The Week That Was #18: Meltdown

#7 posting 8.3.2007
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

THE WEEK THAT WAS #18: MELTDOWN

The summer basketball calendar is building to a crescendo. The multi-school team events are over. The high school team finale is set for this weekend with the Minnesota Sweet 16.

MELTDOWN
Luckily this year the meltdown was played within the comfortable confines of the Hopkins Lindbergh Center. That made for better viewing and better action. The tournament ran until Saturday. I felt lost without a game on Sunday. However IBCA Select won their fourth title this summer with the Diamond Gold crown. Southern Minne Elite won in overtime topping the Fury in overtime in the Emerald division. In the Ruby it was 43 Hoops over North Tartan. Mpls Lady Cats, playing up, steamrolled their way to the Pearl title.

OTHER EVENTS
NC Heat won the USJN tournament in Chicago.
North Tartan Larson went to Nike Nationals in Georgia and will be invited back again next year.
In the Summer Slam in Cincinnati the Nebraska Cornhusker Shooting Stars ended up in third in the sponsored division
MN Stars Antl wrapped up the Blue Elite title at the Summer Slam with a 5-0 record.

SWEET 16
Tomorrow the Sweet 16 girls tournament tips off at 10 am at the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, MN. There will be a new champion this year as Champlin Park will not return. This event indicates the summer season is over. It has been a good indication of which teams will be holding hardware in March.

There are 8 returning teams from last year. The finishes of those returning in last year's Sweet 16:
3. Hopkins
4. Becker
6. Rogers
7. Winona Cotter
9. St. Paul Central
10. Crookston
11. DeLaSalle
12. Ada-Borup

Of the eight new teams Eden Prairie, Bigfork and New Life are making their first trip to the Sweet 16.
Last year three of the four state champs (St. Paul Central, Becker, and Fulda) attended. Pipestone in AA was the only champ missing in the roster last year.
Eight of the teams last year made the state tournament, four finished runner up in the section.

In the past the tournament winner has had post season success
2002--Woodbury 1st AAAA
2003---Rochester Lourdes 1st AA
2004---Bloomington Kennedy 1st AAAA
2005---Bloomington Kennedy --2nd AAAA
2006---Champlin Park--3rd AAAA

The question this year is: will any team have a Cinderella run like class A Cedar Mountain-Comfrey? Last year CMC upset Crookston, Winona Cotter, and Hopkins to reach the finals. The thinking is that no team will be overlooked this year.

Chances are those that succeed in August will be there in March.

Toughest early match up: That would be Rogers vs Centennial. Centennial beat Rogers in Rogers by four a couple of Saturdays ago. This game will be at 11:15.

TEAM OF THE WEEK
IBCA Select I opened the spring/summer season as team of the week and they close the mixed school portion of the summer as team of the week. IBCA had a strong summer going 32-4 for a percentage of .889. They won four championships this year: the Iowa AAU State title; the Miss Basketball tournament in Kearney; and two Minnesota tourneys the Summer Jam at Kennedy in June and this week they took the North Tartan Meltdown tournament at Hopkins. They also finished second in their pool at the End of the Trail in Oregon. IBCA won this tournament with a comeback against a feisty New Mexico Heat in the semifinals. But it was the Heat that melted down in the closing portion of that game as IBCA iced the win with 10 free throws after trailing by five with less than three minutes left. Also they locked down on NMH's Telisha Joe and forced others to do the heavy lifting. In the championship IBCA got on a roll early and minimized Dakota Hardwood Threat. This win was somewhat poetic in that last year in late July another South Dakota team edged IBCA for the title in a tournament at Bloomington Jefferson. IBCA again used the free throw line, ran the floor, utilized their stringent defense and nailed some timely 3s. IBCA held the high flying DHT to 86.4 pp100 when in the game previous DHT ripped the twine at a 113.8 pace.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Katelin Oney plays full bore and it shows in her numbers. She had two outstanding contests back to back on Saturday (when I was charting) and if you throw in Friday's contest against North Tartan Larson (which was included in last week's Week that Was) you have a player on fire. Oney had a sizzling 190.9 pp100 in the championship game against Dakota Hardwood Threat. At the 16/17 level no one came close to that mark. Oney is very determined and is making explosive moves. She seizes initiative and finds ways to beat you. She has outside range with 3s, can pull up, and goes hard to the glass. She has superb concentration and relishes contact. She can score when she is in the air and their is contact. Defensively she also just interjected her will and took over swiping the ball out of unsuspecting DHT players hands. Oney made the first team last week and has made one of the teams of the week three times. This is her first Player of the Week honor this summer.

