Minnesota Playoff Central: Best of Friday

<p>Best of the Best on Friday.  We run through it and look forward to five days of #MNStateHoops2022</p> <p><strong>Playoff Central</strong>.  The field is set after a wonderful Friday night of hoops.  Best five games?  Here was my list!</p> <ol> <li>Sacred Heart 69 Cass Lake-Bena 67</li> <li>Hermantown 60 Hibbing 59</li> <li>BBE 71 New York Mills 65</li> <li>Owatonna 69 Farmington 61</li> <li>Cherry 68 Deer River 57</li> </ol> <p><strong>Upset City</strong>.  Biggest upset?  I would say the biggest upset was likely.... Perham winning based on the records and seeding but honestly it wasn’t that big of an upset.  Eden Prairie knocking off 2nd ranked Shakopee likely qualifies as most would have been on Shako but with what EP has on the bench on the court, still nothing shocking.  RTR over Central MN Christian I guess is also an upset, but not a big one.  </p> <p><strong>Top Performers</strong>.  [player_tooltip player_id="962316" first="Blake" last="Schmitz"] led Hermantown with 30 points highlighted by three threes.  It was a big time performance leading Hermantown back to state for the first time in five seasons.  And most thought it was the Hibbing section to lose. </p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="958850" first="Kobe" last="Tomkinson"] led Sacred Heart (located in East Grand Forks) with 27 points taking his team to state over favorite Cass Lake-Bena.  Both teams had been ranked this year but Tomkinson did just a bit more for his team to get the win. </p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="958681" first="Brayden" last="Williams"] took threes Friday and two of them were from Steph Curry range, and made.  And both were late.  He had 24 points making all eight of his foul shots and 7 of 12 field goals.  Williams also had 14 boards.  [player_tooltip player_id="958725" first="Ty" last="Creger"] was also big time scoring 21 points on 9 of 13 shooting.  </p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="962264" first="Kaden" last="Pieper"] went for 31 leading BBE over New York Mills while [player_tooltip player_id="1284178" first="Luke" last="Dingmann"] had a double-double. </p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="1288733" first="Isaac" last="Asuma"] led Cherry over Deer River with 24 points and a dozen boards.  Another big time performance from the young guard.  </p> <p><strong>Tip of the Hat to the Career</strong>.  [player_tooltip player_id="850731" first="Ayden" last="McDonald"] scored 37 points in his final game.  He had a chance to win it late but the shots came up short.  Does not take away from everything he did as a player. </p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="958847" first="Leroy" last="Fairbanks IV"].  This Cass Lake-Bena Panther had a great career and did it as an all around player with a great understanding of the game. </p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="958784" first="Tate" last="Olson"] can go.  This New York Mills guard/wing with talent scored 38 as he is a solid, explosive athlete with handles and a perimeter touch.  I expect Olson to have a great college career. </p>