Minnesota Playoff Central: Best of 3A and 3AA Saturday

Ryan James March 5, 2023 @ 03:56 PM

The 3A and 3AA sub-section quarterfinals were played on Saturday and we run you through the top performers and everything else you need to know, in Minnesota Playoff Central.     Playoff Central.  There were zero upsets in the Class A section tournaments games on Saturday. Not only were there no upsets, there was only one close game! MACCRAY knocking of Canby was the only contest that went down the stretch with any time of drama.   Junior pair Isaac Post (6'0 combo guard) and [player_tooltip player_id='2398542' first='Jordan' last='Warne'] (6'6 post) scored 24 and 18 points respectively to lead MACCRAY to the 70-66 victory. Post is one of the best shooters in the state that you don't know about as he's shot over 40 percent from behind the arc the last two seasons! Warne is an active big that can play a face-up game and he moves very well. MACCRAY will need both to play well when they face top ten ranked Dawson-Boyd in the next round.   Upset City. The six seed beat the three seed in BOTH of the of the 3AA sub-section games yesterday with Litchfield defeating Paynesville Area and Montevideo knocking off Windom 83-73. Six-foot-5 junior Tucker Liestman made a lot of people take note of his name by scoring 19 points with 11 rebounds in the big Dragon win over Paynesville Area. Paynesville was a 20 win team this year but they were behind Morris Area and Eden Valley-Watkins (two more teams that had great years) in the seeding so they ran into Liestman and it was the end of their year. Keep the name Tucker Liestman in mind, he had a really nice season averaging 15 points a game.   The Big Stage.  One of the bigger games of Saturday was the 4/5 game between New London-Spicer and West Central Area. West Central lost [player_tooltip player_id='1464341' first='Camden' last='Anderson'] before the season which was a tough blow but [player_tooltip player_id='1492609' first='Cole' last='Anderson'] led his team to 18 wins this year and Cole had 18 points with five boards in the loss. NLS got 20 from hard working, constant energy 6'3 junior win [player_tooltip player_id='2372690' first='Grant' last='Paffrath'].   Five-foot-seven sophomore [player_tooltip player_id='2104527' first='Lukas' last='Means'] has been knocking out threes all season and yesterday he had one of his best games of the year scoring 26 points to push Redwood Valley past Luverne in the 4/5 game. Redwood Valley (the five) earned their 13th win of the season led by Means.   Top Performers. [player_tooltip player_id='1411178' first='Brayson' last='Boike'] of Dawson-Boyd is one of the top ten sophomores in the state of Minnesota he helped lead his team to a 76-37 win over Yellow Medicine East scoring 27 points in limited time. Even more important, Boike scored his 1,000th career point yesterday and remember, he is still a sophomore!   Drew Werkmann continued his All State level season with 24 points and 16 rebounds for RTR in a 27 point win.   Murray County Central has a 6'8 big named Bryce Hoekman (a junior) and yesterday Bryce had an unofficial dozen blocks in a win over HBC. Throw in four scores and a bunch of boards but he had double figure swats!   Tip of the Hat to the Career. [player_tooltip player_id='1225657' first='Henry' last='Erickson']. The Windom senior averaged 24 points a game and was among the state leaders in assists for a Windom team that averaged 90 plus points a game. He scores but creation is what makes Henry the player he is and it will be fun to see who he plays with in college as Henry is a fantastic passer.

The 3A and 3AA sub-section quarterfinals were played on Saturday and we run you through the top performers and everything else you need to know, in Minnesota Playoff Central.