Scrimmage Saturday

#3 posting 11.22.2008
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

SCRIMMAGE SATURDAY
Today I spent the morning and early afternoon at three different scrimmages seeing snippets of 28 different teams in the first scrimmage action in Minnesota this winter. With a sugar dusting of snow the night before it set the mood.
With the shear number of games/match ups I wasn't able to see and examine each one up close and with the detail of the classic out & abouts, however this is what I saw and or heard.

INJURIES/OUT
Kara Elofson of Hopkins left the scrimmage against Lakeville North early with a shoulder problem. Elofson injured the shoulder on a defensive effort stopping a LN transition.

Jill Greenfield of Hopkins was out with a foot problem.

Kylie Gottsman of Osseo did not play due to a back problem.

Chelsey Jaycox of DeLaSalle injured her knee. The severity is not known at this time.

Carly Rothfusz of Eden Prairie is recovering from an illness and did not play when I was at PCG.

ATMOSPHERE
Parking was hard to come by at all three venues. Cars were lined up along Lindbergh Drive in Hopkins. I had to park at Olson JH at BJ. However I was lucky enough to get the very first spot at PCG.

PCG had a coaches/ref/media room which I made use of.

PEDIGREE
Jefferson had the most State titles and State entrants at their scrimmage.
Scrimmage, State Champs, Entrants
Jefferson 18 54
Hopkins 8 40
PCG 4 30
With current coaches the numbers still favor Jefferson with 13, Hopkins 5, PCG 2

If you are looking at team ranked (using the StarTribune & Breakdown polls)
PCG 6, Hopkins 5, Jefferson 4

If you are looking at seniors that have committed
PCG 9
Hopkins 7
Jefferson 0

---I did watch two contests on the day
At Hopkins the day started out with #1 Lakeville North vs #3 Hopkins (StarTribune rankings)
The hosts beat LN 13-7. I gave two points for each made free throw as teams only shot one. Hopkins is deep, balanced and aggressive. The Royals forced 7 turnovers in their stint.
The ppp100 and floor % for both teams
Hopkins 13, 14, 92.9, .429
LN 7, 14, 50.0, .214
Five different Royals scored with Tori Joranson scoring 4 (including the free throw 2).

At PCG I watched the hosts against the two time defending champs St. Paul Central. Here it was the guests winning 24-16.
PCG is using Katya Leick and, at times, Tina Fisher to bring the ball up against the press. And SPC pressed with abandon. SPC caused havoc with their full court pressure and executed in the half court. The Minutemen forced 13 turnovers. Theairra Taylor had 14 points as her stroke was, as Mike Myers used to say as Linda Richmond on Coffee Talk on SNL, "like butter." Taylor played confident and looked like she owned the floor. Her ppp100 was an outstanding 200.0 pp100 and floor % a sizzling .857. Both Leick and Fisher guarded Taylor during the scrimmage.
Leick had 8 points for PCG.
SPC 24, 30, 80.0, .367
PCG 16, 29, 55.2, .276
And SPC was missing 6-3 Abby Barner, a freshman.

As for the other scrimmages, since I didn't sit and chart, but prowled and snapped, I don't have a solid number crunch for any others. However the teams and players were going all out in an effort to impress their coaches in the hopes of more playing time.

You can see snippets of the Hopkins, Bloomington Jefferson, and Park-Cottage Grove scrimmages at kevinanderson.photostockplus.com.

Next week both Hopkins and St. Paul Central will be in the Hamline tournament (in different brackets) in the first serious action of the 2008-09 season.

Next up: college reports from Friday