Ten Best: Spring Grove vs Browerville
The Spring Grove/Browerville clash started off about as slow and ugly as a game could with good field goal attempts being rare, and makes uncommon. Spring Grove is the much bigger team and the eye test says that USF signed Chase…
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Continue ReadingThe Spring Grove/Browerville clash started off about as slow and ugly as a game could with good field goal attempts being rare, and makes uncommon. Spring Grove is the much bigger team and the eye test says that USF signed Chase Grinde has a lot more to work with than MSU-Moorhead signed Bryce Irsfeld, even with Lion junior Ethan Matzke not able to play today. Spring Grove did a nice job on Irsfeld forcing him into six straight misses to start the game. Grinde hit three of his first four treys and Spring Grove took a 31-22 lead into the half.
Half two belonged to Alex Folz. Bryce Irsfeld had a small run but not enough to get his team over the hump. The guard that controlled the game was Spring Grove’s strong, vocal leader Alex Folz. He scored seven times on physical basket attacks simply fighting his way to space and completing plays. Folz also did a great job directing his team and joined Grinde in doing a solid job on Irsfeld defensively. The end score was Spring Grove 58, Browerville 48 in a key Class A battle.
MVP: Alex Folz. The sophomore most people know from Spring Grove is Ethan Matzke but Ethan was not at the event on Saturday. Another sophomore stepped up in his place scoring a game high number of points and playing the best overall basketball of anybody in the game.
Best Offensive Performance: Folz. Alex used his muscular frame and his savvy play to get to the rim to score seven attacking baskets late in the game. It didn’t matter if it was Bryce Irsfeld or any other play on him Folz got to the rim and scored most of his team’s points down the stretch. He had 14 of his 16 in the second half.
Best Defensive Performance: Folz/Chase Grinde. Spring Grove used a few different defenders at Bryce Irsfeld but the toughest for Bryce was the length of agile Chase Grinde. The length of Chase, as well as his lateral ability allowing him to keep Bryce in front, limited Irsfeld to 16 points on a very difficult day shooting. Folz spent some time on Bryce but was just as valuable in his verbal direction.
Best Guy Off the Bench: Not Sure. I would say Ethan Matzke if he was there in street clothes but he wasn’t with the team. Most of the court production was from starters.
Best Coaching Decision. Make Bryce shoot over length. Coach Wade Grinde threw several defensive looks at Bryce including the length of 6-foot-5 Grinde and at times 6-foot-4 Noah Myrah and 6-foot-3 Brock Schuttemeier. All of the Lion length can move their feet too so Bryce had long arms to shoot over all game and the players always seemed to be fresh.
Best Under the Radar Performance: Noah Myrah. Noah is a key ingredient because he is a role player to go with Grinde, Folz, Matzke, and Schuttemeier. But Noah is an agile kid with good size and he scored nine valuable points to make up for Grinde not being there.
Best Underclassmen: Folz. I was shocked to learn he is a sophomore. Alex is so vocal he twice verbally directed Chase Grinde in a vicious manner and nobody flinched. His vocal demeanor on the court and size does not reflect that of a 16 year old.
Best Story to watch Moving Forward: Is Spring Grove the expected top contender to North? They might just be. Spring Groce was without their second best player and still handled Browerville by double figures. They also beat North by a surprising margin last summer when the teams had full rosters.
Best Name to Throw in: Brendan Emery. At 6-foot-2 with an outside touch he is going to take pressure off of Irsfeld and Ryan Warwick.
Best Prospect: Irsfeld or Grinde? I have Bryce rated higher while Chase made the biggest jump this spring/summer of just about anybody. Both earned themselves quality options although Bryce had a few more. Chase had the better game because of his defensive work although neither shot very well.