Great Plains Alliance: Cougars win showdown, move to semis
The world of Grassroots Basketball is different. The positives and negatives for a player and team are unique compared to the high school season. Today the North Dakota Cougars defeated the ECI Prospects at the Great Plains Alliance and it…
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Continue ReadingThe world of Grassroots Basketball is different. The positives and negatives for a player and team are unique compared to the high school season. Today the North Dakota Cougars defeated the ECI Prospects at the Great Plains Alliance and it was huge moment. Here’s why.
The North Dakota Cougars have played in three events so far and they’ve lost one game all year. It’s a team made up of players from Velva, Stanley, Rugby, Glenburn, Bottineau, and Dunseith. The group has good size with Kaedyn Lynch, cousin Wyatt Lynch, and Logan Wangerin who recently moved from North Dakota to the south suburbs of the Twin Cities.
The Cougars also have quality guard and wing play from Nicholas Effertz, Max Henry, and others. They are a group that has played a lot together in the off-season and it’s a group we hope plays in the Summer Jam in Sioux Falls in two weekends at the Sanford Pentagon. Why? They just beat the ECI Prospects who were 15-7 on the year and ranked number one in the PHD 16U rankings.
Will the Cougars be number one next week? We have to see how they do in the Great Plains Alliance final four and how the PBC National team does down in Arizona. But right now they can take the claim as best in North Dakota after a two score win over ECI.
Effertz paced the team with three first half treys and then hit two more towards the end of the game. Wyatt Lynch hit some late free throws and Kaeydn scored on three possessions to complete the victory. Effertz used his power to get space and his touch to finish plays while Kaedyn took care of business in the paint and Wyatt scored in spaces between. Add in the low post finishing of Wangerin and the handling of Henry and Landen Foster this was the formula to get the job done.
This was a game full of talent. Kade Lynch of ECI and Bismarck Century proved that. In the first half the 5-foot-11 Lynch seemed to go shot for shot with Effertz. Kade made three treys for his 15 points.
Big shot Joe Pistorius made a name for himself with the huge shot at the state tournament and the game winner here in St. Cloud in April in the first Grassroots event of the year. He scored 15 although he couldn’t get a big shot to sink in the final minute. Josh Sipes and Kade Amundson also made big plays (both also from Century) but ECI came up on the short end when the buzzer sounded.
This is a game that means something. No it’s not a contest played in front of a school and community full of people but it is a game played with and around their basketball peers. It’s the best players in North Dakota facing the best in North Dakota. And the best in North Dakota facing the best in the Midwest. And for those on the Cougars who are all from the Class B level, they beat a team with mostly Class A players which meant a lot to them as well.
It’s a fantastic challenge in a multigame environment that tests mental and physical toughness and pushes guys to remember their skills and discipline of play when it’s hard to not be tough, and to not be disciplined. In some ways this challenge is bigger than a high school game because it’s a collection of the best competing against the best. It doesn’t have the community support with a town name on a jersey but the names North Dakota on one jersey and ECI on the other both represent the best of entire state going against some of the best in the Midwest.
And on this day the team that was the toughest by two scores was the North Dakota Cougars. And it’s win they will remember because it was against their peers. Now they get to play in the semi-finals on Saturday and hopefully again in Sioux Falls in two weeks.