Its another weekend of online viewing on Fishbowl TV. That's Baller TV when its unusable which is far too often. I took in a list of games from the weekend at Battle at the Lakes. My focus was largely on local teams that I hadn't seen or noteworthy local vs local matchups. Here are bullet points of what I saw, in order of viewing. Then we'll add some quick bonus thoughts on a couple teams that were in the loaded Kansas City Classic this weekend.
Friday
- Gain Elite 16s 75-70 win over Heat Pratt. Big game of 26 points from DLS guard Nasir Whitlock to lead Gain Elite to the win. He was also good in the bookend game of my weekend for their 17s vs Fury Narum. Miles Barnette 4 triples and 16 points in his home gym to keep Heat in it. Icy cold first half did them in. Both teams finished 3-1 on the weekend.
- Northstar Titans Terhaar 17s took out Quad City 53-50 in their opener. Nice passing from Chaska post Brady Nicholson in this one. He had a huge size advantage but was more of a distributor in this one. Nick Bartlett (Forest Lake) 14 points with 3 triples to lead the Titans to the win. They ran the table 4-0 this weekend.
- Playmakers Showcase North 16s def Fury Hayes 50-37. Impressive outing for South Ridge post Austin Josephson who put up numbers somewhere in the 20/10 range. No answer for his size inside. But he also showed some range on a jumper. Both teams finished the weekend 2-2.
Saturday
- I started my viewing with a shooting gallery display from the Fury Antl 16s. They knock down 11 triples from 5 different guys in the 1st half alone. 53-19 at the break on Playmakers Showcase Wausau as they roll to an 84-48 win. Fury also beat them handily in the Comets Shootout championship but I didn't expect this kind of result. They aren't big, but if they get it moving and clicking, this is what happens. Fury runs the table 4-0 for the weekend with all double digit wins.
- That allowed me to flip over to the MN Chill 16s. Don't freeze this group out of your thoughts. They beat the Madison Spartans 63-43. That's a Spartans squad that features 2 top 20 kids in Wisconsin. They get after you all game and have athletes. Only chink in the armor is they are short on shooting. But this is a team that deserves mention with that 2nd tier group of teams. They finished the weekend 3-2.
- Fury Wilde def Tulsa Hawks 76-56. Fury blows open a 13 point halftime lead to win by mercy rule. Jackson Loge (Morris) leading the way with 19 points. He was terrific all weekend and picked up a Toledo offer in the process. Great balance on offense with 5 in double figures. They also did a nice job on Tulsa star shooter Parker Friedrichsen. 14 points and 4 3s for him but only 1 2nd half field goal.
- D1 Prospects 17s lost a heartbreaker to Breakaway. D1 missed a late free throw to extend the lead to 3. Breakaway pushed the ball back the other way and hit a 3 at the buzzer to win 69-68.
- In the showcase game of the weekend, D1 Minnesota def Select Ohnstad 63-58 in 17s. D1 played without Camden Heide. D1 had a double digit 2nd half lead that Select was able to trim all the way down in the last minute. Ultimately D1 got a good defensive stop up 3 at the end and sealed it at the charity stripe. Good outings for Kenji Scales and Leo Torbor of Select. D1s athletes making it tough for Select to generate any good offense. Tamin Lipsey makes such a difference for D1. 0-4 without him in Chicago but D1 has been 7-2 with him back. Kendall Blue, Josh Ola-Joseph and BJ Omot also with notable games for D1. D1 Minnesota 3-1 on the weekend. Select Ohnstad 2-3 on the weekend, 13-4 overall.
- WOTN Bertsch blew out Select Emge in the 2nd half on the way to a 63-36 win. WOTN had a 25-4 run before 3 late Select FTs came before the mercy rule. I continue to like JT Thornton of Lakeville North for WOTN. WOTN Bertsch finishes 3-1. Select Emge was 1-4
- I just caught the end of the Fury Zurn 15 game where they lost to WI Playground Club 72-67. 5'8 PG Jaquan Johnson (a top WI frosh) went absolutely nuts with 45 points for PGC. Fury had no answer for him late or at any other point. Fury finished 2-2 in the top pool but didn't get a game vs D1 Minnesota sadly.
- MN Bounce suffered their first loss of the season vs Team 1848 by a score of 44-39. Offense hard to come by for both teams in this one. Bounce held a 35-30 lead before Team 1848 finished the game on a 14-4 run. Bounce's lack of size saw them get beat up inside and on the offensive glass. MN Bounce finishes the weekend 2-2 to be 10-2 overall for the season.
- Speaking of size, WOTN Johnson used their size to knock off Northstar Titans Barker 62-41. Titans had this game within 6 early in the 2nd half. Nick Burke (SW Christian) 16 points to lead WOTN. Also saw flashes from Miles Hettinger (Stewartville) and Dayne Wojcik (Goodhue). WOTN finishes the weekend 3-1, now 5-3 overall. Northstar Titans Barker finishes 2-2.
- Fury Wilde def D1 Prospects 58-51. Prospects had a 45-39 lead but couldn't hold it. Big plays late from Maddox Alipate (Benilde-St. Margaret's) to put Fury over the top. Ahjany Lee in and out of the lineup due to injury but still ended up in double figures. Fury 3-1 on the weekend. D1 Prospects finish 0-4.
- Fury Narum ran the table 4-0 by finishing the weekend with a 63-55 win over Gain Elite. Gain Elite's front line of Kabine Kaba and Jamal Ambrose very productive. Ambrose has to project as next year's Henry Shannon for Eastview. Kaba was a solid player for Park Center this year and is very active inside. Cam Holter (AHA) and Quinten Snell (Shakopee) came up with critical bucket and plays for Fury Narum to put them over the top. Gain Elite finishes the weekend 2-2.
Kansas City Bonus Thoughts
Since I didn't have anything on the Saturday
night session, I went back and found the Pulley 16s vs CP3 game from
Kansas City. CP3 with 3 top 100 kids on the 16s, enough said. But
Pulley hung around for a long while before losing 73-66. Pulley
finished 1-3 on the weekend against a stacked pool with 4 other EYBL
teams. 3 of those ranked in the top 10 nationally. Will Underwood
(Mahtomedi) and Nolan Winter (Lakeville North) lead that squad and I'm
high on both. Underwood controlled the offense with around 20 points
but a quiet day for Winter in the game I saw. Pulley with no real size
and CP3 took advantage. Solid weekend for the 15s as they went 2-2 vs 4
shoe teams. The 17s ran the table 4-0 but were not in one of the top
pools. Team GetShook actually played more EYBL teams (2) than Pulley
did (1). GetShook was 0-4 losing all 4 games by double figures.
I also managed on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon to take in a little bit of highly touted Mikey Williams. He joined top 5 ranked Chris Livingston and the We All Can Go squad for the games in the loaded Kansas City event. A total circus surrounding him. WACG split the 2 games I watched but the viewing was AAUBingo galore. In fairness, with all the attention on him and joining a brand new team for a week, very hard to manage all of that.