Out & About: Bismarck Century/Hopkins

#4 posting 7.29.2006
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

This is the second or "AA" championship. The 7 teams in the A bracket, plus Park-Cottage Grove from the B bracket held their playoffs and the championship pitted Hopkins and Bismarck Century.
Here is the A standings
Hopkins 6-0
Bismarck Century 4-2
Rogers 3-3
Maple Grove 3-3
Osseo 3-3
St. Michael-Albertville 1-4
Fargo South 0-6

So the top two teams faced off. However some of Hopkins players were off at the North Tartan Meltdown including Caitlin Rowland, Burmeister, and Lillemoe. On top of that Steph Sension was out due to a knee injury.

BC started off scoring on five of their first 8 possessions and that was good enough for a 9-2 lead. Andrea LaFrance, who has verballed North Dakota, led a physcial, aggressive BC team to the early lead. LaFrance is a big point guard with nice passing skills. Hopkins was suffering from the heat and their offense sputtered with a 12 possession drought. 7 of those possessions were turnovers almost approaching Lynx territory. Jackie Hiebert scored the first six points for Hopkins. That was all Hopkins could muster in the first half as they trailed 15-6.

It appeared Hopkins was going to bounce back in the game when they scored five points on one possession. Tess Komarek scored on a drive and was fouled. She missed the free throw, but Hopkins retained possession. On the pass in Ana Garcia drilled a three to cut the margin to 16-11. But after Hiebert's basket to make the score BC 18-13 Hopkins fell into the drought mode again, this time five possession without a score, but it was a 1/9 string going beyond the five. BC was going through the same ordeal as they had a 7 possession dry spell. Hopkins cut the margin to six at 23-17. Brittany Jossart added some distance for BC with a 3. Tori Johannsen scored on a drive, but it wasn't going to be in the cards for Hopkins. BC went ot the line on their next three possessions and made four of six free throws to push the lead to 30-19. Hiebert scored the last points in the steamy gym for the final 30-21.

NUMBERS EXPLAINED
player, points, possessions, pp100, floor %

BISMARCK CENTURY
STARTERS
Andrea LaFrance 10, 12, 83.3, .500 nice passing, confident, in command. Good enough size for rebounding. RF: heat took it's toll.
Dana Asplund 5, 9, 55.6, .333
Courtney Fettig 7, 7, 100.0, .571 scored in the paint. RF: need to be more active on boards.
Brittany Jossart 5, 8, 62.5, .250 can get hit and still focus on making the lay up. has 3 range. RF: needs to cash in the free throw.
Sam Harris 0, 1, 0.0, .000
BENCH
Maddi Buck 3, 5, 60.0, .200 made her 3.
Brittany Kuntz 0, 1, 0.0, .000

HOPKINS
STARTERS
Hannah Muegge 0, 3, 0.0, .000 point guard. RF: strength.
Ana Garcia 5, 12, 41.7, .167 for a guard had 3 defensive boards. Had a three that put Hopkins back in the game. RF: adjusting to a new system and new players.
Tess Komarek 2, 6, 33.3, .167 RF: ball handling/decision making
Casey Wittmeyer 0, 0, 0.0, .000
Jackie Hiebert 10, 14, 71.4, .357 strong in the work areas had 7 defensive boards and a steal, the best for both teams in that category. only beacon of offensive hope in the first half. RF: problems with traveling in the first half. Should allow the guards to deal with ball handling issues.
BENCH
Katie Goodroad 0, 2, 0.0, .000
Tori Johannsen 2, 4, 50.0, .250 interesting youngster, moves well. RF: still learning. strength
Rachel Johnson 2, 1, 200.0, 1.000 scored in transition

TRENCH PLAYER
Andrea LaFrance

BY THE NUMBERS
Bismarck Century 30, 43, 69.8, .372
Hopkins 21, 42, 50.0, .238

With the conditions the way they were I didn't expect to see crisp, sharp, snappy basketball. I was correct in that assumption. BC was taking the ball hard to the glass, initiating contact. They had more beef than Hopkins and that aggressiveness gave BC the edge. I am sure next week in the sweet 16 we will see complete Hopkins team and 50.0 pp100 and .238 floot % will be a faded memory.

Next up: tomorrow morning general news of the day, plus later in the day coverage of the North Tartan Meltdown. They sure picked a good name for their tournament. Temp right now is 96.4.