Twin Cities Summer Classic Semifinals

Much to my dismay, I have this annoying thing called a day job that prevents me from doing useful things such as covering the quarterfinals or the championship games. But that doesn't mean I can't get to the 3 evening sessions of semifinal action. Overall this weekend it's been fun seeing college coaches but also good to see high school coaches out following their kids. Tom Dasovich, Greg Miller, Mark Klingsporn and Tim Theisen were ones that I saw.

15U Semifinals
  • The MN Heat Elite had only 6 guys available for their quarterfinal game vs MN Heat Black thanks to the Concordia team camp, but they did manage to advance to face the Madison Spartans. Alex Richter back for the Heat and he was a force inside early. 13 first half points for him. He's got a great motor and is very aggressive. The Heat went Box and 1 on Miles Chamberlain to start the game which I found amusing as I love junk defenses. The teams trade 1st half runs to stay even and its 43-43 Spartans with 7 minutes left before Jaron Schaffner gets 7 straight Spartans points which the Heat never recover from. The final straw was Richter getting stripped by Chamberlain in a scramble that led to a Spartans layup that gave the Spartans a 54-50 edge with a minute to play. Big 4 point swing there. A couple of Heat misses later its over with the Madison Spartans moving on 56-53. Alex Richter with 18 points for the Heat, but a quiet 2nd half.

  • 43 Hoops Carr taking on East Metro Elite (St. Paul Johnson Freshman) in the other semifinal. Close 1st half with 43 Hoops looking to break it open early with a 9-0 run, but East Metro counters that with a 10-0 run of their own. 32-31 43 Hoops at the break. They extend the lead out to 10 and Freddie Young gets a couple buckets in the 2nd half to keep it there. 43 Hoops Carr moves on 66-55. Jordan Smith shows great poise for a freshman point guard. Not to mention he's a solid shooter. Thomas Shalk looks like he'll be a good inside presence with the good guards (Varmah Sonie, Mitch Bires, maybe DJ Peterson too) at Apple Valley this season.
16U Semifinals
  • 43 Hoops Harris vs 43 Hoops Gameli. Brett Irvin playing well for Gameli with a couple inside buckets and a couple of 3s. This game goes back and forth with no team getting out to a huge lead. With 6 minutes left, 43 Hoops Harris goes to a 1-2-2 zone down 38-36. Max Rosenbloom puts back 2 offensive rebounds to give 43-Harris the lead. Tim Lubke puts in the big bucket as he knocks down a clutch tiebreaking 3 with 1:40 left for a 43-40 lead for Harris. Leonard Glass gets a bucket and 1 while 43-Gameli is trying to foul for a 46-41 43-Harris lead with 33 seconds left. 43-Gameli gets a triple to cut it to 2 with 18 seconds left but they only have 2 team fouls. It takes them until 3.7 left to get to the bonus. Tony Gerding knocks down the final 2 to seal a 48-44 win for 43 Hoops Harris.

  • In the game of the night, Mpls Redhawks vs MN Comets Elite. The Redhawks use a 12-3 run to get out to a 25-15 lead but the Comets don't go away. The Comets claw back in the 2nd half and get an offensive rebound and putback to finally tie it at 53 with 1:20 to play. The Redhawks hold for the last shot and don't get it. Taylor Filipek has a chance at the horn, but no good and we've got OT.

