10 Best: Shiloh Christian New Year’s Invite Day 2
After an exciting coupe of games the previous day, the four teams making up the field of the Shiloh Christian New Year’s Invite; Shiloh Christian, Minot Our Redeemer’s, Dickinson Trinity, and Fargo Oak Grove, returned to provide two more games…
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Continue ReadingAfter an exciting coupe of games the previous day, the four teams making up the field of the Shiloh Christian New Year’s Invite; Shiloh Christian, Minot Our Redeemer’s, Dickinson Trinity, and Fargo Oak Grove, returned to provide two more games that were just as exciting as the former.
In the first game between the Dickinson Trinity Titans and the Oak Grove Grovers the game had the look of a classic Trinity slow paced game. The ball was being packed inside and there was very little transition. Then the pressure picked up and both teams began letting it fly from deep. The Grovers held a 43-28 lead after three quarters and Trinity managed to close to a two point deficit, but strong defense and good free throw shooting helped Oak Grove pull away for a 57-50 victory.
The the nightcap it was the Shiloh Christian Skyhawks against the Minot Our Redeemer’s Knights. Our Redeemer’s jumped out to a 22-10 lead after the first quarter, but after that Shiloh Christian put the brakes on the Knights offense and only allowed them to score 21 points over the next three quarter on the way to a 52-43 Skyhawk victory.
MVP: Devon Foster, Oak Grove, Sr, F. Foster was the focus of Oak Grove’s offense early on, and it was worth it. He was able to set up future moves by creating what the Trinity defense thought were tendencies. His defense on Trinity forward Shawn Stoltz was key as well. He knew he likely wasn’t going to be able to block the shot of the long armed Stoltz, so instead of going for the ball on shots he would just put his hand right in Stoltz’s face, and it seemed to affect how he was shooting.
Play of the Day: Remember two seconds ago how I said Foster wouldn’t be able to block Stoltz’s shots? Well, with 40 seconds remaining in the game with Oak Grove up by two points Stoltz drove through the lane looking to tie the game up, but Devon Foster had rotated over from the weak side and absolutely stuffed Stoltz at the rim.
Best Offensive Player: Andrew Christianson, Oak Grove, Jr, G. While Foster was able to command attention down low for the Grovers, Christianson was causing just as much havoc from the wing. Christianson got hot from outside early in the first quarter, and slashed through the lane well when defenders closed on him later on.
Best Defensive Player: Lucas Jones, Dickinson Trinity, Sr, G. Yesterday this honor went to the entire Dickinson Trinity backcourt, but this time Lucas Jones deserves recognition. His defense in the third quarter kept Trinity in the game and slowed down the Oak Grove attack just enough.
Best Guy Off the Bench: Kendall Jones, Dickinson Trinity, Sr, G. Kendall Jones is another part of that great Trinity backcourt, but he really made his presence felt when he first came off the bench in the first quarter. Jones entered into a game that was close to getting out of hand early in favor of Oak Grove, and all he did was come in and hit a quick three, then steal the ball and take it down for a layup to close the gap right back up.
Best Intangibles: Alex Scherr, Dickinson Trinity, Sr, F. Scherr isn’t the most athletic player on the court, nor is he the most talented, but he does a lot of things very well. He was great in transition defense, getting back multiple times just in time to poke the ball out of bounds and let Trinity set up their defense. On offense he always played within himself, and didn’t seem to make a bad decision.
Best Under-the-Radar Performance: Leyton Lang, Our Redeemer’s, Jr, F. Coming in to the season most people thought Lang would be good, but I know that I didn’t think he would be the best over-all player on the Our Redeemer’s roster. In this game he was flying all over the court, but was never out of control.
Best Underclassman: Macauley Young, Shiloh Christian, So, C. If Foster hadn’t played so well in their game Young would have been the MVP. His defensive rebounding all game was huge in shutting down the Our Redeemer’s offense after being down 22-10 after one. His offensive rebounding in the second half helped Shiloh maintain and expand their lead.
Best Matchup: Young vs. Dalton Steede. It’s not often in North Dakota Class B basketball that you get to see two 6’9” players going head to head. In the occasions when these two were in the game at the same time they were not afraid to go right at each other. Both of them got a few blocks in and both provided their fair share of shoves, but both of them recognized the rarity of them playing each other and had fun doing it.
Best Catch and Shoot Player: Bryce Bakkegard, Oak Grove, Sr, G. There is more to Bakkegard than just catch and shoot, but that aspect of his game was deadly in this game. He caught multiple long passes in transition that the defense was expecting him to take to the basket, but instead he just faced up and rained threes on them.