Breakdown Tip-Off Classic Thoughts

What a day at the 2009 Breakdown Tip-Off Classic.  20 of the 24 boys teams were ranked and 3 of the 4 unranked teams had stars to follow.  Some thoughts on what I saw.

Session 1: #4A Sebeka vs #2AA New London-Spicer
"Moose" Johnson for NLS was just that.  Sebeka had no answer for him.  Sebeka's Joey Cuperus and John Clark are a duo that any class A team would be glad to have.  Sebeka with a 3 point lead with 1:40 left and the teams trade turnovers.  Moose with a putback and then a steal to give NLS a chance for the lead but they turn it over.  Ryan Sharp with a layup and Sebeka is back up 3 with 30 seconds left.  Jayme Moten with 2 FTs with 8.4 left and then NLS forces a turnover.  They get the ball with 2.9 left at their free throw line.  Motem catches the inbound takes 2 dribbles makes a good but slow pass to Erik Tengwall who knocked down the left corner 3 at the buzzer for the thrilling win.  He beat the buzzer but I thought it took more than 2.9.  Great finish.

Session 2:
Waconia broke open a close game with a 18-2 run over the last 8:30 of the 1st half for a 39-21 halftime lead.  Waconia rolled from there for a 75-55 win.  Marshall Bjorklund with 28 and 15 but he had no help in this one.  Great job creating space with his strength, particularly by using the left shoulder.  Shelby Moats on the other hand had help.  Really like what Danny Fischbach is doing for them and Ben Korteum can knock down 3s in a hurry.

#1AA Plainview-Elgin-Millville was down 3 at half to Minneapolis North.  Cole Olstad quiet but he hit a 3 at the halftime buzzer for 10 first half points.  He finishes with 24 as PEM wins 81-74.  No Pengi Mboma or Malik El-Amin for North which definitely would have helped.

Session 3:
Great game between #4AA Staples-Motley and #4AAA Columbia Heights.  22-16 Staples with 6 to go in the first half before a 19-8 Heights run.  35-33 Heights at the break.  Columbia Heights continues the spurt into the 2nd half.  Jacob Thomas with a 3 and a bucket for push the lead to 53-42 with 14:25 left.  The lead gets to 13 before Staples gets hot.  Derek Wolhowe with a pair of triples in a big Cardinals run.  74 all with 4:15 left.  Staples-Motley star guard Jordan Riewer with a pair of assists and then a continuation 3 point play.  82-76 Staples-Motley with 1:38 left.  Columbia Heights with 5 straight turnovers trying to hold the ball vs the Staples 1-2-2 in that stretch.  Thomas right back with a tough triple to cut the lead in half.  Harold Rainey strips Riewer for a layup and then another Staples turnover.  Thomas with 2 FTs at 36.8 and Heights is back on top 83-82.  Staples with a miss but Thomas misses the front end of the 1 and 1 with 13.8 left.  Riewer fouled and makes 2 FTs with 8.4 left.  Heights pushes to half-court and takes time with 4.8 left.  Thomas gets a decent look in the corner but its blocked.  Gerard Bapiste finds the rebound and puts it back at the buzzer  for the thrilling 85-84 Columbia Heights win.  Riewer has committed to Jamestown and he'll be a very good player for them.  Despite the 2 late turnovers, he was clutch down the stretch.  Jacob Thomas with another huge performance.

Session 4:
#2AAA De La Salle vs #10AAAA Osseo.  Strange game as it just felt like D was winning the entire way but Osseo was ahead on the scoreboard.  Tight all the way though.  Aaron Anderson with a great pass to Chris McMorris for a backdoor dunk at 3:50 and Joey Sonnefeld (playing post with 8th grader Ian Theisen) on the post for 2.  56-50 Osseo with 2:47 left.  De La Salle not going away.  John Hertle with a steal for 2 and a Bretson McNeal bomb give D the 57-56 lead with 1:10 left.  John Rowland tips in a miss with 40 seconds left and Osseo is back on top.  McNeal misses and Chris McMorris is fouled with 17.9 left.  He makes the first and misses the 2nd.  No timeout for D as they call a standard set play for Jalen Jaspers.  As he attempts to come off a screen from the low post to the top of the key he gets absoluted mugged and tackled.  No call for the 2nd time in the game on that.  Not to mention it was right in front of the D bench.  WOW.  Its a broken play and D misses.  60-57 Osseo wins and coach Thorson stares down the refs as they leave.  You can't blame him either.

