A Super Saturday Showcase

Prologue
Neighboring venues on today's schedule with the Super 60 Showcase at Washburn and 3 games for me there.  But the opener was just down the street with Duluth East visiting Holy Angels.  I'm too late for the sausage pizza there and the cheese slice was greasy at AHA but the hot dogs at Washburn never disappoint.  AAU guys all over the place with Pulley, Net Gain and Pump N Run all at the AHA/Duluth East game.

Game 1: Duluth East at Holy Angels
Duluth East jumps out to a 10-0 lead thanks to a pair of turnovers and a big block from the new fad on the Minnesota high school hoops scene 6'10, 6'11 or 7' if you believe the program Akolda Manyang. Holy Angels would go to a 2-3 zone and claw their way back to take the lead right before the half.  Taylor Stafford would beat the buzzer for 3 to send Duluth East to the locker room ahead 32-30.

But Duluth East's big 3 would be too much in the 2nd half as they score all but 2 of the 49 Greyhounds points in the half.  Johnny Woodard with 22 of those 49.  Holy Angels would hang around thanks to 18 in the half from Danny Sullivan not to mention a couple of nice assists for layups.  63-57 with 4:45 left after 1 of those assists.  But Duluth East pulls away for a 81-68 win.  Johnny Woodard 34, Taylor Stafford 24 and Akolda Manyang 17 points, 16 rebounds and 3 blocks.  Manyang looking like a major factor for East and definitely a top, if not the top, player in the 2013 class.  Only 6 points from the East roster otherwise.  Danny Sullivan 29, Charlie Koontz 20, Jordan Dembley 10 for AHA.

Super 60 Showcase at Minneapolis Washburn
Game 2: Prairie Seeds Academy vs Lakeview Christian Academy
Everybody hustling up the street for this one and don't arrive late as Anders Broman picks up his 2nd foul at the 13:12 mark after scoring 6 quick points.  18-15 LCA at the 11:25 mark when Anders picks up his 3rd.  He sits at the 10:37 mark with LCA up 20-19.  Trent Pollard with a big half and his bucket at the 6:15 mark puts PSA up 32-29.  Then what's this?  Anders Broman back in with 6:05 left in the half.  Very surprising as it didn't at all feel like the game was out of hand or even getting to that point.  That move backfires as he gets called for a questionable pushoff going to his stepback fade at the 4:03 mark.  That's #4 and now he has to sit with LCA down 38-34.  PSA takes advantage with a 17-3 run the rest of the half.  7 points from Pollard in the run and Devin Buckley with a pair of 3s in that spurt.  55-37 PSA at the half and this one looks ugly for LCA.

Hold my calls as Anders Broman starts the 2nd half.  That propels LCA on an 11-2 run, Anders with 6 of those and now the lead is inside 10.  57-48 PSA with 14:20 left and not going at Anders at all.  PSA with a pair of buckets but then a 10-0 LCA run to cut the lead to 61-58 with 11:41 left and we definitely have a game now.  7 point game when Anders knocks down a 3 and a jumper.   Then Anders with 1 of many pull up fades and a steal for 2 with 7:56 left to tie the game.  Brother Bjorn makes 1 of 2 freebies with 7:32 left and LCA has come all the back to lead 72-71.  35-16 LCA run.  Anders backdoor to keep the lead at 73-72 with 7:10 left.  Center Gage Deis picks it up for PSA on the post and with a layup.  79-74 PSA with 6 left.  Anders with a corner 3 off the oldest BLOB play around (inbounder runs to corner and everybody inexplicably goes over the top, TRAIL THAT!).  Deis with another bunny and then a foul line jumper for a 5 point lead.  86-80 PSA when Bjorn Broman scores 2 and makes a free throws.  Then Luke Borchardt with the 3 point play with 1:54 left and we're tied at 86.  The teams trade missed 3s before 2 Buckley free throws with 56 seconds left.  Anders with a good look that's no good with 45 seconds left.  PSA takes time and for some reason Pollard drives and scores with 20 seconds left.  Anders Broman makes 2 FTs with 9 seconds left.  LCA fouls with 6 seconds left (5th on Anders) but its not the bonus and they can't get a foul on the next inbounds.  PSA wins 90-88.  Anders Broman finishes with 30 points and 6 rebounds on 11-21 FGs.  It stuck out to me that most of his offense was fade away pull ups.  Great that he has a midrange game (unheard in today's players) but nothing at the rim.  That shows me that he lacks some size and burst to play at the D1 level.  Combine that with questions about his 3 point range and position (2 in a 1s body) and I think he projects as a productive NSIC player.  Bjorn Broman again impressive with 25 points and Luke Borchardt with 20.  Very impressive comeback and effort from the Lions.  Very team oriented and not afraid to share the ball.  That contrasts with the largely 1 on 1 style of PSA.  Devin Buckley 27 points, Trent Pollard 20 (16 in 1st half).  Gage Dies 18 points and 11 rebounds mostly in the 2nd half.

Game 3: Robbinsdale Cooper vs Minneapolis South
Cooper would use a pair of 10-0 runs in the 1st half to take control.  In the 2nd of those runs, Eric Brown ends it back to back 3s vs the 2-3 zone and then hammers home a dunk off a steal.  Carnell Sheppard with 4 3s in the half to try to keep South around.  42-25 Cooper at half.  South starts the 2nd half on a 9-2 spurt ending with another Sheppard 3 to cut the lead to 10, 44-34 with 14:42 left.  Thomas Ford with a huge second half to keep South around as he was active inside.  South couldn't get stops late to cut the gap.  Cooper wins 77-65.  Rashad Vaughn 3 triples on his way to 34 points and 10 rebounds.  Thomas Ford 20 of his 28 in the 2nd half to lead South.  Carnell Sheppard 6 3s and 19 points for South.

Game 4: Totino-Grace at Minneapolis Washburn
Nick Carr dominant inside early for Totino-Grace.  6-0 Eagles lead before Washburn rains down 4 3s from 4 players in a 15-1 run to take the lead.  Carr would score 15 of the 1st 17 points for the Eagles and in the 1st half they would get 1 elbow jumper and every other field goal was at the basket.  43-29 Washburn at the break.  9 Washburn players in the book, no more than 6 for any of them, Carr with 19.

Then an early 12-2 run from the Eagles with easy buckets.  Sam Meyer with 2 layups, Carr with a putback and bucket, Andy Moritko with a puback.  47-43 Washburn with 13:25 left.  Washburn wouldn't let Totino-Grace any closer as Dwight Anderson made big shots.  He makes 3 straight 3s to stretch the lead to 9.  69-60 Washburn with 5:22 left when they take timeout.  Then finish the game on a 12-2 run for a 81-62 win.  Dwight Anderson 5 3s and 22 points (17 in last 13:15) to lead the Millers.  Jerry Pratt with 12 points.  8 other Millers with at least 4 points.  Nick Carr 29 points, Andy Moritko 13, Sam Meyer and Gabe Kastenmeier 10.