Ten Best: Pequot Lakes vs Shakopee
This weekend Northstar Hoops got a look at the senior/five underclassmen combo that Shakopee is using moving their program forward when they beat Pequot Lakes 64-48. MVP. Jacob Adelman. Adelman had his career best game of 19 points and nine…
Access all of Prep Hoops
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue ReadingThis weekend Northstar Hoops got a look at the senior/five underclassmen combo that Shakopee is using moving their program forward when they beat Pequot Lakes 64-48.
MVP. Jacob Adelman. Adelman had his career best game of 19 points and nine boards controlling play around the basket and earning his team the victory. He shot 7 of 12 from the floor, showed his range with a pair of threes, and controlled the late part of the game skillfully attacking his opponent and scoring three times to put the lead into double figures for Shakopee.
Offensive MVP. Addison Leininger. The junior had his fourth double figuring scoring game of the season but more importantly he set the tone with three early scores including an And1 plus had a game high four assists.
Defensive MVP. Jake Kutina. Shakopee’s entire team was playing good defense and then Kutina finished possessions off with a load of defensive rebounds. Jake had a dozen boards and only played half of the game because of an ugly knee to the thigh he took that was later re-injured. But Kutina’s defense and dozen boards set the tone. He also had nine points and three assists.
Top Underclassmen. Freshman Four. The Sabers played four freshman and they all made their mark. Wing Bruce Lockwood came off the bench and scored twice plus actively collected four boards. Guard Caleb Druvenga had an off day shooting but you can see he is a key part of the offense (4th leading scorer on the team). Charles Katona is averaging nearly a dozen a game this season and had six points with five boards Saturday. Guard Will Cordes knocked out his usual two threes.
Top Under the Radar Performance. Gage Westlund. Shakopee’s defense controlled the game so it would be easy to miss a nice game from the opponent but after a tough start (missing seven of his first eight shots) the Pequot senior aggressively went at the rim to make three sets of free throws late and hit a three. It built Gage’s numbers to 13 points for the game.
Top Prospect. Jake Kutina. It’s too early to tell with the Shakopee young guys. Kutina is the safe bet. He’s a skilled 6-foot-5 forward that rebounds with effort and defends hard. I think he could be a play early UMAC guy or a MIAC player that could work his way into a good role after a couple seasons.
Best Aspect of the Environment. This was only Shakopee’s fourth win of the year but you wouldn’t know it based on the effort they played with and the excitement on the bench. The bench was very excited and into the game as was their crowd. Good to see as it’s easy to get down when you are fighting for win four with five games left.
Best Story Going Forward. Tough Road. Shakopee has Lakeville North, a surging Lakeville South, an improved Prior Lake team, and has to be play at Burnsville. It will be very tough for this team to get a win in there. Just chalk things up to “experience gained”.
What’s Next? The loss drops Pequot Lakes to .500 on the season at 11-11. The schedule has Esko and Perham on it as road games so .500 is what they are hoping for. D-G-F and Pillager are winnable games and Pequot will need them to be wins if they want to be .500 at the end of the year.
Other. Tyler Manley of Pequot, Martin McKinney of Shakopee. Felt like Manley was battling every step of the way. Offensively he would attack space, chase balls, be active off the ball. Scored nine points with four boards. McKinney appears to be a shooter as he knocked out three jumpers in this game.