I saw the last 12 minutes of Lakeville South and #1AAA Benilde-St. Margaret's.  Soph PG Isaiah Zierden was outstanding in the time I saw.  And wow is Benilde deep.  Sophs Will Dunn, Sanjay Lumpkin, and Danon Briggs with Zierden all seeing minutes.  BSM wins 99-87.

Session 5
#3AAAA Henry Sibley vs Cloquet.  The matchup of bigs was entertaining as Jake Kreuser played about as well as I've ever seen him play.  7 points and 7 rebounds in the first half against an overmatched Cloquet squad.  Jimmy Ryan continues to shoot well with another pair of triples.  37-16 Sibley at half and they roll.

Talk about a rebound.  #10AA Minnehaha took #7AA Braham behind the woodshed for a 81-51 win.  Didn't see any of it but I wouldn't have expected that.

Session 6
1st half #3A Minnesota Transitions vs #7AAA Minneapolis Henry.  MTS playing zone, Kevin Noreen getting his.  23-7 MTS over the last 6:15 of the first half for a 51-35 halftime lead.  But MTS needed OT to hang on 85-83.  Disturbing trend for MTS as they let Minnehaha back in on Tuesday and now gave up a lead to Henry.  And how does MTS only score 34 points in the last 22 minutes?

Then all of the big game of the day #1AAAA Hopkins vs #2AAAA Tartan.  Or it should have been.  Tartan with the 1st 4 points of the game and that's their highlight.  Hopkins scores the next 19 points.  Tartan fights back to within 5 in the first half.  34-23 Hopkins at the break.  More Hopkins in the 2nd half as they start the half on a 13-5 run.  Hopkins wins 81-66.  Joe Coleman with 31 points and again all within 2 feet.  Marvin Singleton was matched up with the Preiner twins most of the night in a very difficult matchup for Tartan.  He finished with 23 and 9.  Tim Lubke was the top scorer for Tartan with 14 points.

Session 7
#5AAAA Chaska at #7AAAA Minnetonka.  3 starters in street clothes for the hosts but they weren't going to lay down in this one.  Chaska's super junior Ross Travis left late in the first half with an apparent back injury.  42-39 Tonka at half.  Max Watts with a great hustle play for a 3 point play.  60-50 Chaska with 11:13 left.  Minnetonka comes all the way back.  Andrew Turnblad with a 3 point play to give the Skippers the 68-67 lead with 7:11 left.  74 in the last 2:30.  77-74 Minnetonka after a Blake Nelson 3 at 2:10.  Jake White with a putback and 2 free throws to keep Chaska within 1.  The teams trade free throws before a Jacob Meyer triple with 8.6 left ties the game at 83 and sends us to OT.  Max Watts with a big triple at the 1:33 mark of OT.  94-89 Chaska and they win 99-92.  Jake White with 29 points and Max Watts huge again for the Hawks with 26 points.  Chad Howard out of his mind stepping up for Minnetonka with 29 points.  Nick Latzke outstanding again as he also had 29 points.

Saw a few early minutes of the #8AAAA Cretin-Derham Hall vs #6AAAA Champlin Park game.  All 3 of the star sophs for CDH (Montero, Neumann and Tillman) all on the floor.  Interesting to see Raijon Kelly and Tillman on the floor at the same time.  Look for Neumann to have a bigger role now that Clay Horne has moved out east.  Too bad many people didn't see the end of this one as CDH held on 82-80 in double OT.