PHD Playoff Central: 5 story lines for the ND Class A State Tournament
The Class A State Tournament kicks off at 2pm today at the Bismarck Event Center and here are five storylines to follow as we kick off a huge next three days….
One. The Main Attraction – Player Wise.
Of course the main attraction for the state will be the division one signed players that will represent North Dakota at UND and NDSU in the future which is of course Aanen Moody and Jordan Meidinger. Moody, the Class A all time leading scorer, averaged 31.4 points and 3.7 steals a game leading the state while Meidinger put up 13.8 points, nine boards, and three blocks a game this season.
Dickinson takes on red hot West Fargo Sheyenne in the final game of the evening and they are a balanced team clicking on many levels. Carter Bonnema is dominating the glass, Chase Erickson and Josh Thiele are scorching the nets, Erickson is playmaking, and Collin Trottier is skillfully putting up points inside thearc.
Two. Undefeated!
Fargo Davies was our preseason number one, the current number one, and the lone unbeaten. With three games left can they go the entire season without a loss?
Jake Paper is making his case for being one of the Player of the Year and Mr. Basketball finalists. At 19 points, 11.7 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks per game plus a 60 plus percent field goal percentage guy who takes 13-14 shots a game, that is extremely impressive. So impressive that schools are really curious about what he can do.
Paper is far from a one man show. Matt Veit has by far more assists than any other EDC player plus as a guard he’s making over 50 percent of his 13-14 shots a game leading to 17.7 points a night. Davies has a lot of pieces with Andy Bear, Shane Anderson, Braeton Motschbacher, and others.
Three. Three-Peat?
Minot lost their second game of the season when they were beaten by Bismarck Century in the WDA final last week setting them behind the eight ball for state seeding. Instead of being a one seed on one side, they have to play West Fargo in round one and then likely Fargo Davies in the semi-final followed by a state title game if they can get there. A very hard road for sure.
Kyjuan Johnson and Justin Engg have had great season years doing everything you would expect. Both score 17 points a contest and both are good passers ranking in the top five in WDA in assists as well. Justin Engg is grabbing eight boards a night as pound for pound he’s one of the best rebounders in the state. Kyjuan is a quick handed player who is also in passing lanes getting two-three steals a game.
Add in that Peyton Lamoureux is also having a great year and Minot is dangerous. But so is West Fargo. Junior Joe Pistorius, or Big Shot Joe, is scoring 20 a night and the Packers have a player in Simon Haboniman who can move laterally with Johnson plus Luke Lemmon is getting seven boards a night and leads the state in field goal percentage while Abdi Sufi is a three point weapon.
Minot vs West Fargo could be an awesome first round game because the match-ups are great.
Four. Cinderella.
Bismarck is 14-10 and Fargo Shanley is 15-10 winning six of their last seven. These are not true Cinderellas as they have winning records and are both playing well coming into the final games of the year. Shanley faces Bismarck Century while Bismarck gets the tough task of Fargo Davies.
Shanley has won their 15 games with a very balanced team. Not much star power, just a hard working club battling together. Jake Kava is one of the better shooters in Class A and Jake Reinholz is a sleeper as far as a college prospects go. He’s had a nice year. Shanley takes on Century who is playing much better since being woken up by the Mandan loss. Josh Sipes and Lucas Meyer lead them.
Bismarck is dangerous. Solomon Garter and Joe Jahner are battling bigs with Garter able to lock down his spot in the post and Jahner using relentless effort to produce. They also have a nice lead guard in Ian Schafer. All of the can score and score consistently in their own way.
Five. Anything Can Happen.
Expected Minot and Fargo Davies to be on opposite sides on a collision course? Expected Dickinson to make the WDA title game? Expect Century to fall to Mandan? Expect GFRR and Devils Lake to be here at the start of the year?
Anything can happen. Enjoy!