The best of 2025-26 Week 1

The first full week of games is in the book and the season is now underway for just about everybody.  Apologies to the Wright County East teams as I haven't seen anybody there yet.  But all other leagues and the independents have at least 1 box checked.  Here's a synopsis of the 24 games I saw during the week.

Class A
Impressive opening week for Heritage Christian.  They beat a good Hope Academy team.  Then late Friday they broke the game open in the second half to blow out St. Agnes.  All of this without arguably their best player, forward Aaron Palmer.  Hope Academy was coming off a quality blowout win over Math & Science.  

North Lakes survived a 30 point onslaught from Greg Hovey to hold off International School 57-53.

Class AA
Spectrum junior guard Cody Benson set a new school record with 41 points in the opener against Parnassus on Monday.

Now let's talk some east side hoops.  On Wednesday, Nova Classical held Hmong Academy to 3 2nd half field goals to run away with a win in 4AA.  Hmong Academy with a couple of bigs and a couple of guards for what looks like their best team in a long team. 

Friday night saw St. Paul Harding defeat neighbor Twin Cities Academy 69-62.  That game is a section game now too as Harding as dropped down into 4AA.  Now it wasn't pretty as the game featured 53 fouls, 69 free throws, 2 lunar landings and a showing of Gone With the Wind but a win is a win.  Soph guard Derek Green 22 points and Pierre Glass 12 of his 16 in the 2nd half to help the Knights hold on.  Jacob Stiele with 2nd half foul trouble but he almost carried TCA to a win with 10 of his 21 points in the final 5:13.

How about Mounds Park Academy winning the battle of East Larpenteur on Saturday.  They go into Hill-Murray and get a 53-48 win.  They held the Pioneers to 1 FG in the 1st 10 minutes on their way to a 15-2 start.  John Omoyeni fouling out with just under 4 minutes left was too much to overcome for Hill-Murray.  Pioneers were able to tie the game at 48 with 2 minutes left but never had the lead.  

Class AAA
Good start to the week for a trio of Mississippi 8 teams.  Monday saw Zimmerman blow out Pine City.  Though I was impressed with Pine City soph wing Grant Haverhals.  Zimmerman star wing Thomas McEachern 14 to lead the Thunder.  Monticello blew out a rebuilding St. Michael Albertville squad.  Carson Deibele 23 points and 3 treys for the Magic.  STMA difficulty scoring with a young roster and minimal experience.  Frosh Tanner Heinen with a very productive 11 points off the bench for STMA.

Tuesday saw Becker jump all over Legacy 46-15 to start.  Legacy would cut that lead all the way down to 13 mid second half before falling 85-60.  This had the makings of possibly the top non-con game on both teams schedules but didn't turn out that way.  Nathan Weiss 28 points and 6 treys to lead Becker.  Becker wing Sawyer Brown out due to injury.

Class AAAA
Tuesday saw Bloomington Jefferson upset Holy Angels.  The Jags doing what the Jags do as they're undermanned but run their stuff and don't beat themselves.  Wing Oliver McInerney with a late 3 and 2 late free throws to win it.  Staying in the Metro West, Owatonna beat New Prague 72-48.  Looks like another long year in New Prague.  Soph wing Jackson Holder 13 points and 3 triples for Owatonna.  Junior PG Willie Moore with 21 points to lead Owatonna.

Blaine wing Shiloh Ayitey is off to a nice start.  He had 18 points for the Bengals in a 22 point win over Andover on Tuesday.  Staying in the Northwest Suburban, for entertainment value, watching Coon Rapids guard Kirby Wymore is well worth it.  He had 30 points with 6 triples in a home loss to Apollo.  He followed that up with 26 more points and 6 more 3s in a loss at Cambridge-Isanti.  In that Apollo game, I can see why De'Anthony Sellis is a rising name in the 2027 class.  Big and athletic, he had 16 points in the game.  I also liked how Micah Mwachukwu ran the show for the Eagles including his 17 points.

Eagan's defense clamped down on St. Thomas Academy in their 75-48 opening win.  16 point lead going to the half as they held Lars Osteraas to 1 field goal.  Junior forward Donjae Knox 13 points with an expanded perimeter game.  Junior Ryan Miskowicz 17 points leads Eagan.

Minnetonka doesn't have size but they do pressure the ball well.  They are young with 2 starting freshmen too .  They won at Burnsville 64-54.  Beckham Nelson is one of those freshmen and he had 11 points with a pair of triples.  Anthony Ortiz is the veteran and he led the way with 5 3s and 28 points.  Forward Yannick Amoyi took advantage of the size issue on his way to 19 points.

Wing Blake Johnson 5 triples and 17 points for Farmington in a section win over Rochester Century.  The Tigers held Century scoreless for 7 minutes early in the 2nd half on their way to a 24-2 run.  That broke open their 66-38 win.  

