Minneapolis Southwest 57 St Anthony 56 - Five Things to Know

What do we look for on Tuesday and Friday nights? Excellent basketball games. Southwest and St Anthony put together a thriller on Tuesday night and Prep Hoops was present to bring you the details. One. Excellent Atmosphere. There was something pure about the game between the Lakers and Huskies. It was a cold winter night but there were several excited students running around plus a lot of parents with smiles on their faces happy to be in the stands and no longer at work. Southwest and St. Anthony are not expected to be state title contenders but they are teams that like basketball like anybody else and the back and forth of lead changes was fun to take in. Add in that we were in southwestern Minneapolis - a beautiful place full of Christmas lights - and the game was played in a gym that has so much history on the walls for all sports, it was just a great night for basketball. Two. The Laker Sophomores & Juniors. Coach Keenan Shelton has some quality young players to build around in his first year at Southwest High School. The biggest plays of the evening were made by the sophomore group - [player_tooltip player_id="958692" first="Gabe" last="Senseman-Cassidy"]’s game winning score and the explosive attacks of [player_tooltip player_id="958645" first="Camden" last="Holter"] - plus junior Jaden Reed made several massive plays in the second half. Seseman-Cassidy attacked baseline late in the game extending over the help defenders to drop in the final score. Holter is a 6-foot-3 or 6-foot-4 sophomore wing that took flight with a running start and no Huskies player could get to contesting space to defend him. Holter scored on 5 of 8 field goals plus made six foul shots scoring a vital 16 points. Camden is an athletic player with a lot of potential. Also in the sophomore group is [player_tooltip player_id="958675" first="Hakeem" last="Ford"], a raw player at 6-foot-6 and agile but a player with big potential because of his length and the way he moves. Last night Ford grabbed some boards, adjusted some shots, and was a part of the win. Two other juniors for the Lakers who impressed were guards Marcus Mattox and Jaden Reed. Mattox played some steady defense, handled the ball, and scored three times while Reed exploded in the second half to make some game winning plays. What kind of plays? Reed had a late game help over block on [player_tooltip player_id="721860" first="Tait" last="Nelson"] plus Reed scored four times down the stretch. Three. [player_tooltip player_id="721860" first="Tait" last="Nelson"]. The best player on the floor last night was [player_tooltip player_id="721860" first="Tait" last="Nelson"] of Saint Anthony. The Huskies guard is caught in an interesting area where his team needs him to score, Tait can get to places where he can score, but most of his teammates also need Tait to create shots for them. So each possession Nelson has decisions to make and often times he’s betting on his teammates making open looks. Sure there are times he turns down what could be offense for him but that is needed so he can get teammates going. Last night none of Nelson’s teammates were able to consistently put offense together so Nelson scored his 24 points on 9 of 23 shooting. The best sequence of the game was his attacking score down 55-51 that was followed by a steal, and an And1 for a personal 5-0 run and a one point lead. It was all a part of the great basketball IQ that Nelson plays with. Four. The Next Polydorou! The Lakers don’t win without the senior play of [player_tooltip player_id="721945" first="Christo" last="Polydorou"]. Christo is coming off of a 15pt/4r/3a a game junior season and is off to a good start as a senior scoring 13 points on 5 of 8 shooting in the opener. Christo has a really good attack dribble that he uses his 6-foot-2 size to get around and then keep players on his hip so he can score and/or get fouled on the drive. He’s a steady senior that will be perfect for the Lakers as they continue to work to get consistency from the solid juniors and sophomores. Five. What’s Next? Coming into the year I picked Southwest to be 6th out of seven in the City Conference. After seeing them last night I may have to amend that decision. They look more like a team that I think can compete for the 3rd to 5th spots in the league. That’s not to say they will beat Washburn, South, and Edison, but they seem to have the talent to play with those teams and potentially earn victories there. Southwest plays Edison this Friday so we shall see. Saint Anthony opened their year with a crushing win over struggling Hill-Murray but has lost games to Mahtomedi and Southwest teams they feel they should of beaten. Saint Anthony has several winnable games coming up versus Minneapolis South, Simley, St Paul Washington, Trinity, Harding, St. Thomas, and Zimmerman so they should be able to get back on track quickly. Nelson will be the best player on the floor in all of those games.