North Dakota Catch up: WDA
The season is flying by. With the calendar flipping to February, we turn our attention to conference and region races along with the postseason. Here is a rundown of what’s been going on in the WDA: Jamestown has been dominant…
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Continue ReadingThe season is flying by. With the calendar flipping to February, we turn our attention to conference and region races along with the postseason.
Here is a rundown of what’s been going on in the WDA:
Jamestown has been dominant
The Blue Jays came into the season as one to watch after surging late last year and getting to state. With two of the best players in the state, Jamestown was going to be capable of contending in the WDA. Thus far, even those expectations were an underestimation as the Blue Jays have been nothing short of dominant this season. Undefeated on the year, Jamestown’s beaten the next best teams (Century, Mandan, Minot and Bismarck) by a almost 18 points per game in six contests. Boden Skunberg is leading the league in scoring (24 points per game) while Mason Walters is turning in a Player-of-the-Year type season, averaging 21.1 points and 11.9 rebounds a night.
Bismarck Century started slow but is sizzling now
The Patriots looked surprisingly vulnerable early in the season, starting off with a blowout loss to Fargo Davies and enduring a three-game losing streak in mid-December. Century is 8-1 in 2019 though and has wins over Minot and Bismarck plus a 40-point win over Turtle Mountain – one of the teams to beat Century in that three-game stretch. Treyton Mattern has been good all year, averaging 23.6 points and Cade Feeney’s come back after missing a handful of games early in the year to averaging 18.4 points while knocking down three triples per game. Century is a team nobody wants to see heading into the postseason.
Mandan is lurking
The Braves have been consistent all year, suffering just one double-digit loss while staying in control of the No. 2 spot in the WDA. Elijah Klein has been a force, averaging 20.9 points and 11.8 rebounds. Trey Wiest has been good too, averaging 16.1 points while Jaxon Wiest (10 ppg) is leading the WDA in assists per game (5.0). Mandan’s final three games will tell a lot as the Braves face Bismarck, Bismarck Century and Jamestown.
Talented guards lead Minot and Bismarck
The WDA is stacked nicely with talented guards. Bismarck and Minot are currently the fourth and fifth teams in the league and figure to duke it out for a state-tourney berth in the postseason. If it comes to that, both should feel good about those chances as the perimeter talent on both teams in plentiful.
Bismarck’s Joe Jahner is one of the best two guards in the state, averaging 22 points per game while Minot leans on Jaxon Gunville (16.7 points per game), Alex Schimke (14.6 ppg) and Deonte Martinez (12.5 points and 4.0 assists).
High-end individual talent
The top five teams seem to have separated from the pack this season – to varying degrees – but that doesn’t mean the teams on the lower end of the standings spectrum lack talent.
There’s a lot of individual talent all over the league.
Canyon Stonecipher has been a hoss in the paint for the Demons, averaging 15.2 points and 8.6 rebounds.
Sophomore forward Jorn Everson is averaging 15.9 points and nearly eight rebounds for Williston. He’ll be a force in his upperclass years.
Julien Parisien is one of the most efficient offensive players in the state, averaging 19 points while shooting better than 50 percent from the field and 40 percent from 3-point range for Turtle Mountain.
Ben Schmidt and Jaxon Wiseman are combining to average better than 37 points per game for Bismarck St. Mary’s.
Rhett Clements and Nick Kupfer look like emerging stars for a Bismarck Legacy team that has already exceeded last year’s win total and could finish about .500 on the season.
Dickinson hasn’t had a great year but Jaiden Wright and Kobe Krenz are averaging 16.4 and 15.6 points per game respectively, giving the Midgets some hope going forward.