Ten Best: Minnetonka vs North St. Paul
The Skippers and Polars are similar teams in terms of size, talent, and coaches preaching defensive effort. This is why the game was expected to be close, and was close all the way to the final seconds. Goodnews Kpegeol attacked and scored…
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Continue ReadingThe Skippers and Polars are similar teams in terms of size, talent, and coaches preaching defensive effort. This is why the game was expected to be close, and was close all the way to the final seconds. Goodnews Kpegeol attacked and scored a clutch basket to tie the game at 63 with 16 seconds left and the game had the feel of overtime. But with four seconds to go Burt Hedstrom caught, and was fouled. The call, questionable for sure but the Skippers knocked down the game winning foul shots to get their first win.
Minnetonka coach Ryan Freeberg has his team competing very hard. They scrapped with Chaska and Apple Valley in losses so getting this win was important, and it was earned. Burt Hedstrom has grown into a leader as a senior on both ends. He had 22 points, six boards, three assists, and made the game winning foul shots. Loved the effort from Matt Haas who battled for 16 points and 13 rebounds and fellow senior Isaiah Carver-Bagley scored 18 with seven rebounds. Goodnews Kpegeol led the Polars with 19 and fellow junior Bryce Phillips had 17.
MVP: Burt Hedstrom. Extremely impressed with the last 12 months of Burt. A year ago he was barely in the rotation. Had a great summer and is now making game winning free throws and scoring in aggressive ways. Hit for 22 points plus had six assists. Not just a catch and shoot guy that people think.
Best Offensive Performance: Hedstrom. Continuing with Burt, he is a vocal leader on the offensive end while freshman point guard Jalen Dearring gets used to varsity basketball. Burt scored an efficient 22 points including free throws after a controversial call to win the game.
Best Defensive Performance: Matt Haas. The Tonka senior plays the way every coach wants to their guys to play regardless of ability: relentless and disciplined. Matt does what he is asked on both ends and fought his way to 13 rebounds with 16 points. His effort was astounding.
Best Guy Off the Bench: Gary Dixon. These are not deep teams so there wasn’t much bench impact and Gary had trouble finishing. But in terms of energy given and impact made play by play Dixon was likely the best of the guys that came off the bench from both teams.
Best Coaching Decision. Freeberg final play. Both coaches did a good job in this game but after the Polars tied the contest it as Freeberg’s full court design of attack that got the ball at the rim and put the game in the hands of the officials where a call was made.
Best Under the Radar Performance: Jaquas Towns. The Polar frontcourt player is an undersized big who Coach Janquart trusts to play the role of low post defensive worker, rebounder, strong ball screen defender, and off ball active offensive player. Towns scored ten for the Polars.
Best Underclassmen: Jalen Dearring. Jalen is a freshman lead guard who has grown some although there is a lot of filling out left to do. Jalen had a nice game against an older and talented guard. Tonka had good shots most of the game and a key part was Dearring able to turn the corner to bring defenders in before ball movement plus his intelligence in making the right initial read to start each possession.
Best Story to watch Moving Forward: What will Minnetonka be? They will be better than I thought for the following reasons: Dearring is more advanced than expected, Hedstrom will score more than I thought, I didn’t know they added Jon Martens as a transfer, and didn’t know they had the amount of fight in them that they do. The Skippers are going to win about 6, 7, or maybe 8 more games than I thought they would if they stay healthy (although honestly I was thinking they would be about 9-17 this year based on their schedule).
Best Stat: Zeke Carver-Bagley numbers. Zeke looks to be in for a really nice season. He scored his 18 points in more explosive ways than I expected to and he helped on the glass with seven boards. Moved actively off the ball and competed at a high level.
Best Prospect: Goodnews Kpegeol. North Dakota State had two coaches watching and Nebraska-Omaha had one. Goodnews is rare in that he has agility, length, skill to play the guard spot, and the explosion to finish strong over the top. Kpegeol had a tough first half missing on six of his first nine attempts but kicked off half two with a three, foul shots, and a dunk in transition. Had a clutch attacking score late that was forgotten because of the call on the other end in the final seconds.