figini (Chisago Lakes) with 19 and 9. Zak Smith (Rochester JM) with 12 and 9. Grant Spark (Spectrum) with 15 for the Comets Stars.

Magic-Brown vs MN Fury. The Fury lead 29-15 right before halftime but give up 5 in a row to start a 14-2 Magic run across halftime. The Fury still lead 50-48 with 6:42 to go before 5 in a row from the Magic in the next minute give them a 53-50 lead and they don't look back as they win 71-66. Mitch Bires (Apple Valley) with 17 and 6. Noah Shephard (Washburn) big for the Fury with 7 3s and a total of 26 points.

I'll skip a game to also mention that I saw the Brown squad vs MN Comets Metro. 36-26 at the break before a little run and then a 5 minute Metro drought allow the Magic to blow it open for a 69-39 win. The 2 headed center monster of Chris Orgas/Bronson Byrne (Lakeville N/Chaska) combined for 14 pts and 16 rebounds with Josh Pedretti (Maple Grove) getting 8 and 7. Will Deberg (Edina) with a big game of 19 pts, 4 rbs, 3 ast and 3 stls. Matt Skorheim (Sauk Centre) leads the Comets Metro with 9. Worth noting in these 2 Magic-Brown games that Ethan Wragge (Eden Prairie) DNP in 3 of the 4 halves. He played the 2nd half of the Fury game and had 9 pts, 5 rbs.

And the other 17U game Magic-Robertson vs MN Comets North. Run and gun and fun for the Robertson squad as after a 14-13 lead early, they go on a 20-2 run to blow the game open and then blow the doors off in the 2nd half to win 80-42. 3 players with 8 points to lead the Comets North squad. Balance throughout the Magic squad. Shaun Jensen (Spring Lake Park) with a very productive day of 10 pts, 7 rbs and4 ast. Caleb Palkert on the receiving end of good passes to finish with 11 and 5.

I also saw 8 minutes of the Tosa Bandits blowing out MN Select 25-8 which was enough for me. #36 WI Jr Javar Lawson was a man amongst boys with 7 and 5 in that short time. Justin Segal (BSM) was the highlight for the MN Select squad.

Pool Results:
1st Place: MN Glory, Magic-Brown, MN Comets Elite, Magic-Robertson, Tosa Bandits
2nd Place: 94 Ft of Game, MN Fury, Team Racine, MN Comets North, Old Skool
3rd Place: Magic-Christenson, Big Game Sports, Magic Westside, WI Gym Rats, MN Select
4th Place: MN Comets Stars, MN Comets Metro, WI Force, MN Redhawks, MN Comets High Pressure

Sunday Preview:

Tosa Bandits vs Magic-Robertson in a monster quarterfinal with the winner probably getting MN Glory in the semis. I look for Magic-Brown to comfortably move thru the bottom half of the draw despite some struggles today.