Woodbury fell 56-49 to Hudson on Friday.  Wild first half of this one.  Hudson goes 1-3-1 to start and takes a 9-0 lead.  Woodbury takes their 2nd time out and Hudson goes man.  Junior forward Tyler Erickson is off the Woodbury bench and hits 6 3s in the half.  His streak gets them back within 14-13 and Hudson has to take timeout and go back to the 1-3-1.  Erickson with 7 3s and 23 points in the game.  Bouncy wing Jace Matacyyzski 21 points to lead Hudson.  He had a clutch 3 point play to break a late tie and then a late steal for a dunk to seal it.  He's committed to play baseball at Auburn.

How about Buffalo soph guard Eli Hegle.  After a productive summer playing up with the Buffalo Legacy 16s, he's averaging 30.5 PPG thru 2 Bison wins.  That includes 34 points in a win at Cambridge-Isanti. 

The Big Stage  
The opening 6 games were all blowouts.  But with injuries and the coaching changes after the schedule was made, this is understandable.  Think of this team that wasn't available.  Jayden Moore (Hopkins), Gavin Walter (Champlin Park), Justus Dayee (Tartan), Dane Skime (Orono) and then you had Mu Muhammad of Breck go down with an injury less than 2 minutes into their game.

Game 1: Park Center 77 St. Paul Como Park 58
Park Center no trouble with Como Park.  Joe Jacobs 32 points to lead the Pirates.  Plenty of talented youth on display for Park Center with 8th grade guard Paris Kyles, freshmen Liam Jensen and Tchidi Ejimadu and soph bigs Idris Alowonie and Yahya Soumahoro.  8th grade Landon Williams-Newi saw minutes for Como Park.

Game 2: Minneapolis Washburn 81 Waconia 61
Both teams played the night before.  Washburn rested guys in a blowout loss to Wayzata.  Waconia had a big comeback win against Shakopee.  Waconia got the first couple buckets but then it was all Washburn from there.  Waconia would cut a 18 point halftime lead down to 12 but get no closer.  Another impressive defensive performance for the Millers.  Michael Stevens finding his way around the basket for layup after layup on his way to 24 points.  Alex Young 5 triples and 19 points.  Brayden Gorton with a couple key 2nd half triples on his way to a productive 18 point day for Washburn.  Will Kirsch 25 points but most of that damage was from the foul line where he cashed in 12 times.  This was after 39 points in that Shakopee win.  Forward Luke Hill added 16 in a nice outing for the Wildcats.

Game 3: Orono 90 Breck 67
Orono with a ton of size that I wasn't aware of.  Spartans jump out to a 32-13 lead.  Alex Pilakowski 3 of his 5 triples in the 1st half to lead Orono.  Breck with some nice youth to watch in the future. Soph Max Munsell 14 points to lead Breck as the main replacement for Muhammad.  Frosh Peter Kiedrowski is a wing who can shoot it.  Frosh Cobe Blades can push the pace.

Game 4: Richfield 95 Champlin Park 70
Richfield jumped out to a 31-2 lead and coasted from there  Dre Collins 29 points to lead Richfield.  Tyrece Hagler 19 points off their bench.  Richfield is an explosive team on the offensive end that can really get out and go.  A couple of sophomores for Champlin Park to note.  Mo Dukuly with a poster dunk and 16 points in the game.  Charles Howe off the bench with solid minutes.  Kyler Pust 22 points to lead the Rebels.

Game 5: Totino-Grace 78 Apple Valley 52
The Totino-Grace defense is top notch right now.  They hold Apple Valley star Camare Young scoreless for the first half on their way to a 25 point lead.  Trey Parker 4 triples and 18 points to try to fill in the gap, but TG just too good.  Tian Chatman 16 points off the bench leading a very balanced attack for TG.

Game 6: Maple Grove 86 DeLaSalle 64
There are surprises and then there are surprises.  Maple Grove jumped out to a 24-2 lead in the 1st 6 minutes.  That shocked everybody.  Max Iversen leading that early barrage with triples.  DeLaSalle held to 1 FG in the 1st 8+ minutes also a major part of that.  Maple Grove hits 12 3s in the 1st half and 9 more in the 2nd half as they steamroll to victory.  21-39 from deep before garbage time.  The bench goes absolutely nuts shooting 11-15 from 3.  Max Iversen 26 points and 7 triples.  Kamar Thomas 14 points to lead DeLaSalle.  The end did give some of the DeLaSalle youngsters time to play and man are they loaded there.  That doesn't even count any of the top 8 guys and 7 of them are back next year.

Game 7: Tartan 60 Hopkins 50
Full house for the nightcap.  Definitely an intensity in the building.  Teams would trade first half runs as Tartan would take a 40-36 lead to the break.  Tartan small right now and that made it difficult against a big Hopkins front line.  Really fun to watch soph PG KJ Wilson.  He was fearless carrying the offense with 15 points in the first half.

There was a skirmish in the crowd coming out of halftime.  That seemed to be addressed and the second half started.  I departed at that point only to notice 15 police cars race to the game which was called off at the 9 min mark due to another fight breaking out.  Just a shame to see a terrific game be destroyed by senseless fans.