North Dakota Class A State Tournament Day 1: Jamestown, Century cruise in Class A openers
The EDC won the first two games of the Class A State Tournament. The WDA got even in the evening matchups. Jamestown used a massive run to close the first half to stay undefeated, blowing out Wahpeton 74-49 while Bismarck…
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Continue ReadingThe EDC won the first two games of the Class A State Tournament. The WDA got even in the evening matchups.
Jamestown used a massive run to close the first half to stay undefeated, blowing out Wahpeton 74-49 while Bismarck Century got 55 combined points from Treyton Mattern and Cade Feeney in a dominating win over West Fargo in the nightcap.
Here are some takeaways from the games
Game 1: Jamestown 74, Wahpeton 49
Jamestown’s complementary players knocked down shots
The gameplan for most teams is going to be to try (easier said than done) to take away one of Boden Skunberg and Mason Walters. The two average 45 points per game combined and are the two next-level talents on this Bluejays team. The supporting cast is unproven as a collective group in its ability to beat teams making shots.
That wasn’t an issue Thursday as Dawson Douty and Carson Lamp scored 12 and 11 points respectively. Jacob Hilgemann added nine to the cause.
Skunberg had a quiet 19 and Mason Walters had a monster first half before finishing with 16 points and 24 rebounds. But Wahpeton’s defense sold out to slow those guys down and the rest of the Jamestown cast made the Huskies pay.
The Bluejays have some serious ‘spurtability’
One of Clark Kellogg’s best phrases when breaking down hoops is the term ‘spurtability’ which is a team’s ability to go on scoring runs. Jamestown went on a scoring run alright, going on a 27-0 run over a seven minute stretch in the first half to take a 15-15 tie to a 42-15 shellacking. 27-0. In that state tournament. That’s absurd and it shows that even if the Bluejays are struggling for a few minutes, they can just as easily all but end a game minutes later with a big run.
Game 2: Bismarck Century 78, West Fargo 61
Treyton Mattern and Cade Feeney dominated
In the game of guards vs. bigs, it was all guards all the way. Treyton Mattern wasted no time establishing himself as the best player on the floor, scoring or assisting on the team’s first three baskets en route a 20-point first half. He bullied his way through West Fargo’s guards. He raced past the Packers’ bigger defenders and he simply had his way all night, finishing with 33 points.
Feeney was dominant too. The junior guard finished with 22 points including a flurry in the second half seemingly every time West Fargo would make some sort of a grasp towards life. He dominated the Packer guards on both ends of the floor, frustrating whomever he was matched up on on the defensive end while also using his superior strength to beat up the much smaller perimeter counterparts.
Those guys were key pieces in the Patriots’ state title run last year and they played like multi-year starting upperclass guards last night. They controlled the pace, they set the tone on the first row defensively and they continually got exactly what they wanted offensively.
West Fargo was abysmal offensively
The Packers looked like a team that had spent three hours on the bus that day. They scored just 16 points in the first half, going 6 for 25 from the field while turning the ball over a whopping 10 times. They picked it up a bit in the second half but they never put a scare into the Patriots because they simply couldn’t stack together scoring runs.
They hit just one 3-pointer – about 32 minutes into the game – and missed at least a dozen shots in the paint. Luke Lennon and Hunter Lyman were completely taken out of the game. Lennon got good shots in the paint but couldn’t convert. Lyman was invisible. Neither one were a factor on the offensive glass. Miller had little space to operate and never got comfortable.
Carson Hegerle gave the Packers a little juice on that end of the floor but the flashes were too few and far between. It was clear that shutting down the paint was a priority for the Patriots and the Packers did nothing to make them pay via the perimeter.