    In the OT, Taylor Hanson gets a layin with 1:20 left to give the Redhawks a 57-56 lead. Zach Noreen puts back a rebound for a 58-57 Comets lead with 20 seconds left. Parker Hines gets fouled with 8.7 left and buries both FTs for a 59-58 Redhawks lead. The Comets come back out of a timeout and push the ball upcourt, with a right wing drive to the bucket, the ball gets kicked cross-court to Scott Willenbring who knocks down the triple at the horn to send the Comets onto the title game with a 61-59 win.
17U Semifinals
  • 43 Hoops Chatman vs Big Game Sports. Of note, Jamie Donnelly did not play for Team Missouri in the quarterfinal game vs BGS as he was out with the flu. Mike Bruesewitz gets a dunk off the opening tap and shortly after Chris Halvorsen gets 2 dunks during a 13-0 run that gets 43 Hoops out to a 21-6 lead. They coast from there to a 66-44 win.
  • Net Gain Sports vs Illinois Warriors. Trent Lockett gets the last 9 of the 1st half for Net Gain as they lead 35-26 at the break. A dry spell for both teams in the 2nd half as Net Gain went scoreless for 4 minutes. The Warriors also go scoreless during that time and its 51-36 with 6:30 to play. But the Warriors turn up the defense and get as close as 57-53 with 1:30 left. But Sam Dower gets a bucket and Trent Lockett puts back his own missed bonus front end. Net Gain wins 67-55. Trent Lockett terrific in this game with 17 points. Sam Dower also played well with 16 points. Andy Burns went the whole way without a break and while he did crack a little at the end with a couple of costly turnovers, definitely a solid performance from him. Diamond Taylor for the Wolves was a major disappointment. I counted 6 times where he went to the basket and got blocked (often by Dower). For a player of his skill that surprised me.

10 comments:

  1. To start I enjoy reading your blog . As a supporter to St Paul Johnson how do you think they looked against Carr's team ? I too was at the game and I felt the best Player on the floor was Roosevelt Scott from Johnson . He played great Defense as evidenced by him stealing the ball at half court from each guard Chris Carr put in front of him . He also lead all scores in the game . He consistently took all of the 43 hoops guards to the basket and finished .

    How do you think Johnson will stack up in 3a? With Estan Tyler , Max Rosembloom ( who might be the hardest working player in the state ) , Roosevelt Scott ,as well as the kid who hit the 3 for 43hoops Gameli to put them down 2 in the game against 43Harris DD Conwell who is also a Johnson Player.

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  2. Thank you. I appreciate the kind words. I saw the Johnson squad vs Carr's team and in their pool play win against a very good MN Heat Elite team (Heat Elites were the #2 seed at the state tournament behind Carr's team and ahead of MN Magic Elites). I was impressed. Its a typical Johnson team, very athletic and scary defensively and they work hard. When they have scorers they can be really good as that's a weakness. They're not pretty to watch but very effective.

    Rosenbloom is as tough a player on the glass with his effort as anybody I see. Fun to watch and he was a major factor in the last 6 minutes of the semi last night. Tyler is very solid and will be a good player for them. With basically everybody back from last year, I think they have to be the favorite in the St. Paul City and in section 3AAA. That said, the competition in both is somewhat weak compared to other conferences and sections. But Johnson does a good job challenging themselves with a tough non-conference schedule to get themselves ready. But I think the weak section and conference has hurt them once they've got to state.

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  3. Love the column. I'm not sure if you had a chance to see a 14U team called the Iowa Stars. Great guard play, good size. Should be a team to watch over the team few years!

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  4. Thank 43hoopspimp (great name BTW). I appreciate it. I don't follow the 14U scene (except I did a couple of 14U MN Suns games which had a couple of players I knew, Pittman and Chambers specifically). But I heard that they had a kid who was really good. Is that squad affliated with the Iowa Barnstormers?

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  5. They are affliated with some teams out of Cedar Rapids according to their parents. It's a more mature team for sure but very athletic and skilled guards. Their bigs were mechanical but effective.

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  6. So is D.J. Peterson transferring to Apple Valley? It would make sense since he lives there and that he probably won't start on Hopkins.

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  8. (resposting previous comment to correct hideous spelling errors). Ryan James has said on the MN Preps forum that DJ may be transferring to Apple Valley. That, along with the possible loss of Aaron Anderson to Osseo, would cost Hopkins their top 2 perimeter reserves. They'd still have soph Marvin Singleton as their top reserve in the frontcourt.

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  9. what number was roosevelt scott?

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  10. SoulPatrol, I believe Roosevelt Scott was #1 (no joke intended). At least that's according to the roster sheet I have.

    43HoopsPimp, Marcus Paige of the Iowa Stars 14U is already making a name. Nice article today somewhere on him opening eyes already and he's only starting 9th grade this fall. Plays for Linn-Mar, a very good program historically. They played in 2 straight TWolves shootouts before last year. The first was with Jason Bohannon who's now at Wisconsin.

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