Quick View: ECI Selects
ECI always has a pair of solid teams and this year is no different. The ECI Selects squad is led by Jonas Mitzel and Debyn Johnson.
Roster
Keaton Ballestad of WF Sheyenne (5-10 point guard, 2pg).
Andrew Christianson of Oak Grove (6-2 shooting guard, 22.3pg).
Siadu Conteh of Fargo South (5-9 point guard, 11.6pg).
Kemal Hajric of WF Sheyenne (6-4 power forward, 11pg in 3 games).
Debyn Johnson of GF Central (6-4 small forward, 11.7pg).
Jonas Mitzel of Shiloh Christian (6-2 shooting guard, 11.8pt, 4.8rbs).
Peirson Painter of GF Red River (6-2 small forward, 3.4pg).
Andy Rintala of Cavalier (6-1 shooting guard).
Parker Stenseth of Fargo Davies (6-5 power forward, 4pg).
Kolton Vetter of Carrington (6-1 shooting guard, 11.5pt, 3.4ast).
Zach Westphal of WF Sheyenne (6-1 point guard, 1pg).
Five Points
- Nice group of Class B standouts including one of the state’s leading scorers in Christianson, a developing playmaker in Vetter, Rintala who had a 30 point game this year, and Jonas Mitzel who was one of the several weapons that Shiloh Christian had. That is four really good Class B players from good Class B programs. Mitzel has been a knock down shooter often this year so he will bring that to the court, Rintala was a playmaker all year, and Vetter captained Carrington to some big wins.
- Christianson will be under a microscope a bit more than most mainly because of the numbers he put up this year. He led Oak Grove to state with a 20-6 record. Now the question is what level of talent is he? Big weekend for him.
- WF Sheyenne has three guys on the team including Ballestad and Westphal who played a lot of JV and then Hajric who played 61 varsity minutes in three games averaging double figures but played just the three games. He’s a bruising 6-foot-4 frontcourt player.
- Conteh and Johnson come from programs that recently have struggled but they each had nice years in the EDC (Fargo South had a nice second half to the year and made progress). Both scored around a dozen a game. Now they have a chance to play with some different teammates and compete in a different fashion.
- This weekend the ECI Prospects top team will not be in St. Cloud as it’s prom at Century High School which takes away part of their team but the ECI Selects will be there. They are in a pool with tMBA which is traditionally a team ranked someplace in Minnesota’s top 20 to top 25 in Minnesota as well as Holdingford High which went 23-5 this past season