Adidas Prospect Series: Saturday Rundown
The Adidas Prospect Series has hit the Twin Cities area and Prep Hoops attended Saturday during the early rounds of bracket play.
Minnesota Heat Johnson 72 Grassroots Minnesota 70.
Cole Anderson of Lakeville South had a career game putting up 33 points while Goamar Pal knocked out some big threes and Marcell Winston scored as a strong second option. The Heat players made their way to the Gold bracket final in what was an overtime game highlighted by some unusual and comical happenings from the officials. Heat Johnson was in control but the face-up basket attack of JaVonni Bickham took the game to overtime. Anderson was the MVP with his scorching shooting hand so he could be a shooting option for the Panthers this winter.
Minnesota Comets Elite 84 D1 MN Rise 38.
The Rise is a solid team but they ran into a complete whirlwind on Saturday night as the Comets have a point to prove after losing to the D1 Minnesota 16u squad. Matt Todd took a nasty fall early which looked to be his fuel to take over the game. After the fall Todd jumped up went on an extended run of three threes, a pull-up, and to attack makes. Mitch Plombon assaulted the basket on baseline in-bounds sets and Joseph Hedstrom scored seven times in the paint on post-ups and floor runs in front of Minnesota Head Coach Richard Pitino.
ECI Prospects 62 Powerhouse White 51.
This is the second meeting between these teams in a month but the 6th ranked player in Minnesota Both Gach was on the top Powerhouse team this time, but ECI won this game as well. Griffin Sage led Powerhouse as their main option once again and it was a nice game for Cody Mattson of STMA to grab a little attention. That said, Powerhouse couldn’t stop the three point onslaught from ECI. Joe Pistorius made his normal amount of deep jumpers including a late half three from Mars and Jayce Archambault sunk four of them including the dagger that sealed the game. The momentum though was from Andrew Christianson who had a game high 21 including five threes that broke the game open.
Fundamental U Black 80 Comets Servaty 54.
The dominance of Gabriel Bergeron was early and often. The 6-foot-8 player from Dundee-Crown High in Illinois simply dominated his Minnesota opponents. This isn’t a small or talentless Comets team, they have four guys being looked at by scholarship schools and a few with multiple offers up front. Bergeron completely dominated them all with an outstanding performance scoring performance putting buckets on the board in several ways.
Fury Antl 82 Select Ohnstad 72.
I didn’t see this game personally but it needs to be pointed out that this Fury squad is playing outstanding basketball right now boosting their record to 32-8 on the year. Fury Antl was at times a spring Jekyll & Hyde but they have now secured victories over Powerhouse Minnesota, Fury Wilde, and Select Ohstand so there is no way they are missing the top ten in Minnesota when it’s released tomorrow. Today they get D1 Minnesota.
D1 Minnesota 53 WOTN 43.
This was a good old physical battled and I liked it because it brought out which players were tough and the officials allowed it consistently. The players seemed to enjoy it too because after fighting and wrestling, they shook hands and showed respect to one another after the game. Who were the toughest players to battle through? Matthew scored 13 despite being thrown to the ground a couple times, Calvin Wishart had 13 with most coming early, and Anders Nelson had 13 including the biggest plays of the game. Tyler Lewko led WOTN with 11 and Bryce Phillips proved a lot with his play as well. Roy Williams was watching so maybe that gave all the guys some extra fire.
D1 Minnesota 16s 90 ECI Select 56.
One of the ECI players was heard saying “those guys are only going to be juniors?” after the game. They are, but this is the top 16u team in Minnesota and a ranked team nationally. Everybody in a D1 uniform seemed to get numbers in this game. Robert Jones scored a dozen and looked excellent, Jamison Battle scored 17 and was offered by UND after the game, Cole Nicholson steamrolled through North Dakota kids for his 16 and Jack Middleton was strong again. ECI didn’t have the guard play to keep up but Parker Stenseth and Kemal Hajric did what they could to match the Minnesota kids up front. Kemal had a team high 16 points while Stenseth scored 14.