The Weekend Menu: Are the Central Juniors Ready for a Run?

<p>What South Dakota high school games should you travel out to see or stay in and watch online over the frigid weekend?  PHD gives you the rundown today. </p> <p><strong>Tasty Appetizer</strong>. Freeman Academy/Marion takes their shot at 2nd ranked Viborg-Hurley.  Can the 9-4 Bearcats pull the upset they have been dreaming about?  It will be tough. They did beat beat Ethan and gave Bridgewater-Emery a push to the end but lost on a lucky backboard bounce.  That said, Canistota and Wessington Springs handled them fairly easily.  Six-foot-5 junior wing <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="968211" first="Thalen" last="Schroeder"]</strong> is a prospect to watch for the Cats and seeing him battle with <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="975502" first="Gradee" last="Sherman"] and [player_tooltip player_id="975550" first="Eli" last="Boomgarden"]</strong> (both 6’5 seniors) could be fun. </p> <p><strong>Specials.  </strong>This weekend it’s a West to East travel schedule for those in Rapid City making the nearly 400 mile trip back east.  Central and Stevens will trade off opponents facing Brookings (1-10) and Watertown (3-10).  For <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="757858" first="Micah" last="Swallow"]</strong> of Central it’s a chance to once again show that he’s one of the elite seniors in the state by controlling a pair of games.  The biggest West to East game is St. Thomas More at Sioux Falls O’Gorman.  The Knights are a big squad up front so the ability of <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="975503" first="Ryan" last="Wojcik"]</strong> to score around the basket against <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="975520" first="Eddie" last="Meylor"], [player_tooltip player_id="812186" first="David" last="Alpers"], and [player_tooltip player_id="812187" first="Chad" last="Ambroz"]</strong> is one to watch.  <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="975546" first="Ben" last="Renshaw"]</strong> and <strong>Kade Moffit</strong>t are a part of a guard rotation that will need to limit the playmaking of St. Thomas More guard <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="963754" first="Caleb" last="Hollenbeck"]</strong>.  </p> <p><strong>Main Course</strong>. The game of the weekend?  It’s more like games of the weekend.  It’s time to see what Aberdeen Central’s quality junior class is ready for. They've beaten one team with a winning record this year (RC Central) but could be ready to take a step.  One of the elite shooters in the state is Central junior <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="968189" first="Harrison" last="Reede"]</strong>. At 6-foot-0 feet he needs little space to get into his touch from a lot of spots on the floor.  Reede and big 6’4 guard <strong>Sam Rohlfs</strong> make a nasty pair to deal with and they continue to get better.  Meanwhile, fellow juniors <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="968162" first="Alec" last="Voegele"]</strong> and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="968156" first="Noah" last="Behrends"]</strong> are 6-foot-5 and 6-foot-6 respectively and they can hold their own up front.  Is this strong junior group ready for a run right now?  We will get a bit of an answer this weekend when they play O’Gorman and Sioux Falls Roosevelt on back to back days.  If Central was to get a pair of wins and improve to 10-4 they would vault up into a top 5-6 team in Class AA.  But are they ready for that? We shall see. </p> <p><strong>Dessert</strong>. Saturday night Madison versus Flandreau.  Flandreau is just on the edge of being ranked in the top ten but as of Monday when the rankings were resorted they had yet to beat anybody with a winning record.  That changed when the Fliers knocked off Dell Rapids by a dozen.  They took an L last night to Sioux Valley but so have many teams.  Now Flandreau needs to prove they are a contender and a consistent squad by beating the 6-5 Bulldogs Sunday evening.  For Madison this would be a signature win as they’ve beaten several average squads but nobody that is a contender. Five-foot-11 guard <strong>Aspen Dahl</strong> of Madison has proven to be a skilled, tough producing guard.  Dahl and Flandreau junior guard <strong>Liam Streitz</strong> could be a good match-up.  Problem for Madison is <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="812206" first="Tash" last="Lunday"]</strong>.  Madison has some big bodies but they are very young. This could be a monster double-double for Tash. </p>