Postseason Preview: Section 6A
Section basketball is just around the corner and as the season comes to a close, it’s time to start looking at individual sections. Here’s the lowdown on Section 6A: Favorite: Norman County East/Ulen-Hitterdal, Lake Park-Audubon The top two teams…
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Section basketball is just around the corner and as the season comes to a close, it’s time to start looking at individual sections.
Here’s the lowdown on Section 6A:
Favorite: Norman County East/Ulen-Hitterdal, Lake Park-Audubon
The top two teams in Section 6A reside in the North subsection as Norman County East/Ulen Hitterdal and Lake Park-Audubon both can stake a claim to the top spot.
The Titans have an edge at this point given their superior record but the two teams split the regular season series and seem evenly matched.
NCE/U-H has just three losses on the year — two to Ada-Borup — and while the Titans haven’t necessarily blown a lot of teams out, they’ve shown they are more than comfortable playing in hotly-contested games.
Dawson Fox-Murray and Isaac Habedank lead a talented group that has a good mix of juniors and seniors and while the Titans may not have the size of Lake Park-Audubon (few do), they have more than enough juice to get to the state tournament.
Any Lake Park-Audubon conversation obviously starts with 6-foot-10 senior center Jesse Bergh. Bergh’s got an incredible story — and Chris Murphy of the Forum told it incredibly well — going from a guy who had never played organized basketball until his sophomore year to a potential best player in school history in a two-year stretch.
Bergh’s a load inside, averaging better than 25 points per game on the season and if the Raiders are going to make a repeat trip to state, he’ll have to lead them there.
Mitch Hall and Grant Pederson provide additional scoring from the perimeter for a team that’s shown at times that it can be dominant, but also has shown it is upsettable.
In the hunt: Parkers Prairie (South), Hillcrest Lutheran Academy (North), Battle Lake (South), Ortonville (South)
Parkers Prairie is the top seeded team thus far in the South subsection with Ortonville and Battle Lake right behind.
The Panthers have a strong record, but have shown they are capable of losing to teams that will finish in the 3-6 range in their subsection. So they certainly aren’t a heavy favorite by any means.
Andrew Johnson and Ryan Blake give them two solid scorers on the perimeter and Travis Yohnke is a solid prospect on the interior.
Battle Lake and Ortonville are in the mix in the south subsection as well given both teams should get close to 20 wins on the season.
Photo by Drew HerronBattle Lake’s Eric Van Erp is one of the top players in all of Class A and might be good enough to will his team deep into the postseason.
Another high-ender in the section is senior guard Kyler Newman (pictured), the go-to guy for Hillcrest-Lutheran Academy. He’s joined in the backcourt by Tommy Thompson to form perhaps the best guard duo in the section — which can be worth a lot at this time of year.
Upset Special: Park Christian (North), Hancock (South)
The Hancock Owls will likely land a No. 4/5 seed in the South subsection but they are undoubtedly talented enough to pull off an extended section run.
Junior guard Noah Kannegiesser is terrific, consistently scoring at least 20 points per game for a team that’s lost five games by a combined 43 points. The Owls lost by just 13 to Central Minnesota Christian and lost by five to Parkers Prairie at Parkers Prairie, five to Ortonville in Ortonville and five to Battle Lake.
Park Christian will likely end up as a 5/6 seed but the Falcons have played a very difficult schedule to this point. They’ve played a lot of the good teams on their schedule tough as of late too. Steele Senske is one of the top juniors in the state and can carry a team on the offensive end. Ryan Kerr is an excellent second option too.
Projected Seedings
Section 6A — North
- NCE/U-H
- Lake Park-Audubon
- Hillcrest Lutheran Academy
- Waubun
- Park Christian
- New York Mills
- Rothsay
- Underwood
- Henning
Section 6A — South
- Parkers Prairie
- Battle Lake
- Ortonville
- Hancock
- Brandon/Evansville
- Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa
- West Central Area
- Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley
- Ashby
- Wheaton/Herman-Norcross