Ten Best: CDH vs Woodbury
Suburban East rivals Woodbury and Cretin-Derham Hall faced on Friday night in a close match-up for most of the game, but the Raider offensive rebounding pushed them to an 89-73 victory. MVP: Daniel Oturu. Made 16 of 21 attempts,…
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Continue ReadingSuburban East rivals Woodbury and Cretin-Derham Hall faced on Friday night in a close match-up for most of the game, but the Raider offensive rebounding pushed them to an 89-73 victory.
MVP: Daniel Oturu. Made 16 of 21 attempts, scored 33 points, grabbed 15 boards, and blocked eight shots. Woodbury can game plan for a lot of things the next time they play but what do you do with a guy like Oturo moving on the backside and throwing down at the rim? Not much you can do. Daniel scored with a 17 foot face up jumper, he used the face-up one dribble attack to finish with a physical shoulder, went to a rapid spin move, and scored with the jumphook.
Best Offensive Performance: Michael Jones. This is a division one talent. Michael Jones is a D1 prospect. The teams that recruit know it and when we hit spring time Jones is going to be getting strong D1 interest. There is some JP Macura to this 6-foot-4 wing. He’s not as long and wiry as Macura and may not have the basket explosion but Jones has the Macura like confidence, toughness, and competitive edge. When Jones came off a ball screen and nailed a three in small space that was Macura like. When Jones ignored the defense as well as his own spot on the floor to drain a near NBA trey, that was Macura like. Jones made 8 of 17 shots and all seven of his foul shots for his 26 points plus grabbed nine boards and led the team with three assists.
Best Defensive Performance: Oturu. Woodbury was limited to one possession just about every time down the floor as Daniel pulled off the d-boards. The Raider blocked eight shots and adjusted countless others. Starting Woodbury post David Alston scored once. CDH won the rebounding edge 38 to 21 and much of that was Daniel’s defensive boarding.
Best Guy Off the Bench: Nathan Bursch. The Minnesota football recruit had a future football coach watching him and Bursch was the best player off the bench in the game. He used his muscle to get to space and score four times for his nine points and six boards.
Best Under the Radar Performance: Jake Prince. Jake was without a doubt the ex-factor. He scored 14 of his 18 points on second chance production plus the ten boards got him to a double-double. His double-double was just as important as Oturu’s to the win. Prince is also an improved shooter although he went at the rim in this game.
Best Underclassmen: Jaeden King. Once again the sophomore stretched the defense and gave CDH a different element that opponents have to contend with. King knocked out four treys and scored 13 points with his pretty stroke.
Best Story to watch Moving Forward: Can anybody in the SEC beat CDH? CDH is a team that has three seniors and Friday night only one of them played. They start four juniors and a sophomore. It’s a young team so they can’t get too over confident and I don’t think that will be a problem after four non-conference losses against very good teams.
But the top contenders in the SEC are Woodbury and East Ridge, and both were beaten by double figures by CDH. The Raiders have to travel to Woodbury and East Ridge still so those are tough games but I just don’t see anybody stopping them from winning the league.
Forest Lake is a good team but they aren’t quite there. Roseville has won 3 SEC games but they are young. Mounds View is not what they were, Stillwater is 3-12, White Bear Lake is still down, and Park had a nice season start but is now 0-5 in league play.
Best Aspect of the Environment: Oturu future coach. This was a big night for Oturu as it was his first game after committing to Minnesota. Front and center was Richard Pitino sitting with assistant Ed Conroy. Pitino interacted with the crowd and watched his future frontcourt player.
Best Prospect: Oturu. This is obvious, Daniel is a top 65-70 player nationally and a consensus four star guy. He had offers from excellent programs including Kansas before picking Minnesota. He has a 7-foot-2 wingspan, continues to grow by the day, is very active, and has a quick bounce to the rim for boards, dunks, and swats.
Other: Jake West. Ryan Larson. If Jake West hadn’t done such an outstanding job of attacking the basket, staying on balance, and finishing after contact the Royals wouldn’t have been as close as they were. He made He made 8 of 14 shots for his 24 points including three three-pointers sunk.
Ryan Larson’s pace makes teams transition quick and often forces teams to commit extra defenders to stopping his push. This allows Ryan’s teammates to get up the floor, get to space, and make plays. Larson can fly to the rim and finish or use a nice outside touch to finish. In this game he was off making 5 of 15 looks for his 13 points but he made up for that with six boards and six assists.
Also, Jaylen Newton is the 5th CDH starter and he quietly goes about doing what the coaches ask with consistency. Scored six, boarded four times, worked hard, played solid D.