The Week That Was #8: Halftime

#9 posting 1.14.2007
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THE WEEK THAT WAS #8: HALFTIME
6 games in 6 days.
The theme of this past week could have called the "AA week" with 3 games including the top 3 teams in AA. Also you could have called the week "Down to the wire" with three of the games this week ending on the last possession: White Bear Lake, Becker, and Winona Cotter all won down to the wire. Also "rally week" with Becker and Winona Cotter coming back from deficits, even WBL had to come back late, but not as far as Becker or Cotter did. If the next weeks deliver like this it will be a good January.

This marks the halfway point of the year. Let us take a look at the toughest regions.
AAAA
1st off section 3 with St. Paul Central has to be considered top notch. Park-Cottage Grove, Woodbury and Cretin-Derham Hall have all been rated in the top 10.
2nd: 2 has five teams and one of these will go home after the quarterfinals: Edina, Hopkins, Minnetonka, Eden Prairie, or Chaska.
3: Section 1 is loaded with teams down to the 7th team. There isn't a firm favorite in this wide open section
What about 7 or 6? 7 has two teams Centennial and Champlin Park. After that it thins out. 6 has Mpls South, Eastview and a few more dangerous teams like Kennedy, and Burnsville.
However if the state was to be held today the top 4 seeds would be 1. St. Paul Central; 2. Champlin Park; 3. Mpls South; 4. Eden Prairie (Edina's loss to Wayzata knocks them down some).
AAA
Toughest sections: 3 is the toughest with DeLaSalle, Holy Angels, Mpls Roosevelt all having been in the top 10. 2nd: section 6 with Totino-Grace and Rogers battling out for the top spot. 3rd: 8 with Detroit Lakes and Fergus Falls. But for the most part there are clear distinctions between the top and bottom in each section
To seed the state 1. Benilde-St. Margaret's; 2. Becker; 3. Detroit Lakes; 4. DeLaSalle.
AA
By far and away section 1 is the toughest. Winona Cotter, probably the new #1 this week, along with Kingsland, Caledonia, Rochester Lourdes plus Stewartville and Pine Island flying under the radar make this a rough and tumble section.
2nd: Section 8 with Crookston, but also DGF, Hawley, and Barnesville.
3rd: Section 4 has Jordan, Cannon Falls, and some teams under the radar like Concordia Roseville, and plenty of TriMetro teams.
They don't seed, but if they did: 1. Winona Cotter, 2. Crookston, 3. Albany, 4. Hayfield
A
Again it is no contest, Section 2 is the meanest around. With Cedar Mt-Comfrey, Springfield, New Ulm Cathedral, Nicollet and Sleepy Eye St. Mary's it is a potential minefield to get through unscathed.
2nd: Section 7 has Barnum plus Chisholm and Bigfork make the northeast region tough. 3rd: Section 3 with defending champ Fulda has to be considered with SW Star who recently pinned a loss on Fulda, Edgerton, Adrian in the South, and Minneota and RTR in the North teams to be wary of.
Top seeds: again not seeded in the state, but if they did: 1. Cedar Mt-Comfrey; 2. Fulda; 3. Ada-Borup; 4. Barnum

