A short PNR Spring Classic thanks to the holiday weekend but Saturday's second day was full of quality championship action. A quick lunch of a cinnamon roll is a nice way to get through hunger. It wasn't Cinnabun but having it in plastic did save a major mess. 2 straight days of Mountain Dew (warm coke was the alternative which is like drinking battery acid) was major survival.
A good weekend for Southside with their close win over the top Iowa Pump N Run team in pool play. Then they knocked out MN Magic-Tillman and SW MN Stars behind double doubles from Joey King. Quiet games from Casey Schilling and Zach Huisken in that quarterfinal loss by the Stars. Very surprising. Southside had a 15 point lead in the semis against the WI Swing. Swing managed to cut the lead to 7 at half and then the top halftime speech of the tourney and Swing dominated the second half to win by double digits. Coach Justin Litscher amazingly restrained to only get 1 T in this one with the refs calling just about nothing. He was ready to go nuts. Then they blew out MN PNR in the final. Swing's only loss this season was to Mac Irvin Fire in the NY2LA Swish N Dish final a couple of weeks ago so they Zak Showalter and both sophs Nick Fuller and Luke Fischer impressed on the weekend. Austin Arians also with a nice weekend for the Swing. Kyle Bauman from WOTN, Wally Ellenson and Sanjay Lumpkin from MN PNR, Mitchell Kuck from Heat Elite others of note from the 17U division.
IA PNR 1 gave up a 15 point lead to the Dakota Pride in the 16U final before hanging on to win a close one. IA PNR handled the MN PNR 16s in the semis. IA PNR knocked out MN Jaguars along the way. Dakota Pride knocked off a quality Ultimate Hoops squad in the quarterfinals. Saw Washburn's Nick Anderson playing with St. Paul's Finest in the silver bracket as one of many kids jumping around this weekend. I know kids want to play but program directors what message does this send to the kids who have shown up to practice, paid the money and actually committed to the full season?
MN Elite came from 4 down in the last minute to beat MN PNR in a quality final. Andrew Grosz with a 3 and a runner for the last 5 of the game to win it. PNR missed 2 FTs and had 3 late chances that didn't go in. Elite had to survive a missed front end late to hold on for the 34-33 win in a surprisingly low scoring game. MN PNR got all they wanted against MN Heat Frank in the quarters. PNR trailed by 3 with 7 minutes left and came back with a 7-0 run to take the lead and hang on. MN Elite another good performance to blow out MN Fury Black in the quarters.
I watched those kids from Wisconsin Swing and came home very impressed with their play of TEAM basketball. Those kids played hard the whole game all 10 of them. Its hard to believe they start 3 juniors and 2 sophomores against other power AAU teams. I watched those sophomores and you couldnt tell they were younger players at all. Fuller had a double double with 16 points and 10 rebounds that championship game against PNR and Showalter covered the entire court with his defense and incredible vertical to the rim.
ReplyDeleteThat is a team I would drive again to watch in a tournament playing basketball the old fashion way as a full team effort without alot of flash and it showed this past weekend
Well said on Swing. Totally agree. Really looking forward to seeing Fuller again in his home gym at next year's border battle.
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