Prior Lake 74 Shakopee 63: The Standouts
Dawson Garcia is on the short list of 2018-19 Minnesota Player of the Year candidates. The 6-foot-10 Prior Lake forward poured in 40 points while locking down another quality talent. The short description of Dawson Garcia is “a 6-foot-10 forward…
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Continue ReadingDawson Garcia is on the short list of 2018-19 Minnesota Player of the Year candidates. The 6-foot-10 Prior Lake forward poured in 40 points while locking down another quality talent.
The short description of Dawson Garcia is “a 6-foot-10 forward that is very skilled”. That simple phrase isn’t enough though. The steps that Garcia has taken as a player have been giant. On both ends of the floor. Last night Garcia completed 15 of 27 field goal attempts including five three pointers and 5 of 7 foul shots. Garcia recorded 40 points plus hauled down 15 rebounds.
Where are the improvements? I can think of two very big ones: 1) Garcia seems to of added range to his shooting stroke plus consistency of completion on perimeter shots. Garcia’s run of five threes including two of the catch and shoot variety, two off the dribble, and one catching and scoring on the move.
The beautiful thing about Garcia shooting that ball is that he also scored one hand touch shots in the paint with both hands. Add in the physical nature of Garcia moving defenders with his aggressive low post game plus his ability to dribble separate into an extension (right or left hand) and you have a player that’s so hard to guard.
The second part of the improvement is defense. We don’t mean to slight these other players (however, they are very good players in their own right who have received a lot of positive chatter on what they can do) but Garcia has went up against some of the state’s best talents and shut them down.
- Charles Katona of Shakopee is a top ten level junior in Minnesota but Garcia forced every Katona shot over the top meaning Katona was scoreless in the first half and made only two shots for the game.
- After scoring in the 40s the previous game, Cameron Steele scored less than half of that against Garcia.
- The very talented Ben Carlson had two points against Prior Lake, Garcia.
- Cole Nicholson missed 11 of 15 shots and scored a dozen with Dawson on him.
How? Garcia’s defensive footwork has been fantastic. Whatever move has been attempted Garcia has been able to stay deep in a stance and cut off angles followed by a quick contest when players give up their dribble. Dawson has done a marvelous job positioning himself around screens and he’s staying in disciplined position to keep pressure on his opponent. When all of that is done Garcia uses his extreme length to contest shots which often forces ugly results or a desperate pass.
Assistant coaches from Indiana and Illinois were watching Garcia play last night.
Steady Will. In a losing effort Will Cordes gave his team life by cooly making shots from several angles. Cordes could have a career as a special agent because his demeanor never changed regardless of where he was on the court. Cordes made 9 of 15 field goal attempts scoring a team high 20 points.
Each time that Cordes was knocked off balance or he used a change of direction dribble, Will was able to get his body squared into a shot attempt. As much as Will darted from spot to spot, his lift into a jumper became a soft touching completion. Cordes is leading Shakopee in scoring this year.
Developing into a Prospect. Shakopee 6-foot-6 senior Brooks Allen isn’t a player that was talked about much coming in to the year but he has been able to give the Sabers a big body to use both ways. Allen is comfortable facing up and hitting shots with range especially last night when he put 13 points in the book with six boards. Brooks is scoring eight points a game this year and it will be interesting to see how he continues to develop.
More from Shakopee/Prior Lake
- Junior Bruce Lockwood came off the Shakopee bench scoring five times in the first half. Lockwood jumped passing lanes for a pair of steals (and one transition finish) and he actively finished with putbacks and basket cuts.
- Recovered from past injuries Prior Lake junior Tyree Ihenacho is now starting to show the explosive potential he has as a player. Tyree is starting at wing for the Lakers and just missed a double-double by a point (9 and 10). I expect Tyree to land on a good 17u team this spring and have the type of year that has coaches asking questions.
- Prior Lake seniors Robert Jones and Sam Nissen didn’t have high percentage scoring nights but they did put forth valuable contributions. Jones had 16 rebounds while Nissen dished out four assists. Each player scored four times.