Stillwater 69 White Bear Lake 55 – The Rundown

<p>Earlier this week Stillwater knocked off White Bear Lake 69-55. Today we review the match-up of two of the state’s best sophomores in, The Run Down!</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="962200" first="Jack" last="Janicki"]</strong> of White Bear Lake (6’4 Soph SG). Jack’s first eye popping moment was a wing catch where he faced up his man. The ball fake led to a strong defender commitment and that little opening allowed Jack to attack hard right and hit that lefty pull-up with a slight fade.   Janicki showed the burst in the second half a couple darting into the passing lane for a steal and beating the defense the other way for a lay-up followed by a hard-cut middle off a weave action into another pull-up.</p> <p>The [player_tooltip player_id="962200" first="Jack" last="Janicki"] pull-up. Please follow me here and don’t go too far with this statement. But when Jack hit the early two shots off the bounce it made me think of Tyler Herro at the same age. No I am not saying Janicki is the next Tyler Herro, I think he has a few plays that remind me of him and at other times Jack has a lot of Blake Hoffarber in him when it comes to physical make-up. When it comes down to it Jack is Jack, but there are parts of his game that I would describe that look like those of a young Herro, and a young Hoffarber.</p> <p><strong>Nicholas Koehn</strong> of Stillwater (6’2 Jr SF). The first Koehn basket surely caught my eye. He cut hard off a dribble hand off and then noticed the defender showing wide so Koehn crossed the ball back to the inside and beat the third defender. His reads off the screens were good most the game. WBL anticipated a dribble hand off and Koehn read their movements under the big so he relaxed and added a long three to his total twice. Stepped up his normal output vs WBL.</p> <p><strong>Jack Misgren</strong> of White Bear Lake (6’1 Soph Guard). The first player to get going for WBL was Jack Misgren, a ten point per game player. A quick three followed by a crossover to beat the closing defender for a short make got WBL on the board. Also had a pair of basket cuts go rewarded for lay-ups moving quickly to the rim after a screen.</p> <p><strong>Kanye Rahemm</strong> of White Bear Lake (6’2 Sr PG). Rahemm is a lefty stat stuffer.   Opened the game stepping into a pair of threes and a deep post turnaround into the short lefty jumper. His defender wasn’t ready for the ball to come off to the left so Kanye had a sneaky touch completed before the defender was aware. The attack Rahemm had late in the first also grabbed my eye. The control with went he went to the rim keeping his body balanced to place the shot off the glass with the defender running parallel for five steps was a nice play. Also had eight boards and seven assists. As the defenders stepped higher to guard Kanye I really liked how he led teammates off the screen for cutting makes. Great placement on those passes. Love his demeanor on the court too.</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="962206" first="Max" last="Shikenjanski"]</strong> of Stillwater (6’2 Soph Guard). Earlier in the week I mentioned Max playing like [player_tooltip player_id="846135" first="Henry" last="Abraham"] and I thought it again on the first score when Max curled a screen tightly without the ball and then attacked with a dribble sneaking in the kiss before the help could close space. And then Max’s hard cut off the screen to catch and hit a three while the defense chased was another piece that reminded me of Abraham. Then there’s that rip-through into the first dribble complete with a quick first step. That play burned a few different WBL players.</p> <p>Max understands space. Shikenjanski understands how to create it without the ball, how to take advantage of what is available to him, and how to use it against his defender. Another of my favorite plays from Max was his dribble hand-off collect into a made three. The defender decided to go under the screen, which was a giant welcome sign for Max to take and make a 22 footer. With the skills to complete plays and the smarts of how to use space you have a standout scorer. One that is currently red hot (Max has recent games of 49, 37, and 28).</p> <p>With about three minutes to go Max knocked down a three on a swing pass that took a two score game and made it a nine-point contest. WBL had been making a comeback and that shot stopped all momentum.</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="774809" first="Sam" last="Shikenjanski"]</strong> of Stillwater (6’8 Sr Center). I really like how Stillwater used Sam high with the dribble hand off. His hand-off and pivot moved several defenders off the cutting guard. He also opened space for shooters with his wide stepping, space invasive picks. As the game moved on defenders anticipated Sam’s screens sinking to extra depths and it just gave Stillwater more space to work with. Finished plays at the rim on the move on the left side.</p>