Postseason Preview: Section 2A
Section basketball is just around the corner and as the season comes to a close, it’s time to start looking at individual sections. Here’s the lowdown on Section 2A: Favorite: Springfield Section 2A is a 20-team section divided between a…
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Continue ReadingSection basketball is just around the corner and as the season comes to a close, it’s time to start looking at individual sections.
Here’s the lowdown on Section 2A:
Favorite: Springfield
Section 2A is a 20-team section divided between a North subsection and a South subsection.
Springfield is the heavy favorite to emerge from the South subsection as the Tigers have just two losses on the year. A three-headed attack of Isaac Fink, Kale Meendering and Tanner Vogel is as good a trio as there is and it shows as the Tigers average the fifth-most points per game in Class A.
They’ve dominated section opponents to the tune of a 12-1 record with their lone loss coming in the season opener to Mountain Lake Area.
Contenders: Cedar Mountain/Comfrey, Cleveland, Mayer Lutheran
The North subsection seems to be open this year especially in the wake of Cleveland losing star junior Carter Kopet to a knee injury at the end of January. The Clippers have enough talent to make a run, but with Kopet, they were likely the favorite to get to state.
Jaiden Zishka (pictured) is a terrific all-around player and has increased his excellent production sans Kopet. Austin Plonsky is a sniper from the perimeter and has also seen an uptick in offensive production and Mitch McCabe gives them a third player capable of scoring.
(Photo by Richard Rolfing/Le Center Leader)The Clippers haven’t had a whole lot of trouble piling up points even in the absence of Kopet, but they’ve lost to the two best teams they’ve played in that stretch, including a 40-point shellacking to Spring Grove.
Cedar Mountain/Comfrey has the firepower to make a game interesting as well. The Cougars have five guys capable of scoring in double figures and Derek Pendleton, Eli Samuelson and Dylan Hillesheim give them a deadly trio. Cedar Mountain has scored at least 80 points 10 times this year and the Cougars’ only two losses are to Springfield.
The team currently atop the section according to QRF is Mayer Lutheran and while the Crusaders don’t have nearly as good a record as Cleveland or CM/C, their strength of schedule is better.
Mayer Lutheran lost to Cleveland earlier in the season when Kopet was still playing but then rattled off eight consecutive wins to grab ahold of the top spot in the subsection.
With four players averaging more than 10 points per game, the Crusaders can threaten whoever they play.
Kobey Woolhouse is one of the top players in the section and averages more than 18 points per game. Garrett Tjernagel gives them a size element that most other teams don’t have on the inside.
Thing to watch: A lot of buckets to be got
Apparently they like offense in section two. Seven teams average at least 66 points per game and five average more than 70.
Woolhouse is as good as it gets and showed what he’s capable of when he poured in 37 points in a win over Jordan in February. CM/C, Cleveland and Springfield all have excellent trios of guys that can fill it up. Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s got the great big man in Nick Fischer. Zayne Engel of T/ML/GHEC can control the paint for the Jaguars. BOLD’s Mason Mages can pile up points with the best of them too. And Mountain Lake Area averages 66 points, so the Wolverines are certainly capable of making life difficult for the opposition.
There is a lot of individual talent all over the floor for a lot of these teams and while there may not be as much college-level talent, there are kids that can flat out make shots.
Upset Special: Minnesota Valley Lutheran/BOLD
Minnesota Valley Lutheran has a dynamic inside-outside punch of Nick Fischer and Jake Kettner. Fischer averages 19 points and 12 rebounds while Kettner puts up 14 to go along with five rebounds and three assists.
The Warriors can pile up the points as well as any of them and play in a tough conference with Melrose, Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City, Montevideo and Sauk Centre. Mason Mages is a scoring machine as well.
The Chargers will most likely end up with the No. 4 seed in Section 2A-North which means they’d likely host BOLD in the first round. That would be something of a toss-up game and both teams seem capable of at least making a typical subsection semifinal game more interesting than expected.
Projected Seedings
2A – North
- Cedar Mountain/Comfrey
- Cleveland
- Mayer Lutheran
- Minnesota Valley Lutheran
- BOLD
- Lester Prairie/Holy Trinity
- New Ulm Cathedral
- Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s
- Sleepy Eye
- Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart
2A – South
- Springfield
- Mountain Lake
- Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton
- Mankato Loyola
- Clair
- Truman/Martin Luther/GHEC
- United South Central
- Nicollet
- Alden-Conger
- Madelia