TEAM OF THE WEEK
There were many playoff intensity games in the week, but the team that was firing on all cylinders, literally was Albany. Their pp100 and floor % was the highest in the week and their offense looked sharp. Each player shot well. The other teams were all around 77-87 pp100. Albany checked in at 108. Not only that their % was .507. The next highest was .448 by White Bear Lake.
Albany went on the road Tuesday and beat AAAA Wayzata (who beat Edina later in the week). Albany is averaging 80.1 ppg for the year so this was not a once in a while performance against NLS. They are the highest scoreing AA team.
Winona Cotter and Crookston played not too far away from Albany on Saturday. Albany players were in the house watching.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Again the rules: 1. I had to see the player during the week. 2. player had to be +100 pp100 and 3. +.500 floor %. 4. player had to have 10 possessions.
This eliminates a lot of players fairly or unfairly, but I am consistent at least.
That being said the biggest numbers belong to Sam Larsen of Albany with a 138.9 pp100 and .722 floor %. She rebounded well, has some ups, and has good hang time.
The rest of the team
First Team
Sydney Epema, Crookston
Jenny Gilbertson, Winona Cotter
Renae Henjum, New London-Spicer
Sam Larsen, Albany
Brianna Mastey, Becker
Second Team
Colleen Doerr, LeSueur-Henderson
Liz Judkins, Bemidji
Katya Leick, Park-Cottage Grove
Brianna Pfremmer, Bemidji
Jackie Voigt, Park-Cottage Grove
You might be wondering where Tanya Dickey of White Bear Lake lands. She was under .500 on floor % and therefore not underconsideration, but was a clutch performer with her 3 to tie PCG late in the game Tuesday.

DEFENDERS OF THE WEEK
Again these players tend to be more aggressive. Their value is they get the ball to start the offense. I don't measure how many times a player's denial prevented the ball being thrown to the player they are defended. Nicole Neumann of LeSueur-Henderson captains this group with her run of 8 consecutive defensive rebounds in the first half against Blue Earth.
Sam Larsen, Albany
Brianna Mastey, Becker
Nicole Neumann, LeSueur-Henderson
Molly Simmons, Crookston
Jackie Voigt, Park-Cottage Grove

THE WEEK AHEAD
Monday, Jan 15
Sleepy Eye St. Mary's at MN Valley Lutheran. Don't let the 4-4 conference record for SESM fool you. This will be a big game in the Tomahawk conference.
Maple River at Nicollet. A Valley conference showdown with Maple River at 5-1, Nicollet 7-0.
Tuesday, Jan 16
Springfield at Cedar Mt.-Comfrey. Big for Tomahawk lead, Is this a preview of the 2A finals? the Marquee match up of the week. Marquee game of the week.
Coon Rapids at Champlin Park. Jazmin Townsend is back for CR, can CP's defense hold up.
Mpls Roosevelt at DeLaSalle. A city battle, a 3AAA battle. Roosevelt beat Hopkins, but then was soundly beat by Mpls North. Which team will show up.
Orono at Delano. Delano leads the Wright County. Orono would like to change that.
Goodhue at Kingsland. Two top 5 teams (Goodhue A, Kingsland AA) face off in a Three Rivers Clash.
Hopkins at Mpls South. Can the Hopkins guards take the heat?
Albert Lea at New Prague. An important 1AAA game for seeding. Albert Lea has been in the top 10, Whitney Trecker has put up big numbers for NP.
Blaine at Osseo. These two are in the mix in the NW Suburban. Neither want to pick up a loss as both are chasing Centennial and Champlin Park.
Thursday, Jan 18
Barnesville at Crookston. An 8AA rematch of last years final when Barnesville's unbeaten season ended.
Eastview at Eden Prairie. Both these teams are in first place in the Lake. One won't be at the end of the night.
Nicollet at Martin County West. Both don't have a loss in the Valley.
Battle Lake at Parkers Prairie. Both battling for the lead in the Little Eight.
Holy Angels at Totino-Grace. Catholic AAA powers tangle. Both have been listed in the top 10.
Friday, Jan 19
Champlin Park at Blaine. The schedule doesn't get any easier for Blaine with their second battle of the week.
Farmington at New Prague. A Missota conference battle.
Cretin-Derham Hall at Woodbury. Alyssa Karel vs the air tight defense (usually) of Woodbury.
Saturday, Jan 19
Rochester Lourdes at Kingsland. Two 1AA West powers. Kingsland beat Lourdes in the Subsection finals last year.
Caledonia at Winona Cotter. Two 1AA East powers. It must be mirror day in 1AA.

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Next up: tomorrow morning