Great Plains Alliance: SD Attack & ECI make the Semis
The ECI Prospects and the SD Attack are representing North Dakota and South Dakota well respectively as each have qualified for the 17U GPA semi-finals.
Numbers of All Kinds
The South Dakota Attack took apart D1 Minnesota Rise 77-57 moving themselves into the quarterfinals of the Great Plains Alliance. The pace of the game was set by guard Sawyer Schultz who was simply more talented than any Rise player that tried to defend him.
Sawyer sees the game ahead of most opponents setting up his next play before the sharp separation move clears the initial defender. Try and stop him in the middle of the court and Schultz will make quick work of his opponent and without a decrease in pace. Then you have Sawyer’s vision putting together a variety of leads that gave him nine assists in beating the Rise. It wasn’t a good shooting game for Sawyer but it didn’t need to be. His pace push, nine assists, and seven rebounds did enough.
When Schultz wasn’t hitting cutters and shooters on the move, the ball worked itself through the Attack halfcourt offense to Mitchell Goodbary in the post or at the elbow. Goodbary does a fantastic job facing up at the elbow and locating an open shooter moving off a screen or a cutter.
Mitchell put together six assists and then scored a balanced 21 points at the rim. The Attack 6-foot-5 power forward uses his strength to power over players and Goodbary is so good at stunning a guy with contact and then quickly making his move to the rim. Once on balance shooting the ball Goodbary is too strong to foul unless you hit him hard and event that often becomes an And1.
In the semi-final win over Heat MacDonald, Noah Freidel had an answer for everything the Heat did scoring 25 points silencing every spirited moment the opposition had. He was supported by the five threes from Cade Bleeker and the 11 points from Goodbary.
Albrecht Makes His Case
North Dakota Attack 6-foot-7 power forward Dalton Albrecht is surely making his case as the top frontcourt player in the senior class of North Dakota players. There are certainly others up for the claim (Mason Walters and Macauley Young come to mind) but the 27 point and 10 rebound performance that Dalton had against Minnesota Select impressed.
With coaches from Minnesota-Crookston, Jamestown, Concordia-Moorhead, and several others watching close, Dalton opened the game spinning out of a double team to score and hitting a 12-foot jumpshot a couple possessions later. From there Albrecht cut for a score, passed out of a double team for a Seth Hetzel three, and then Albrecht hit a three-pointer of his own.
So here is a player with good size who plays so hard that his coached had to force him to take a couple breathers. Short breathers though because Dalton’s effort on the glass and running the floor to get ahead of the opponent is constant. He runs well, moves laterally as good as most bigs, has a nice touch, and Dalton gives all out effort all the time. Sounds like a power forward I would want in my program.
Bialas Continues to Build
Camden Bialas is 6-foot-8 from Parker High School entering his senior year. He’s long and runs fairly well but he needs to add some core strength so he can continue to progress. Camden already has a nice touch around the basket and when he’s confident in his position his turn into a long arm extension is one of the tougher plays for a post to stop because Bialas is so long.
Friday afternoon Camden put together a five score, 11 point game with several division two and NAIA college coaches watching. They saw him touch in scores and make quality post turns for results and then go the other way and stop the D1 Rise best post player (and second best player overall) from scoring more than once. When Camden adds core strength allowing him to have better balance and more confidence he is going to be a nice college prospect.
The Beast from Beulah
North Dakota finished their loss against ECI with only five guys and the final score was tough. Before the final buzzer sounded though, Beulah wing Chad Morsette did a lot of talking with his jumpshot and even though his team was up 20 points ECI coach Luke Moorman wasn’t able to relax because he couldn’t get anyone to limit Morsette from knocking down jumpers.
What was even more impressive about Morsette’s 21 point game was the angles he made shots from. Sure ECI could of done a better job of stopping Chad from catching the ball but once it was in his hands Morsette was making some tough shots over out-stretched length.
More From St. Cloud
Tyrell Rodriquez of Oak Grove showed an offensive repertoire against the Phenom catching on the block and scoring several points for ECI in different ways. The up and under finish was my favorite but there were physical low post turns for scores too. Tyrell also does a nice job of finding places to catch dump-offs and that 17 foot jumper made had a soft touch to it too.
Joe Jahner showed off his versatility in the morning game handling several different roles for ECI. When the team needed a guy to deny a shooter he stepped in and had some good possessions with it. Jahner’s transition pushed help ECI build a big league and as usual he made multiple deep attempts. Has the ability to help a team in so many different ways. Jahner scored 12 in the quarterfinal win over the Wisconsin City team helping ECI get to the semi-finals.
Treyton Mattern scored 18 for ECI in the semi-final showing the reliant toughness that made himself a central figure in this winter’s Century run to the state championship. Type of player that forces nothing but will take every inch you give him and make you pay.
Mason Peterson of ECI Selects and Bismarck Century gets the defensive award for the day. His energy picked up all of his teammates especially when he took two charges in the same game. Mason’s attack and kick helped his team as did the transition three he sunk.
With 16 points playing against a tough group of Minnesota Select guards Trey Wiest had himself a game that he can look back on as one that could build confidence. The North Dakota Attack PG stretched the defense with a pair of threes and did a great job of attacking all the cracks in the opposing defense. Some of Trey’s touched in finishes against contesting defenders ranked with the tougher made shots of the weekend.