How do you make the list?
#1 I have to see the player in the past week.
#2 player needs to average better than 100 pp100 and .500 floor %.
#3 If I see the player twice then the totals are added together. So if a player sizzles in game one, and fizzles in game two, chances are they won't make the list.
#4 winning helps



FIRST TEAM
Kelly Krei (Iowa City) IBCA Select I
Maggie Malloy (Parkston) Dakota Hardwood Threat
Katelin Oney (Cedar Rapids Washington) IBCA Select I
Tyisha Smith (Minneapolis South) Mpls Lady Cats
Amber Wollschlager (Milbank) Dakota Hardwood Threat
SECOND TEAM
Maggie Bryant (Sartell) North Tartan Crosby
Christine Hyde (Brampton St. Mary's) Sultan Prospects of Canada
Telisha Joe (Gallup) New Mexico Heat
Trisha Nesbitt (Ames) IBCA Select I
Nicky Rausch (Hoven) Dakota Hardwood Threat

DEFENSIVE TEAM
Beth Christensen (Owatonna) North Tartan Crosby
Kara Elofson, Hopkins (Captain)
Christine Hyde (Brampton St. Mary's) Sultan Prospects of Canada
Katelin Oney (Cedar Rapids Washington) IBCA Select I
Nicky Rausch (Hoven) Dakota Hardwood Threat

PAST WEEKLY WINNERS
Team...Player of the Week/D player
17: Centennial….Shelly Stemper (Becker) Fire & Gold All Star MN Elite Camp/Megan Howard (St. Paul Central) MN Elite Camp
16: U Conn (Top 100 Expo)…Kiara Strickland (Minneapolis Roosevelt) LSU/Jennifer Noordmans (Hancock) North Carolina Top 100 Expo
15: Metro Stars Black…Courtney Boylan (Chaska) Metro Stars Black/Brianna Williams (Hopkins) Mpls Lady Cats
14: Metro Stars Black....Courtney Boylan (Chaska) Metro Stars Black/same
13: Team WI Select 17.…Hannah Quilling (Eau Claire North) Team WI Select 17/Katie Bushman (Phillips) Team WI Select 17
12: North Tartan Larson.....Jackie Voigt (Park-Cottage Grove) North Tartan/Cody Vandenheuvel (Cadott) Team WI Select 16
11: Totino-Grace....Amber Dvorak (Hinckley-Finlayson) MN Northern Lights/same
10: NC Heat.....Tayler Hill (Mpls South) NC Heat/same
9: Team WI Select 17.…Val Schuster (Wausau Newman) Team WI Select 17/Nicole Griffin (Milwaukee Vincent) Team WI Select 15
8: MN Stars Borowicz.....Kiara Buford (St. Paul Central) North Tartan/Katya Leick (Park-Cottage Grove) NC Heat
7: MN Metro Stars Black....Courtney Boylan (Chaska) MN Metro Stars Black/Kayla Hirt (Bemidji) Gym Rats 14
6: MN Stars Hested.....Theairra Taylor (St. Paul Central) MN Stars Hosted/Cassie Rochel (Lakeville North) Lakeville North 15
5: NC Heat....Tayler Hill (Mpls South) NC Heat/Katya Leick (Park-Cottage Grove) NC Heat
4: MN AAAA All Stars....Angel Robinson (St. Paul Central) AAAA/Janessa Wolf (Park Rapids) AAA
3: Team WI Select 17....Katie Bushman (Phillips) Team WI Select 17/same
2: Mpls Lady Cats..... Sarina Baker (DeLaSalle) Mpls Lady Cats/Aubrey Davis (Blm Kennedy) Mpls Lady Cats
1: IBCA Select I.....Indy Uhlenhopp (North Butler) IBCA Select I/same


POLLS
19
1. Metro Stars
2. Gym Rats
3. Southern Minne Magic-

16/17-Junior Girls
1. NC Heat
2. North Tartan Larson
3. MN Metro Stars Black
4. IBCA Select I
5. Nebraska Bison Judds I
6. MN Stars Hested
7. ECI Gold West
8. Dakota Hardwood Threat
9. Team WI Select 17
10. All Iowa Attack
11. MN Stars Borowicz
12. Pinnacle Bank Nebraska
13. Metro Stars White
14. Iowa Elite I
15. Quest

15
1. MN Metro Stars
2 NE Judds
3. All Iowa Attack
4. Team WI Select 15
5. North Tartan 15
6. MN Stars
7. Lakeville North
8. WI Heat
9. Southern Stars
10. MN Fury
11. MSB

14
1. North Tartan 14
2. MN Metro Stars
3. Mpls Lady Cats*
4. Cornhusker Shooting Stars
5. 43 Hoops Williams
6. MN Suns Gold
7. MN Fury
8. MN Suns White
9. MN Stars Blue
10. Gym Rats
11. MN Stars Red
*Mpls Lady Cats become a 14u team with the addition of certain players

13
1. Midtown Lady Monarchs
2. Mpls Lady Cats
3. MN Suns
4. Team WI Select 13
5. St. Paul Central
6. Farview
7. North Tartan
8. Rochester Shock
9. Olympic Ice
10. Metro Stars

Next week is the last week of the summer AAU week that was series. On Sunday August 12 I will publish the AAU Summer that was--a season end review with the highs and the lows of all the action the last six months. Team of the year and Player of the year will be crowned. Also I will be putting out the best this and best that. If you have suggestions email me. Go to my profile to nominate your best of the summer.


Next up: tomorrow morning