Great Plains Alliance: Saturday Minnesota Standouts
The first place honors at the Great Plains Alliance alluded the teams from Minnesota last Saturday, but there were several standouts including Moorhead, Minnesota’s own Maleeck Harden.
To finish off the Great Plains Alliance coverage we want to make our ten points without taking up too much space. So we go basketball in bullet points, two sentences each.
- Maleeck Harden worked his way to the foul line scoring 14 points in the title game with 9 of 10 foul shooting. The South Dakota Attack didn’t have a player that could guard him for reasons that we have explained again and again on the Prep Hoops Network the last week.
- Minnesota Fury 6-foot-7 big Dane Zimmer had a fantastic weekend scoring 14 in the title game on 7 of 10 shooting. Dane is an offense weapon moving off the screen using fantastic footwork, great hands, and perfect timing.
- Fury guard Jacob Beeninga gave us another example of why he needs some time of nickname for his clutch play. It simply seems that when the game is close and Beeninga is on the floor he makes game winning plays.
- The way WOTN 6-foot-10 center Steven Crowl played against Matthew Mors, a high major offered 2021 and held his ground well. Crowl’s length helped force Mors into misses on 9 of his first 11 shots and Crowl scored a pair of low post baby hooks and a pair of threes putting up 12 and 7. A good showing for Crowl.
- Lake City/WOTN talent Reid Gastner has really put some time into his game. His skill level has vastly improved showing range and the ability to use a dribble is getting better, plus he’s still a strong forward who put his body on Mors and made the day tough for the Attack standout.
- A player I came away very impressed with was Comets Elite 16s guard Henry Abraham, a player known for his jumper (hit five threes scoring 22 points in the title game) but is providing even more. Henry’s dribble separation into space has become as quick as they come and we loved what he did defensively in the title contest.
- It would be hard to find a guy more engaged vocally for his team than forward Nick Peterson of BSM and Comets Elite 16s. His energy level is infectious plus he scored a dozen points with five rebounds in the title game loss.
- Jack Middleton continues to be good for three treys a game at the 17u level and his usual defense and Andy Stafford‘s consistency as a 3-4 bucket guy every game for the Fury has been important.
- STMA players have been playing well for Comets Elite and one more to mention is Sean Buchanan, a 5-foot-11 2020 guard. Buchanan was the second Comets option in the final four and he hit double figures both games.