Weekend Playoff Standouts

<p>Prep Hoops Wisconsin was on hand for two regional playoff games on Friday and Saturday. In the regional semifinals, Appleton North held serve at home with an overtime win over Stevens Point. During Saturday’s regional finals, Middleton upset Arrowhead to advance to the next round...</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="1029760" first="Brock" last="Donaldson"] - 2022 - W - Appleton North</p> <p>Donaldson was not ready to go home on Friday. Appleton North trailed by 15 in the first half and  by 12 at the break. The senior wing sparked a furious rally by scoring and assisting on eight-straight points for the Lightning. Donaldson also had two more and-one finishes in the second half that were huge momentum boosts. The UW-Platteville commit chipped in with 12 points in a low-scoring affair. A prospect that I think is better than his ranking, Donaldson would probably be a lot higher in other classes. It just so happens, 2022 has a lot of quality Division 3 talent, especially in that Fox Valley area. Referred to Donaldson in the past as a swiss army knife who can do a little bit of everything on the floor and play/defend three positions.  This isn’t the first time he’s had a huge role in a comeback win for North, who also leaned on Donaldson against Oshkosh North. </p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="986200" first="Kaden" last="Fosdick"] - 2023 - SF - Middleton</p> <p>Fosdick got it done on both ends of the floor during Saturday’s win at Arrowhead. The junior forward set a tone early defensively by creating some stops around the rim and getting on the floor for loose balls. At the bottom of Middleton’s zone, Fosdick just swallowed up opposing drives and often created a turnover when somebody got in deep. The Warhawks were pretty much playing from the outside the entire game. A slashing wing/forward, Fosdick also came out and scored seven points right out of the gate. He put a punctuation mark on the win with a poster, one-hand slam in the waning moments. Fosdick finished with 11 points, five rebounds, and four steals in the win.</p> <p>Nick Meinholz - 2022 - G - Middleton</p> <p>Meinholz went for 18 points in Saturday’s upset win over Arrowhead. The senior guard hit some timely 3’s to blow the game open and also got to the free throw line a ton. Meinholz salted the game away in the second half by going 10-of-12 from the charity stripe. With [player_tooltip player_id="1270264" first="Logan" last="Raffel"] not in action, Meinholz stepped up in a big way. The Cardinals have now won their last five games when Meinholz scores in double figures.</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="761416" first="James" last="Jacobs"] - 2022 - SG -  Stevens Point<a href="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/ph/uploads/2020/10/JAMES-JACOBS-85.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-1063738" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/ph/uploads/2020/10/JAMES-JACOBS-85-300x255.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="255" /></a></p> <p>Jacobs is a lot more skilled and athletic than I remember from last season. The 6-foot-4 shooting guard looked really confident and explosive off the dribble, able to work his way into the paint and get into high percentage areas. Jacobs finished with 14 points, including a big 3-pointer late in the second half that stopped an Appleton North run. He’ll be getting a bump in the rankings at the end of the season.</p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="990559" first="Nate" last="Streveler"] - 2022 - SG - Stevens Point</p> <p>Thought Streveler had one of the better defensive performances I’ve seen. Giving up about four inches to Appleton North’s star forward, Streveler  made him work for everything. The senior guard made every catch tough and pushed his man away from his spots.  After a slow start offensively, Streveler started to shoot it really well towards the end of the first half and scored a team-high 15 points. Not sure Steveler has been the same since his shoulder injury last year, but he really gutted out and battled  on Friday. </p> <p>[player_tooltip player_id="953945" first="Mac" last="Wrecke"] - 2023 - W -  Arrowhead</p> <p>Tough game for Arrowhead, who was just smothered defensively by Middleton. Wrecke didn’t get a lot of looks at the rim, but still finished with 21 points. Forced to shoot a lot of jumpers and play in the middle of the zone, Wrecke did knock down his fair share of attempts. Wrecke went a respectable 4-of-10 from 3-point range in a game where he had to press the issue as Arrowhead’s offense could just not get going. He was the only Warhawk in double figures on Saturday.</p>