Cherry 99 Fertile-Beltrami 76: Five Things to Know
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In a battle of top ten Class A teams Cherry beat Fertile-Beltrmai 99-76. What should you take from this game? We break it down for you! One. The Isaac Asuma Isaac Asuma 6'3" | PG Cherry | 2024 State #102…
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Continue ReadingIn a battle of top ten Class A teams Cherry beat Fertile-Beltrmai 99-76. What should you take from this game? We break it down for you!
One. The Isaac Asuma Isaac Asuma 6'3" | PG Cherry | 2024 State #102 Nation MN Turn. Falcon 6’5 sophomore Preston Hanson Preston Hanson 6'5" | PF Fertile-Beltrami | 2026 State MN had a great start hitting double digits in just over three minutes time. In doing that Fertile-Beltrami took a three score leading prompting a Cherry timeout. From that point on Isaac Asuma Isaac Asuma 6'3" | PG Cherry | 2024 State #102 Nation MN took over.
Asuma hit four threes in four attempts, scored in the post, cut to score and had five assists moving the ball for open Cherry attempts. And in this time frame Cherry went from down three scores to up 20 plus points. It was a Mr. Basketball level performance from one of the top candidates.
Two. Ball Movement. Nobody is moving the basketball and cutting with that movement like Cherry is right now. The amount of timed cut buckets was staggering. The amount of open threes made off of great ball movement was impossible to stop. And it’s everybody on the team.
Carson Brown Carson Brown 6'0" | PG Cherry | 2025 State MN hit for 1,000 points for his career and did it on a 4 of 9 shooting down (10 points) but it was his eight assists that was more important.
Isaac Asuma Isaac Asuma 6'3" | PG Cherry | 2024 State #102 Nation MN had 22 points on ten shoots plus eight boards but it was his 10 assists that were everything.
Noah Sundquist Noah Sundquist 6'3" | SF Cherry | 2025 State MN can explosively finish with the best 6’1 guys and under and he scored 21 points but had five assists too.
Isaiah Asuma Isaiah Asuma 5'11" | SG Cherry | 2027 State MN scored 14 points on 6 of 9 shooting, but also four assists.
They all moved the ball to near perfection.
Three. Preston Hanson Preston Hanson 6'5" | PF Fertile-Beltrami | 2026 State MN . The 6’5 sophomore started the game hitting a three, scored five straight times in the paint in various ways (putback, cut to score, post up, contested finish, etc). he hit two threes for the game and scored his 24 points on an impressive 10 of 15 shooting. Cherry is deep and talented but not big. Hanson is 6’5 and he was one of the first guys with size that I have seen all year have success against Cherry.
Four. Swenby Success. I am a big Caiden Swenby Caiden Swenby 6'3" | SG Fertile-Beltrami | 2024 State MN guy. He’s a 6’4 senior guard that plays a versatile game and helps his team in many ways. He can handle, he can be a catch and shoot guy, and he can be attacking wing. Swenby started this game very slow missing on six of his first seven shots but when his shot was struggling he was creating for others and rebounding defensively at a good rate. And then the touch on the three, the step back, and the fall away started to go giving him 17 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists in a losing effort. He is an all state player.
Five. Why Cherry is #1. Can Cherry be beaten? Of course. The Hopkins 2009 team is the best team I have ever seen and they were almost beaten by one man – Nate Wolters – until Nate turned an ankle. Yes Cherry can be beaten. But it’s going to be tough.
The Falcons are a good Class A team that has a real shot at state. But they could not have the depth to deal with Cherry, they did not have the defensive ability to cover the full floor against Cherry, and they did not have the athletic ability to cover all three Asumas plus Brown and Sundquist. It’s a very, very tough ask. And the way Cherry plays together makes it even tougher to stop.