Midwest Live! Saturday Recaps
Blaise Porter
9:00 (15u): Iowa Barnstormers Black 64 vs SSE Elite Black 53
A sluggish first half for the ‘Stormers gave way to an impressive second half showing and they came away with a relatively easy 11-point win in this one. The Iowa squad came to the tournament with just seven guys rostered and one went down yesterday with an injury, but they were able to bring in reinforcements, eight-graders, and they were dang good. Future New London Tigers guard Blaise Porter, an eighth-grader, led all scorers in this one, going for 15 points. Fellow eighth-grader Dallas Bear scored eight and was helpful on both sides off the ball. Austin Hilmer scored 14 in the win, including 11 in the second half alone. The ‘Stormers improve to 2-1 with the win. SSA was led by Basehor-Linwood guard Trevor McBride, he was impressive while scoring 14 in the loss.
Hogan Hansen
10:05 (16u): MOKAN 2021 73 vs Iowa Intensity 51
Coming into this tourney, MOKAN was considered among the favorites to win it all in the 16u division. This isn’t MOKAN’s top team, but even the program’s second units can be dominant. We’ve also seen this Iowa Intensity squad shoot lights out and knock off high caliber teams, so this was an interesting match-up. The MOKAN team was as good as anticipated, big, long, athletic and skilled. And while shots were dropping for one Iowa Intensity guy, as a team the guys didn’t have the magic in this one. It was freshman Hogan Hansen who was lighting it up for Intensity, he canned seven 3s in the game, six in the first half alone, and scored 35 points in the loss. That’s especially impressive considering he was playing up a grade. For MOKAN, it was Blue Valley North’s Issac Patterson and Highland Park’s Cory Powell who led the way with 17 points each.
Trae Swartz
11:10 (16u): Iowa Barnstormers Black 56 vs DSM Power 54
We didn’t know exactly to expect out of this one, especially from the DSM squad, and what we got was easily the most entertaining game of the weekend so far. This Power group featured some familiar faces, DC-G’s Luke Rankin and Southeast Polk’s Malichai Williams to a name a couple. Those are two of the better sophomores in central Iowa. As we expected, the ‘Stormers squad has plenty of firepower themselves, including Ottumwa big-man Trae Swartz, who led all Class 4A sophomores in scoring last season. The game itself was controlled by the ‘Stormers early, and they had a 30-23 lead at the break. But the second half saw the DSM group climb back into it and even take a brief lead at the 10-minute mark. With 9.9 seconds left, though, Solon’s David Bluder put in a tough bucket off glass to break a 54-all tie, and that would prove to be the game-winner. DSM was led by Dowling’s Andrew Lentch’s 12 points, Rankin added 10. The ‘Stormers were led by Swartz’s 11 points.
Solon’s David Bluder provides the go-ahead bucket for Stormers with 9.9 ticks left #MidwestLive pic.twitter.com/DaKGEjXNkp
— TJ Rushing (@TjRushing) April 27, 2019
1:20 (17u): Iowa Barnstormers Black 73 vs Mid MO Select 51
The ‘Stormers 17s are going to make a lot noise this weekend in Omaha, and it’s excellent guard play that will carry them. Jake Auer, Joshua Dilling (WI), Cael Schmitt, Josh Ollendieck, Sam Kilburg and Mekki Sisk were all productive in this one, and despite the Missouri team bringing some serious firepower of its own to the table, this game was a blowout. Mid MO Elite had a 6’8 stretch-four, Eric Northweather, who could shoot and dunk with authority, he finished with 17 points. But the ‘Stormers onslaught of guards was too much. What’s best about the Iowa squad is its penchant for sharing the ball, they play the game unselfishly and it showed in the box score. Dilling led with 13 points, Ollendieck added 11, Kilburg had 10, Jamal Winston scored nine, Kaiden Phillips scored nine, Auer had eight, Sisk scorerd seven. The ‘Stormers moved to 2-0 with the win. They’ve won the two games by an average of 22 points.
2:25 (17u): Kingdom Hoops Navy 70 vs Lincoln Supreme 49
This Kingdom Hoops squad could do very well this weekend, they’ve got a slew of unsigned seniors leading the charge. Hoover’s Hosea Treadwell, one of Iowa’s best 2019 guards was dominant in the first half of this one, scoring 16 points and leading the Iowa guys to a massive 45-21 advantage by the break. The second half was nothing more than a formality, and actually the Nebraska team outscored Kingdom Hoops in the second. Still, this was was a rout from start to finish. Treadwell led all scorers with 17, fellow Hoover senior Adam Jackson scored 13, Valley senior Trayvon Williams scored 12. For the Nebraska team, it was Carson Busch who led the way with 12 points.
3:30 (15u): Mid MO Elite 70 vs Kingdom Hoops Navy 67
This game turned out to be thriller, but it took Kingdom Hoops a long time to make it close. Early on, there was a lid on the rim for the guys from Iowa; nothing was dropping, especially for standout point guard Jacob Runyan. By the end of the second half things started to normalize, Kingdom was hitting shots, and the guys from Missouri, which happens to be a very talented group, went into the break with a 39-33 lead. Kingdom continued to trail for most of the second half, and the lead had ballooned to double-digits again at times, but then the Runyan takeover happened. The 5’8 point guard scored 14 second half points, most of them down the stretch during the comeback, to will his time back to a 64-64 tie with less than a minute to play. With 3.1 seconds to go, Runyan was at the line with a chance to tie it, hit the first and missed the second. Still, the last few minutes of the game were telling as to how dominant the freshman point guard can be. For Mid MO Elite, it was Quinn Kusgen who led the charge, he scored 23. Runyan led Kingdom Hoops with 17.