Ten Best: Class AAAA State Semi-Finals
Saturday night it’s Apple Valley vs Champlin Park for the title. McKinley Wright vs Tre Jones likely for player of the year. It should be outstanding.
MVP. Tre Jones. Tre was sensational this evening. Controlled the game in every way. Was fantastic defending Brad Davison after starting the game on Jack Hutchison. Jones did a great job in chase and made Davison go over the top for contested shots all night.
The other way Jones could not be kept in front. He went where he wanted all game long. He pushed in transition perfectly as he always does, Tre dribble separated to the point of making opponents look stuck, and he blazed into the paint off ball screens. Scored on 7 of 11 attempts for his 19 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, and dished out ten assists and half of them were for key triples.
Best Defensive Player. Theo John. The monster dunk was great, John had a couple brilliant post moves, and he scored 18 points on ten shots with ten boards. The thing he did to really change the game was swat shots. He had to retreating blocks that took away lay-ups and limited what the Trojans got in the paint. He was credited with six blocks but I recall seven and I know he had more than one after they showed five on the screen. His deep post presence was a huge different.
Best Defensive Player 2. Luke Martens. Martens paired with Jones and the two of them did a great job on Davison and Pickford. Luke was a good early game match-up for Brad because he moves his feet well and he is similar sized. Luke did the job offensively scoring 17 points on 8 of 10 shooting and much of it was off the ball activity (back-cuts putbacks as well as baseline attacks after catching a reversal).
Best Under the Radar Impact. Josiah Strong and Brian Smith. Smith had a sequence of a three, a block on a Lindberg pull-up, and then another three. Those plays were huge in the changing of the momentum of the game. The dagger make late was from Josiah Strong off a McKinley pass. His make put the game at ten with under two minutes to go.
Best Under the Radar Impact 2. Mohamed Kone. Opened the game with a couple triples moving into position with feet set to knock out key scores. The senior hit four triples in all as a deadly threat with his feet set. Maple Grove lost him several times and Kone made them pay. Scored 16 points.
Best Lesson to Teach the Youth. Ryan Lindberg was having a bad day shooting. He was three of ten and couldn’t find his stroke. What did he do? Scored on a putback chasing a miss. Ryan then cut and got a great pass from Baumgartner for a lay-up. The confidence from those scores then led to a couple threes made moments later. Ryan scored a game high 21 points plus grabbed a team high eight boards. The lesson? If you are having a bad day shooting do other things to get going.
Best Underclassmen. Jacob Beeninga. The Wayzata young player exploded for a quick 13 points started out with three treys made. He scored 15 for the game as the Rebels sent more attention at him in the second half but it was still an impressive game for such a young player.
Best Off the Bench. Josiah Strong/Mitchell Faust/Noah Champion. Strong scored nine and hit the dagger late in the game. Faust is a big that has a large crowd following, those fans went wild for him on his short jumper make as well as his deep post scores. Faust is a 6-foot-6 senior, Strong a junior guard. In the second game Noah Champion scored four field goals including a three for 11 points on only four shots. He scored off the ball three times.
The NHR Heart of the Game. McKinley Wright. Stealing this from Boston Scientific, McKinley made plays. He rotated to guard Benninga and slowed him down, guarded Gavin Baumgartner at times (who had only nine points), McKinley grabbed seven boards, created four turnovers, scored his game high 21 points on 8 of 14 shooting. Once again did whatever it took to win on both ends of the floor.
Best on the O-Glass. Tywhon Pickford. He’s a fantastic offensive rebounder and he showed that with five putback scores. Tywhon chased down those five using his great bounce, effort, and feel for the carom chasing things down. Started slow but worked his way to 23 points on 9 of 21 shooting for eight rebounds.