The Top Spot: Howard Pulley & D1 Minnesota win again
Howard Pulley and D1 Minnesota’s top teams are usually among the best in the state but this year is different. This year Pulley in the EYBL and D1 Minnesota in the Adidas Uprising, they are contenders to win the entire league. Both teams are as talented as they have been in years and both teams are playing quality team basketball.
The dream of basketball fans in Minnesota is to see them play but that simply won’t happen unfortunately. But the run of both teams deserves to be followed closer this year. How are we going to do that? We are going to report on them regularly in “Top Spot: Headline Goes Here” and this will be a comparison of the two sometimes but more importantly it will be a follow of the two 17U programs when they are in action which is more important.
So, who is leading the race for The Top Spot? Right now Howard Pulley has the slightest of edges. Both won an early season local event and beat a couple quality local programs (D1 vs Comets and Fury Zurn, Pulley vs Omaha Elite and All Iowa Attack) and for the most part their games have been comparable so far in league play.
The difference? There are two. Last weekend in their last games both teams took their opponent to the final seconds. Howard Pulley beat that opponent (Nike South Beach) on a last season tip-in by Isaac Johnson while D1 Minnesota lost to Eric Gordon All Stars by a score in overtime. That is the big difference that gave Pulley the top ranking so far. Also take into account that D1 Minnesota has played one more circuit league game so the Pulley lead on D1 Minnesota is more like a half a game.
How did Pulley and D1 Minnesota do last night? The answer is below.
Howard Pulley: The Panthers breezed to a 92-73 win beating winless We Call Can Go from Tennessee who is a first year Nike EYBL team. Pulley had half the turnovers that their opponent did, they won the rebounding battle by four, and hate the term “we just go to make shots” but Pulley made 37 and WAGC made 23. That is the difference.
Gary Trent’s hot spring shooting continues as he made four treys and scored 28 points with six rebounds in the win. Brad Davison supported with three treys and was efficient shooting 7 of 10 from the field for his 18 while Tre Jones made 6 of 9 attempts for his 13 points and four assists. Expectations are high for those three as those three players have been efficient in numbers every game this year.
Who else stepped up? Jeremiah Condon totaled eight assists, Isaac Johnson made four shots for ten points, and Daniel Oturo finished aggressively three times.
Pulley is back on the court right now and is crushing Team (Blake) Griffin from Oklahoma 47-26 right now. Team Griffin will be 2-3 after this game. Pulley next takes on All Ohio Red this evening.
D1 Minnesota: D1 Minnesota beat Team Belief out of Maryland 63-56. D1 had a terrible shooting night making only a quarter of their field goal attempts but they dominated the glass 40-27 and lived at the foul line making 25 of 33 compared to 5 of 8 for their opponents.
Goanar Mar and Matthew Hurt combined for a perfect 14 of 14 free throw shooting scoring 11 and 18 points respectively. Hurt also grabbed seven rebounds to go with his game high point total. Those team teamed with frontcourt partner Nathan Reuvers to put the game away after Jack Sorenson got the team going scoring ten first quarter points and building 14 for the game. The hot shooting Lakeville South guard (Sorenson) continues his strong play after returning from an ankle injury.
Like the Panthers, D1 Minnesota also has two games today, one in the morning and one in the evening. First they play Team Loaded (the North Carolina version) and then take on Team Fast.