Stillwater 81 Woodbury 60: Five Things to Know

Ryan James December 13, 2022 @ 11:32 PM

With [player_tooltip player_id='962206' first='Max' last='Shikenjanski'] back on the court the Stillwater Ponies rolled to an 81-60 victory over Woodbury tonight. And don't forget about the huge impact Tyler Weise had!   One. Max Takes Over. [player_tooltip player_id='962206' first='Max' last='Shikenjanski'] picked up his second foul fairly early in the game meaning he sat most of the first half. The Ponies didn't have Max this past Saturday (Shikenjanski was playing in the All State Football game) and they dropped their lone game to Blaine. Tonight the outcome was better, and then when Shikenjanski was back on the court without concerns of foul issues, he took over.   Stillwater actually opened the game using Max in the post and it worked for a couple scores. They did that at the start of the second half too. But when Stillwater wanted to take control they had Max breaking Royals down off the dribble again, and again, and again, and again. Shikenjanski took ONE perimeter jumper all game. Everything was attacking off the dribble and finishing over the help with a pretty touch. There were at least three And 1 finishes and Max used the window exceptionally well.   Max scored 28 points on 11 of 20 shooting from the field and 6 of 9 shooting at the foul line. Also had four boards and four assists.   Two. Wyatt's Impact. Wyatt Heise is a 6'2 strong senior forward from Stillwater. The early post scores from Max came from quality passes off the hand of Heise. But when Max sat down, Heise went from role player to the main scoring threat. It was a couple pivots, and And1, and then a three. Then Wyatt hit two more threes. With Shikenjanski back on the floor Wyatt moved away from the ball but he continued to be a threat scoring 19 points on seven of nine shooting with four boards and four assists.   Three. Bolin's Charge. Woodbury dug themselves a hole but 6'7 senior stretch forward [player_tooltip player_id='1491757' first='Carter' last='Bolin'] brought them back. Most of Carter's scores were using the dribble and going at the Stillwater forwards that were giving up several inches, at times they were giving up a half a foot trying to defend Carter. Bolin scored 15 points and most of them were touch shots on the move going to the basket. He knocked down seven of 15 shot attempts plus he was the best rebounder on the floor grabbing eight boards.   Four. The Ponies Had More Depth. In all honesty I thought Woodbury ran a lot of good stuff offensively and defensively they did try their best to battle to spots. That said, they just don't have the talent to break guys down off the dribble enough nor do they have enough quality shooters to pull the defense from the basket. Guys tried to defend Max, they tried to help, but they just don't have the horses to do it. Hence, Stillwater has more depth. We talked about Heise but Brett Hilde's three three points and 15 points also stretched the Royals too far. Also, [player_tooltip player_id='2104491' first='Henry' last='Zollar'] of Stilwater did a nice job moving the ball and he hit three shots himself.   Five. Underclassmen Report. We just spoke about Henry as he played a nice role for Stillwater, and Zollar is a sophomore. Zollar has been scoring three times a game on average for Stillwater all year. Stillwater also has a pair of 6'4 8th graders on their JV named [player_tooltip player_id='2126140' first='Zach' last='Krusemark'] and AJ Taban. Both are wings.   As for Woodbury, I could not find a roster anywhere. That said I know that [player_tooltip player_id='1617779' first='Marquivion' last='Beasley'] is a sophomore guard and he was the second best scoring option Woodbury had tonight scoring ten points on seven shot attempts.

With Max Shikenjanski Max Shikenjanski 6'2" | PG Stillwater | 2023 State #288 Nation MN back on the court the Stillwater Ponies rolled to an 81-60 victory over Woodbury tonight. And don't forget about the huge impact Tyler Weise had!