Buffalo 81 Minnetonka 75: Five Things to Know

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Buffalo picked up an important Class AAAA victory last night when the current 8AAAA favorite knocked off the current 2AAAA favorite by two scores. Here are five things to know from the game!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>One. All State Nate</strong>. When we put together the Class AAAA All State Team at the end of the year [player_tooltip player_id='1491756' first='Nate' last='Dahl']'s name is going to be there. Where? Every day that goes by it looks like his name will be higher on the last. Last night Dahl scored 38 points on 12 of 21 shooting with 10 of 12 shooting at the foul line. If there was one thing I would pick out it was how physical Nate was finishing the basketball. Tonka simply had no guards that could match his physicality going at the rim. Not only did Dahl finish through contact or get fouled, he had some scores at the cup that showed some amazing body control. Perimeter touch? Dahl made four threes. Creating for others? Despite being off the ball and on the ball, Dahl still had six assists. It was one of the better performances I have seen in a big game all year long. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Two. Top Five in State?</strong> Tomorrow morning when I do the Minnesota Power Rankings the Bison will be at least the 5th Class AAAA team listed when I run through the teams. And if they can get past Eden Prairie on Friday (who has lost 8 of their last 9 and weren't even competitive in half of those losses) that will mean Buffalo is a top five team in state when the polls are released Sunday night/Monday morning. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>This is a Bison team that has truly earned their spot. They are 16-3 at the moment with wins over Tonka, Hopkins, EP, Moorhead, and others. Buffalo earned the win last night with third leading scorer [player_tooltip player_id='1284217' first='Torii' last='Johnson'] on the bench using crutches. [player_tooltip player_id='1288787' first='Brody' last='Wishart'], Buffalo third leading scorer, had a rough first half (no points on 0 of 4 shooting with no boards and no assists) and bounced back to have a really nice second half hitting double figures. In fact, if Wishart does not turn that around the Bison may not have earned the win. I also felt that sophomores [player_tooltip player_id='2104439' first='Ty' last='Torgrimson'] and [player_tooltip player_id='2104444' first='Mitchell' last='Friesz'] played a big role in support last night. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Three. Stefonowicz Matching Dahl</strong>. There was a stretch last night where Skipper junior [player_tooltip player_id='1284083' first='Andy' last='Stefonowicz'] went bucket for bucket with Dahl and it was one of the more enjoyable stretches of shot making I have seen all season. Andy is a fantastic passer, and there were some leads of his last night that his teammates missed that could have been special. In the second half Tonka needed the beautiful shooting touch of Stefonowicz to be pure and it was. He made five straight shots and a bundle of free throws trying to keep his team even. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>On the whole yesterday was not a good game for the all around Tonka team. Andy picked up the scoring slack hitting four threes, making 10 of 11 foul shots and scoring 27 points plus he dished out six assists (there was no reason that total shouldn't have been 8 or 9) and grabbed eight boards. Loved the way Andy chased down boards and then pushed the other way. He is the perfect lead guard for the Summit League and that is why UST and NDSU are after him and others likely will be soon. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Four. Please Stand Up?</strong> I'm not sure why but the song "Will the real Slim Shady please stand up" kept ringing in my head watching Tonka last night. Maybe it was because I thought I was sitting all alone and was somehow surrounded by high school students by the middle of the first half. Whatever the case, Tonka had won 13 of 14 games coming into last night and that's against a tough schedule! The Skippers put up 98 last Saturday beating fellow top five team Eastview! Andy was hot that night too scoring 35 while [player_tooltip player_id='1284162' first='Jordan' last='Cain'] had 18 and [player_tooltip player_id='1574218' first='Duke' last='Richardson'] had 15.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Last night Cain had trouble scoring early (did finish with 11), Richardson had a solid night but was saddled by early foul trouble, [player_tooltip player_id='962205' first='Jalen' last='Cain'] is out right now with I am guessing an injury, and [player_tooltip player_id='962207' first='Ibrahim' last='El-Amin'] scored once on seven attempts. I don't think what we saw last night from Tonka was what they've been regularly doing. OR, you could say that Buffalo is just really good. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Somebody told me this morning Buffalo is "Wayzata Light" right now and getting stronger. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Five. Guida</strong>! I really liked what I saw from [player_tooltip player_id='1284137' first='Grady' last='Guida'], the Buffalo junior guard. He had an off night finishing but did so much in terms of toughness, making the right decision, and battling on both ends I am guessing few noticed he had a rougher night from the field for his 14 points. I loved Guida's fight to spots on D, loved his effort on the glass (6), and I really liked how he made sure the ball was in the hands of Dahl on a night where Dahl was abusing the defense. It's simple but Guida was the server for Dahl's masterpiece and you can not have a basketball masterpiece without a teammate helping you get there. Hell of a game from Guida too. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->