Out & About: MN Top 100 Expo

#3 posting 7.18.2006
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

Today the MN Top 100 Expo opened in St. Cloud and I attended the first two games (four were played). The players are from throughout the state and from varying classes. It may be unfair to evaluate the team play of a bunch of kids thrown together, but the teams did have some players with teammates from their HS teams, meaning they had some experience. This camp runs until Thursday.

Here is the Twofer
Game #1 without knowing the names of the teams White 56, Blue 45
White grabbed the lead early with Sara Gregerson's shot from the top. White connected more often than Blue DGF in the early going building a 14-4 lead. Blue DGF had droughts of 6 and was 1/11 at one point. It was 30-22 at half time.

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

WHITE
STARTERS
Sara Gregersen, Minnewaska 18, 16, 112.5, .563 can shoot from outside, and in with rebound baskets , also has a drive game. RF: want to see her at the line too.
Dawnelle Askelson, Lake Park-Audubon 10, 14, 71.4, .357 RF: angles and spacing. exposed ball
Krista Skoglund, International Falls 8, 10, 80.0, .400 scored on post ups. RF: question on shot selection late in the game. didn't pay attention on a pass she was open for.
Samantha Boje, Waseca 5, 8, 62.5, .250 small point guard, active defensivley receiving end of the give and go. nice no look passes.
Amber Helmin, Sauk Rapids-Rice 4, 4, 100.0, .500 tough kid, solid. energy RF: forced passes at times.
BENCH
Kara Nelson, Montevideo 2, 9, 22.2, .111 point guard.
Hayley Hennen, Minneota 2, 3, 66.7, .333
Heidi Kjolhaug, Clearbrook-Gonvick 2, 8, 25.0, .125 RF: tried too many cross court passes on the press.
Alycia Dahl, Northern 8, 9, 88.9, .444

BLUE or TEAM DGF
STARTERS
Cassandra Hubler, Apple Valley 6, 14, 42.9, .214 was more of a point guard today. last year at AV more of a wing.
Jenna Green, DGF 8, 13, 61.5, .308
Emily Oppegard, DGF 2, 10, 20.0, .100
Jennifer Lopez, DGF 9, 13, 69.2, .308 has 3 range. able to correctly throw the lob. RF some dangerous passes
Sarah Driscoll, DGF 3, 6, 50.0, .167
BENCH
Kristin Lang, Paynesville 4, 8, 50.0, .250 RF: put the ball on the floor with 8 arms around her.
Breanne Tollefson, DGF 2, 3, 66.7, .333
Madi Brantner, DGF 9, 14, 64.3, .286 scored off rebounds and was wide wide open, is that her or poor defense? Made nice cuts.

TRENCH PLAYER
Sara Gregersen

BY THE NUMBERS
White 59, 81, 72.8, .346
BLUE DGF 43, 81, 53.1, .247

GAME #2
White #2 62, Blue #2 58

This was the best contest of the two going down to the wire. Blue took the early lead at 8-2 scoring on three straight possessions, a big deal considering the new faces and new places. But after that Blue had a five possession drought with three turnovers in the mix. Stephanie Kruggel of White scored on a kick out from the post to tie the game at 11. In the second quarter Ali Demmer went to town for White. The post scored 8 points primarily on post ups on the left block. Blue had a 17-13 lead when White rattled off 14 unanswered points to take a 27-17 lead. White scored on four straight possessions and 6/7 during the streak. Demmer scored six straight during the stretch. At half white led 30-23.
White's biggest lead in the second half came on Liz Thompson's layup, foul and free throw to make it 44-35. White led going into the final frame 50-44. White opened the 4th with a 1/10 offensive series. However Blue failed to seize advantage of the stagnation and were 1/8 to start. Blue cut the lead to 52-50 on Kiara Strickland's steal and lay up with 4 minutes to go. The game remained in a four/two split when Melissa Henderson ripped a 3 from up top making the score 56-55. Both teams stayed at that mark for two offensive possessions. Abby Busch gave White some breathing room with a pull up jumper to make it 58-55. Brianna Olson cashed in one free throw to make it 58-56 with 1:43 to go. Strickland tied it up with a transition lay up, but Hali Hendrickson scored two free throws on the next possession for white with less than 52 seconds to go. Henderson missed her shot for blue. Busch had a violation giving the ball right back. Bauernfiend missed her 3 attempt. Busch got the rebound and was fouled. She missed the front end of a one and one. With 13 seconds left Aune was bringing the ball up court when she the ball was poked from behind. Hali Hendrickson had a lay up to finish the scoring 62-58.

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

WHITE Albert Lea/GFW
STARTERS
Hali Hendrickson Albert Lea 9, 17, 52.9, .236 key steal at the end. gets open well. RF: should be more greedy when it comes to her own shot. try to avoid cross court passes. Need to fake before passing.
Stephanie Kruggel GFW 9, 12, 75.0, .417 point guard.
Liz Thompson, Albert Lea 5, 7, 71.4, .286 nice no look pass. RF: elbow too far away from body when dribbling.
Abby Busch, GFW 17, 19, 89.5, .421 likes baseline drives. also scored down the pipe.
Ali Demmer, Albert Lea 13, 11, 118.2, .636 had the key streak, big frame. RF: spacing issues, needs to get quicker
BENCH
Brittany Marquardt, GFW 2, 7, 28.6, .143
Nicole Hendrickson, Albert Lea 6, 7, 85.7, .429

BLUE ROSEMOUNT
STARTERS
Melissa Henderson, Osseo 13, 16, 81.3, .375 good back cut, has 3 range. decent size.
Jordyn Sears, St. Cloud Tech 9, 12, 75.0, .250 3 point gunner. had 3 in the first half. RF: needs to be heard from in the second half.
Maggie Bauernfiend, Rosemount 7, 8, 87.5, .375 long lanky guard, more of a pg for HS team.
Michelle Hugelen, Rosemount 2, 3, 66.7, .333 RF Needs to be more of an offensive threat
Aundreah Aune, Mpls Roosevelt 0, 10, 0.0, .000 RF: dribbles to high, and elbow is too far away from body. needs to keep arm up on shot--ball hitting back rim.
BENCH
Terin Eurle, St. Cloud Tech 6, 9, 66.7, .333 had a face mask.
Kiara Strickland, Mpls Roosevelt 9, 10, 90.0, .400 most explosive player here. tall left handed perimeter player.
Brianna Olson, Osseo 4, 6, 66.7, .167 RF: needs to lead the pass
Megan Eul, Rosemount 8, 7, 114.3, .714 sneaky inside player. does damage without too much noise.

BY THE NUMBERS
White Albert Lea/GFW 61, 80, 76.3, .375
Blue Rosemount+ 58, 81, 71.6, .321

As usual the complaints about the efficiency should be understood with the fact that the teams haven't had much practice time or, in the case of some teams, they might not know their names.
But even so spacing seems to be a big problem and I believe that comes down to court awareness.

I normally don't let my home life intrude into this blog, but tonight as I was having supper and running the numbers from this afternoon I gave a piece of meat to our dog Sparky. At that very moment our new one day old puppy happened to walk into Sparky's vision. He went ballistic and attacked the puppy biting him on the head and causing massive bleeding. Needless to say it was a traumatic situation. We took the little dog to the emergency room where he staying overnight. The docs called and said it looks ok. There was a lot of bleeding around the mouth and nose. This new dog was picked up by my wife yesterday. She named it Scout. Kind of appropriate for this blog. We are hoping Scout will be ok.

Next up: tomorrow morning with the general news of the day.