adidas Gauntlet Series Friday Wrap-Up
The first live period of the year kicked off on Friday night, and I’m in Dallas, TX to check out the Iowa Barnstormers in their first event as a shoe-sponsored team at the adidas Gauntlet Series. The 16U and 17U teams each played their opening games on Friday night. Below are wrap-ups of those games, and player evaluations and plenty of other content will come throughout the rest of the weekend and next week.
6:00 p.m.: Barnstormers 17U 79 vs. Team Lillard (CA) 62
A big second half helped carry the 17U Barnstormers to a Gauntlet opening win, 79-62, over Team Lillard on Friday night. Trailing 31-30 at the break, the ‘Stormers did a much better job moving the ball in the second half, leading to open looks from 3, dribble penetration and plenty of free throws to take command of the game.
Joe Wieskamp scored 13 of his game-high 20 points in the second half, knocking down a pair of second half 3s (three in the game) to help pace the way. He also threw down four dunks, including a late exclamation point that drew some oohs and aahs from the crowd. Stevens Point (WI) forward Joey Hauser added 17 points, AJ Green had 14 and Papillion La Vista (NE) wing Ed Chang added 13 points in the win.
Some notable college coaches in attendance included Fran McCaffery (Iowa HC), Ben Jacobson (Northern Iowa HC), Tom Izzo (Michigan State HC), Dana Altman (Oregon HC), Steve Wojciechowski (Marquette HC) and Ed Conroy (Minnesota asst), with a slew of other low-to-mid-major head and assistant coaches as well.
Scoring: Wieskamp 20, Hauser 17, Green 14, Chang 13, Hazekamp 7, Ingoli 2, Moritz 2, Johnson 2, Houghton 2
8:40 p.m.: Barnstormers 16U 68 vs. The Firm (NJ) 38
Ten Barnstormers scored as they cruised to a 68-38 opening win on Friday night. The ‘Stormers led wire-to-wire, jumping out to a quick 5-0 lead and never looking back. They led 33-21 at the half, and blew the game open in the final 16 minutes en route to a 30-point win over The Firm.
A balanced effort was led by Derek Krogmann, who had 14 points. Noah Carter added 12, and six other players chipped in at least five points. The length and size of guys like Patrick McCaffery, Dylan Jones, Krogmann and Trey Hutcheson allowed for the Barnstormers to control the paint all night, blocking or altering over a dozen shots and making it extremely difficult to score at the rim.
Coaches from North Dakota, North Dakota State, South Dakota and Iowa were in attendance.
Scoring: Krogmann 14, Carter 12, Jones 9, Wolf 8, Malensek 6, Hutcheson 5, Hilmer 5, Hart 5, McCaffery 2, Quinn 2