(#1) Nevis 57 (#5) Nashwauk-Keewatin 43 – Five Things to Know

<p>Top ranked Nevis withstood a challenge from 5^th ranked Nashwauk-Keewatin 57-43 on Tuesday night led by senior guard Derek Lindow and junior sharp-shooter [player_tooltip player_id="958734" first="Eddie" last="Kramer"]. Prep Hoops looked on and is excited to bring you our Five Things to Know.</p> <p><strong>One. The Game Changer</strong>. Six-foot-4 junior <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="958734" first="Eddie" last="Kramer"]</strong> hit five threes in the first half, another in the second half, and finished the game with 20 points (six threes total). The Spartans started in a zone but the zone wasn’t able to get out to Kramer so N-K had to switch to man to man. They used about three or four different defenders – some quicker, some bigger – and eventually the found the right combination that was able to deny Kramer anywhere on the floor. But by the time they found something that worked it was a double figure lead for Nevis. Kramer is a pure shooter with range and he finished the game making 6 of 13 attempts. The game of basketball values shooting as much as it ever has so this junior will likely be hearing from college programs soon as he is scoring 20 a game for the top ranked team in Class A.</p> <p><strong>Two. The Game Operator</strong>. I loved the way <strong>Derek Lindow</strong> ran his team. The pace was a perfect mix of transition push, and other times grind Nashwauk-Keewatin for 35 seconds. Lindow made sure Kramer had the ball in the right spots and later he made sure that Mathais Washington has the ball in the right spots. In between Derek scored on 5 of 10 field goals and then down the stretch he put the game away with his 10 of 11 foul shooting. Lindow is a senior and one of the better game operators I have seen so far this year. Lindown had a game high 21 points with four assists.</p> <p><strong>Three. Surgical Operation</strong>.  The way Nevis operated as an offense was so impressive. Their mix of transition push, execution of live and out of bounds sets, and finding the open attempts for the hot hand as well as the mismatches led to the 14 point lead. In the second half they had trouble finding Kramer but then saw that <strong>Mathias Warrington</strong> could seal his man deep in the post and they went to that. The result? Three post scores and a set of foul shots made (Warrington scored 10 for game). Impressive operation by the top ranked team in the state.</p> <p><strong>Four. The Lorenz Pair</strong>. Nashwauk-Keewatin entered the night at 6-1 with good wins over Deer River, Northland, and Virginia (and a loss to Hibbing). It’s a team that I think has a really nix mix of agile size and solid guard play. <strong>Gaige Waldvogel, Brent Keranen</strong>, and a few others are quality in the backcourt and then they have seniors <strong>Jack Lorenz and [player_tooltip player_id="957625" first="Jeff" last="Lorenz"]</strong>. Jack is an agile 6-foot-5 forward who spent some time chasing Kramer and I was impressed with how he how moved around screens to chase. Jack was also a strong face-up attack skill scorer who led his team with 14 points on 6 of 11 shooting. [player_tooltip player_id="957625" first="Jeff" last="Lorenz"] was more of a low post, back to the basket bruiser. He scored three times and had a team high nine rebounds. This is a good team and I think we will hear from Nashwauk-Keewatin more this season.</p> <p><strong>Five. Doing the Work, Loving It</strong>. My favorite player of the night may have been 6-foot-2 Nevis senior Captain <strong>Jack McNamee</strong>. He played almost the entire game and took only one shot! McNamee had no problems doing the doing the dirty work. He chased guys around as a primary defender contesting everything. Jack took two charges, he was always in help defense, and Jack passed the ball well with four assists and another four hockey assists. Throw in the nine rebounds and it was a Dennis Rodman like big game.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>The Top Ten</strong><strong> </strong></p> <ol> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="958734" first="Eddie" last="Kramer"] of Nevis (6’4, Jr, SF)</li> <li>Derek Lindow of Nevis (6’0, Sr, PG)</li> <li>Jack Lorenz of Nashwauk-Keewatin (6’5, Sr, PF)</li> <li>Gaigie Waldvogel of Nashwauk-Keewatin (5’11, Jr, PG)</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="957625" first="Jeff" last="Lorenz"] of Nashwauk-Keewatin (6’5, Sr, PF)</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="958841" first="Mathis" last="Warrington"] of Nevis (5’9, Jr. SG)</li> <li>Jack McNamee of Nevis (6’2, Sr, Forward)</li> <li>#20 of Nashwauk-Keewatin (the shooter who made three threes)</li> <li>Cain Mitchell of Nevis (6’1 Jr, Forward)</li> <li>Joe Houchin of Nevis (6’1 Fr, SG)</li> </ol> <p>&nbsp;</p>