PHD Playoff Central: A Wild Thursday Night
Day one of March in North Dakota put the Mad in Madness. What will tonight bring? PHD Playoff Central breaks it down.
Upset City! Where do we start! St. Mary’s beating Bismarck 67-65 is the biggest upset of the night when you look at records and seeding numbers although Jamestown over Mandan 70-67 was quite a surprise and Shanley giving Davies their second loss of the year (60-54) was quite a surprise as well. Cole Gendreau put up a triple double of 16 points on four threes, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists plus John Nordberg gave 12 points and seven boards while senior Luke Kambeitz put up a game high 19. That same type of balance is what Jamestown caught Mandan off guard with a victory. Five-foot-11 junior Jared Kallenbach had 18 while Jordan Horgan scored 15, sophomore standout Boden Skunberg had 14, and Marshall Walters scored 13.
Six-foot-5 guard/wing Cameron Saville had 18 points on one of his more memorable days for Shanley. It wasn’t his numbers as much as it was the key baskets down the stretch that Saville scored as well as the strong boards. Then Jacob Kava, who had 14 points, came off the bench after an injury to hit a huge jumper. It was seniors playing like seniors and Davies not having a go to answer in the end for a response.
The Big Stage. Bismarck Civic Center. Bismarck and Mandan are now all of a sudden in an elimination situation. The loser of today’s game is out. Both have been listed as the number one team in the state at one point and now their back is against the wall with the season on the line. Bismarck has lost four of their last ten games after some considered them to be the most talented team in the state. That game is at four and likely will have more eyes on it than the Century/Minot round three match-up after it. The Cinderella contest at 8pm which is St. Mary’s/Jamestown and the winner not only plays for the WDA title, but they book their trip surprisingly to state!
Your EDC Title Game! West Fargo and Fargo Davies may have been the higher ranked teams, but it’s WF Sheyenne and Fargo Shanley that have booked their trip to state and that are playing for the conference title (West Fargo has to beat Fargo South for state while Davies needs to be GFRR). Sheyenne knocked off West Fargo 74-71 and although the word upset has been thrown around, Sheyenne is a good basketball team that seems to be a bit deeper. The theme of Thursday Night was balance and Sheyenne simply had more. Joe Pistorius scored 26 points and got some help from Tanner Zepeda and Luke Lennon but not enough.
Meanwhile Sheyenne had five guys score four or more times with junior guard Christian Kuntz leading the way at 18. Zach Westphal scored 13, sophomore guard Blake Berg had 11, and senior Elijah Charles stepped forward with a dozen. Like we said the game was about balance and Sheyenne earned their way into the EDC title game. Now the Mustangs are the favorites to win a trophy as they have beaten Shanley twice already this year by a combined 40 points. That said, Shanley is a different team now than they were two months ago.