Last night ten teams earned their way to the 2023 State Tournament highlighted by Kaiden Peters Kaiden Peters 6'2" | CG Plainview/Elgin-Millville | 2023 State MN scoring at the buzzer sending our original Class AA number one to state in…
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Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log inLast night ten teams earned their way to the 2023 State Tournament highlighted by
Kaiden Peters
Kaiden
Peters
6'2" | CG
Plainview/Elgin-Millville | 2023
State
MN
scoring at the buzzer sending our original Class AA number one to state in surprising fashion!
Playoff Central. In the early summer Plainview/Elgin-Millville was our top pick to win Class AA basketball. Their pair of senior stars
Kaiden Peters
Kaiden
Peters
6'2" | CG
Plainview/Elgin-Millville | 2023
State
MN
and
Aeron Stevens
Aeron
Stevens
6'7" | PF
Plainview-Elgin-Millville | 2023
State
MN
were having an amazing spring with the Minnesota Lightning and they had senior role players back around them. As the summer moved on Holy Family added Collin Muholland and
Kole Hanson
Kole
Hanson
6'1" | PG
Holy Family | 2024
State
MN
as transfers moving the Fire into the number one spot but PEM was two (Yes Holy Family is still the favorite but they have a tough game versus Minneapolis North tonight). However, the long season started with Lake City looking like the better team while Peters missed some time for football and then missed some time for injury.
Last night things turned full circle with PEM knocking off Lake City 58-55 in overtime. Peters made the big shot but
Aeron Stevens
Aeron
Stevens
6'7" | PF
Plainview-Elgin-Millville | 2023
State
MN
was incredible with his 33 points, six rebounds and six assists. The PEM top pair is now headed to state and have a great chance to make the run at a title that many expected they could almost a year ago.
Upset City. If I had to pick an upset of the night it would be St. Francis beating Princeton 59-58. The Saints were 6-21 last season and picked fourth in the preseason predictions while Princeton has been to state three of the last four years. If you were to tell me St. Francis was going to knock off Princeton this year in the section final I would have laughed at you. I pry would have laughed at you had you said that to me two weeks ago! And last night St. Francis proved many wrong with a win over the Tigers. I can’t find any results anywhere to give any player a nod of a good job but I sure found a ton of St. Francis team photos with the trophy and maybe that is the way it should be!
Tickets Punched. Who is in so far?
AAAA: Andover, Eastview, Wayzata, White Bear Lake
AAA: Alexandria, DeLaSalle, Hermantown, Orono, St. Francis, Totino-Grace
AA: Eden Valley-Watkins, PEM
A: RTR, Spring Grove
Top Performers. Spring Grove defeated Goodhue 57-48 (Goodhue cleared a 19 point lead in the second half at one point getting within two) led by the 21 points from junior
Elijah Solum
Elijah
Solum
6'2" | SG
Spring Grove | 2024
State
MN
.
Another big showing for junior
Jonathan Mekonnen
Jonathan
Mekonnen
6'7" | PF
Eastview | 2024
State
#178
Nation
MN
, the 6’7 forward had 23 and led his team to state.
Patrick Bath
Patrick
Bath
6'9" | C
Totino-Grace | 2023
State
MN
had 15 points and 14 rebounds leading Totino-Grace to an eye opening blowout win over Mahtomedi.
Jack Janicki
Jack
Janicki
6'4" | SG
White Bear Lake | 2023
State
#277
Nation
MN
led White Bear Lake to state for the first time in 23 years with 23 points as the Bears knocked off East Ridge.
The game of the night was likely from
Samuel Musungu
Samuel
Musungu
6'1" | PG
Andover | 2023
State
MN
who put up 45 points pushing the Huskies back to state beating Cambridge-Isanti.
Tip of the Hat to the Career. A strong list of top seniors saw their careers come to a close last night. Here is a roll call of those players:
Owen Carlson
Owen
Carlson
6'3" | SG
Mahtomedi | 2023
State
MN
of Mahtomedi. Explosive scoring option is headed to CSP.
Cooper Drews
Cooper
Drews
6'4" | SF
Princeton | 2023
State
MN
of Princeton. Two sport star was truly a basketball star this winter.
Ryan Heise
Ryan
Heise
6'8" | SF
Lake City | 2023
State
MN
of Lake City. One of the most improved players over 18 months I have ever seen.
Michael Kirchner
Michael
Kirchner
6'0" | PG
St. Thomas Academy | 2023
State
MN
of St. Thomas Academy. He could go to college and surprise people with a big career.
Alex Mattes
Alex
Mattes
6'3" | SG
East Ridge | 2023
State
MN
of East Ridge. Mattes is a shooter headed to U of Mary.
Will Opsahl
Will
Opsahl
6'8" | SF
Goodhue | 2023
State
MN
of Goodhue. Will has made a great case to be Class A Player of the Year.
Emmanuel Schmitter
Emmanuel
Schmitter
6'3" | SG
Eagan | 2023
State
MN
of Eagan. Schimitter had a great four year career for the Cats.
Will Underwood
Will
Underwood
6'3" | PG
Mahtomedi | 2023
State
MN
of Mahtomedi. Rebounded from a knee injury extremely well.