Minnesota Playoff Central: Wabasha-Kellogg is Cinderella

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Upset City</strong>.  Minnesota.......We have our Cinderella! It's Wabasha-Kellogg who had the slight upset over Kenyon-Wanamingo last week and last night, they had the monster upset beating Lanesboro! </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Keep in mind, Wabaska-Kellogg came into the playoffs at 8-18 whereas Lanesboro was the 21-win two seed. The Falcons beat the Burros last night 73-66 led by 6'5 junior center Bryar Ender who had 18 points and 13 rebounds. Ender put the game away with six of six foul shooting in the final minute! Sophomore Matthew Busch knocked out three threes and scored 15 points.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Wabasha-Kellogg won six games all of last season. They won eight regular season games this year. But this is a team with some up and coming players that will return next year and they are catching their groove at the right time in March. Next up is 20-win Lewiston-Altura who crushed the Falcons twice this year by 39 and 29 points respectively. But the Falcons have new life!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Playoff Central</strong>. There were a lot seed decisions that led to some motivated teams last night. New Ulm finished the season 13-12 but because of a loss to 10-16 Mankato West in the regular season they had to go to Mankato. Last night New Ulm won 61-56. [player_tooltip player_id='2815441' first='Mitchell' last='Hopp'] had 19 points and Levi Hoop had 17 points. West won the regular season game so they pry earned the home game, and its just 30 minutes of driving for New Ulm, but a 10-16 team with a home game still bothers me a tad when there are teams with winning records.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Litchfield finished the season at .500 and they got a higher seed than Minnewaska Area 17-9, Minnewaska beat Litchfield last night 60-55. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Then you have the Monticello behind Elk River decision putting the Elks as the three and the Magic as the four. This might rank as the most baffling decision I have seen in many years. And both teams showed that they had something to prove. The Elks beat Brainerd by 22 led by the 25 points of senior [player_tooltip player_id='1560831' first='Levi' last='Harris']. The Magic took their anger out on Moorhead with a 81-63 victory to move on to face Alexandria (congrats one seed, you get a motivated 22-win team in the semi-finals!)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>After a 51 game Tuesday night we have a 40 game big school Wednesday night. There are 15 Class AAAA games and 25 games in Class AAA. These are all quarterfinals contests. There are no Class AA games tonight but there are eight round of 16 games in Section 7A in Class A basketball. If you are going to see an upset in big school basketball, tonight will likely be the night it happens.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>The Big Stage</strong>. The biggest game of Wednesday evening is likely Chanhassen at Waconia in the section 4AAAA 4/5 game. The Storm and Cats have played twice already splitting the games (with each team winning on the road). Both games were double figure games: one by 14 points, the other by 16 points. In two games Chanhassen senior [player_tooltip player_id='1560782' first='Kolby' last='Christl'] combined to score 68 points (36 points in one game, 32 points in the other). In Waconia's win they had five guys in double figures, in the Chan win [player_tooltip player_id='2560476' first='Isaac' last='Johnson'] stepped up and had a good game taking some pressure off of Christl and Bennett Barger. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Tip of the Hat to the Career</strong>. With 51 games on a Tuesday night you know there are going to be a lot of careers ended of good players. I would say the two guys that come to mind from last night would be [player_tooltip player_id='1560865' first='Nolan' last='Myren'] of Spring Lake Park and [player_tooltip player_id='2823917' first='Gunner' last='Liebl'] of Dawson-Boyd. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Bemidji State bound [player_tooltip player_id='1560865' first='Nolan' last='Myren'] averaged an impressive 27.3 points per game this season leading his team to 15 wins. Nolan had 26 points last night in the loss to Champlin Park and his season high was a 40 point game against Rogers. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Liebel can walk around his community with his head held high having led his team (as the point guard) to a state title last year, and to a 21-win season this year. Liebl and his Dawson-Boyd team are in a ridiculously talented sub-section that includes three ranked teams and that is how the Jacks were against Wabasso in a sub-section semi-final (Central Minnesota Christian is the one seed). Liebl averaged 25.1 points, 5.6 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 1.8 steals a game with shooting splits of 51.1/73.9/42.0 which is a very impressive stat line. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->