The Heart O Lakes Preview

Ryan James October 8, 2020 @ 05:23 PM

Can anybody hand Perham a defeat this year? Will Perham contend for the state title this March? It the Heart O Lakes Preview! Now. Conference Commentary Top Ten in State: Perham, Pelican Rapids The Jackets went a perfect 28-0 last season and they enter the season a top 4-5 team in Class AA basketball. With leading scorer [player_tooltip player_id="774759" first="Finn" last="Diggins"] and sharp shooter [player_tooltip player_id="567093" first="Elijah" last="Morris"] returning their are still high expectations for Perham. Perham has four players back from last year’s rotation overall, and a nice group of young players ready to supply depth. If there is a team that can push Perham this year, it’s Pelican Rapids. The Vikings bring back four starters and have a senior class that has shooting, guard play making, size, and depth. The McKale Korf, [player_tooltip player_id="957606" first="Logan" last="Fahje"], Jayden Rutherford backcourt ranks with some of the best in Class AA basketball. Compete with Most: DGF, Barnesville, Breckenridge, Frazee, Hawley DGF had a potent attack leading to 22 wins. They could depend on four guys a night for double digit numbers. Half of those players have graduated but expectations are high for [player_tooltip player_id="962228" first="Owen" last="Leach"] who put up 16 and 8 last year as a 6-foot-5 frosh. If this was a normal 26-game schedule year I would tell you that Barnesville is a sleeper squad to hit that 20 win mark. They have one of the top couple point guards in this league in senior Isaac Tonsfeldt plus a rising junior named Kaden Zensen. Isaac is a 20 a game scorer while Isaac is likely to average a double-double this year. In researching Breckenridge’s talent coming back this summer I was quite surprised that this was only a 13-14 team. They have a nice senior class led by [player_tooltip player_id="958791" first="Cooper" last="Yaggie"] at guard, [player_tooltip player_id="957218" first="Jonah" last="Christensen"] at wing, and Anthony Conzemius up front. Part of me thinks because there is a new coach it’s a bit of a rebuild, but with quality seniors it’s really not. Breckenridge has the talent to be top five in this league, but then again they went 2-6 last year against Perham, Pelican, DGF, and Barnesville including two very ugly losses to DGF. Tough to know really want to expect. Frazee could take a jump this year! They have a couple senior scorers, some decent size for the league, a junior group ready to contribute, they could improve on that struggling league record. A way I can show I think this is a good league? Hawley isn’t going to be a pushover either. With only one person lost from last year’s 0-12 in league team, they will improve.   19-20 Conference Predictions Perham (1) Pelican Rapids (2) DGF (3) Barnesville (4) Breckenridge (5) Frazee (6) Hawley (7)   Preseason All Central Lakes Conference First Team [player_tooltip player_id="774759" first="Finn" last="Diggins"], Perham (Sr) [player_tooltip player_id="957606" first="Logan" last="Fahje"], Pelican Rapids (Sr) [player_tooltip player_id="774826" first="McHale" last="Korf"], Pelican Rapids (Sr) [player_tooltip player_id="962228" first="Owen" last="Leach"], DGF (Soph) [player_tooltip player_id="567093" first="Elijah" last="Morris"], Perham (Sr)   Second Team Jack Courneya, Frazee (Sr) Ian Mickelson, DGF (Sr) Jayden Rutherford, Pelican Rapids (Sr) [player_tooltip player_id="957201" first="Liam" last="Sytsma"], Pelican Rapids (Sr) Isaac Tonsfeldt, Barnesville (Sr)   Third Team Broden Fleishner, Frazee (Sr) Hayden Grani, Hawley (Jr) Carson Hespe, Perham (Sr) Grant McMartin, Perham (Sr) Gabe Thompson, Perham (Sr) [player_tooltip player_id="958828" first="Kaden" last="Zenzen"], Barnesville (Jr)