Minnesota Playoff Central – Upset of the Sections? Maybe
On January 24th Pine Island took a 61-37 beating at the hands of Lake City. Five weeks later the Panthers made a memory that will last forever.
The Big Stage. Tonight every game starts at 8pm! Make sure if you are attending a game you aware that elections are done at 8pm so that’s when game’s start. There look to be no double headers this evening and there are only 25 games so picking the best of the best is tough. I think I’m going with Byron vs Kasson-Mantorville as the most interesting game of the night to me. The KoMets are led by a top junior scorer in
Jace Bigelow
Jace
Bigelow
6'4" | SG
Kasson-Mantorville | 2021
State
MN
while Byron is a balanced squad with mostly juniors and sophomores. Jake Braaten is their top Bears playmaker.
Upset City! Pine Island entered the playoffs at 15-11 but they are senior dominated team that would be a tough out. And as it turns out, they were an impossible out on Monday evening. Senior guard combo Max Owen and Caleb Henderson combined to score 36 points while 23 point per game forward Carter O’Reilly provided 18. The Panthers defense held Mr. Basketball Finalist
Nathan Heise
Nathan
Heise
6'5" | PG
Lake City | 2020
State
#266
Nation
MN
to 8 of 22 shooting. The game was never really in doubt either as Pine Island was up 24-10 early and the closest Lake City ever came again was hitting a three at the buzzer to make the score 70-65. It wasn’t just an upset, it was a controlling victory for a senior led club.
Right on Schedule. Holding over second sectional game challengers were Stewartville and Caledonia.
Will Tschetter
Will
Tschetter
6'8" | PF
Stewartville | 2021
State
#96
Nation
MN
moved his state leading average to 36 points a game by scoring 44 points on 14 of 18 shooting against PEM. As far as #1 ranked Caledonia went, the Warriors defeated Rochester Lourdes 75-60 with
Noah King
Noah
King
6'3" | PG
Caledonia | 2020
State
#478
Nation
MN
scoring 23 and
Eli King
Eli
King
6'2" | PG
Caledonia | 2022
State
#151
Nation
MN
producing 16 (half the points on dunks). Stewartville faces Pine Island while Caledonia faces Dover-Eyota (who beat St. Charles).
Where’s the Czar? The metro game of Monday was the pigtail 8/9 with Henry Sibley facing St. Thomas. Who won Mr Czar?
"8 Sibley def 9 St Thomas 57-53 in 3AAA Pigtail. MJ Davis 14, (Cameron) Latvis 14 pts and critical FTs late. Sibley sweeps archrival Cadets 3-0 this year. They advance to play at Richfield on Wednesday." To read more head to http://tchoops.blogspot.com/
Tip of the Hat to the Career. We definitely have to look the way of Lake City’s
Nathan Heise
Nathan
Heise
6'5" | PG
Lake City | 2020
State
#266
Nation
MN
. Looking back through his career I remember a young freshman hitting threes in the state tournament and for the next year it stuck with me "wow Heise is a top shooter". However, seeing Heise play as a junior it was very clear that his ball handling, playmaking, and explosive abilities off the dribble were way more than people knew about. Northern Iowa jumped on Heise early, landed his commitment, and then smiled big as Heise belonged to them while other teams tried to locate talent. Heise had a 30 and 10 average as a senior playing a style of basketball last year at state, with the Fury, at Gopher team camp, and in highlights this year that made me think "Looks like Nate Wolters". I’m not saying Heise is a going to be an NBA Draft pick like Nate but what I am saying is that he should be a very good player for UNI and we wish him the best.
