Minnesota Select Classic: 17U Saturday
Teams from all over the state descended upon Lakeville South Saturday for the Minnesota Select Classic and while there were a fair share of lopsided contests, there were also a number of good basketball players trying to make names for themselves.
The first round of games saw a lot of blowouts but Comets Thuok and Select Leafblad was a good one. Select got excellent performances from Adam Schumaker, Nolan Wald and used an excellent defensive performance to take out Comets Thuok 46-44.
Kuok Chuol had a solid first game, knocking down several 3-pointers and Detroit Lakes big Logan Pratt continued to build on a solid performance in the Comets Shootout earlier in April.
The rest of the first round games were decided by at least 17 points.
Rip City beat WOTN Wold by 20. MN Knights beat MN Heat Inniger by 20 as well. The Brainerd Warriors, Comets Little and Southeast MN Lightning all by more than 25.
The quarterfinal games were a lot better.
Rip City and Select Leafblad met up for the first quarterfinal game and Select used a hot start from Minneapolis Roosevelt guard Jordan Johnston to take a double-digit lead early. But Rip City dug in defensively and only allowed 15 second-half points in a 52-44 win. DJ Fleming keyed the win for Rip City. The Woodbury point guard was a pest defensively and stayed in attack mode offensively, using middle ball screens to get to the free throw line area of the floor where he was deadly.
MN Knights looked like they’d have a blowout win over TC Finest in a quarterfinal game but TC Finest used a strong start to the second half to get within four with less than 10 minutes left. In the end it was too much Kingston Myles and Andre Jenkins as MN Knights won 76-60. The Tartan pair dominated late in the game and TC Finest seemed to wear out from having to fight to come back. Antonio Maddox played a big part in the comeback attempt as he either created a shot for himself or got teammates open looks for large stretches of the second half.
The last two quarterfinal games were rollercoaster rides as it looked like Southeast MN Lightning was dead in the water about 10 minutes into the game. They were settling for jump shots without trying to get the ball inside and lacked energy while Select Ellis had a great deal of momentum getting excellent play from North St. Paul’s Tytist Dean and Eagan’s Jackson McCullum in particular. The Lightning trailed by more than 10 for most of the first half but closed the gap with a strong push the end the half and outscored what looked to be a depleted Select team by 27 in the second half to win 71-54. Lake City’s Marc Kjos and Winona’s Dakota Matthees really led the charge with great energy and offensive aggressiveness in the second half.
The Brainerd Warriors turned out to be something of the surprise team of the day, not only blowing MN Swish in its first game but edging Comets Little 68-67 in double overtime in the quarterfinals. Chris Karels knocked down a 3-pointer to start the second overtime period and since there is only a minute to play, Comets didn’t have enough time to play the foul game — somehow they’d gone the entire second half without a foul.
Karels was fabulous for Brainerd, knocking down big shots throughout the second half to help Brainerd withstand a terrific game from Hancock’s Noah Kannegiesser and St. Cloud Apollo’s Phillip Dromgoole.
Looking ahead to Saturday, Rip City will take on MN Knights while SE MN Lightning will play Brainerd.
From what I saw Saturday, I think it’ll come down to SE MN Lightning and MN Knights in the championship Sunday, though Rip City was without one of their better players who was gone on a college visit, so they could give MN Knights a good game. MN Knights plays a physical brand of basketball and constantly attacks the paint and they simply wore of TC Finest. Rip City had moments where they looked great but they also benefitted from a lot of missed bunnies from Select Leafblad’s team in the quarterfinals. I think MN Knights wins in an up-and-down, ugly style game because they’ve got a lot more size and depth.
SE MN Lightning looked like the best team in the tournament when they decided to stop settling for early-offense 3-pointers. They’ve got capable shooters but with bigs like Mark Mboya Kotieno, Carter Groski and Matthees, they can really stress teams inside. When they did that, the 3-point looks got easier and started falling.
Brainerd clearly showed how much chemistry matters in this tournament because they beat a team with more talent in Select Little because of better chemistry. They executed a little better down the stretch though neither team looked great in the final minutes of that contest. I think SE MN Lightning’s size proves to be too much in that one.