The Best of St. Kate's | Prep Girls Hoops

To be honest, the MN Fury’s 4th annual MLK Day bash at St. Kate’s turned out to be a big disappointment through no fault of the Fury or St. Kate’s. Freezing rain forced Kasson-Mantorville and Winona to cancel out, which was announced between the 1st and 2nd game at about 10:30 a.m. So we did not see Kristin Scott or Tori Wortz or Eden Nibbelink or anybody from Waseca or Hutchinson, along with the KoMets and the Winhawks. Still, half of the games were competitive and exciting. Forest Lake edged stubborn Armstrong 65-62 on a late 3, White Bear outlasted Prior Lake 63-56 and Class AA Norwood Young America held on for dear life 47-46 over Class AAAA Cretin. Meanwhile, Andover, Mahtomedi and Somerset (WI) won easily vs. Jefferson, Big Lake and Glencoe-Silver Lake. And, even then, injuries to Jefferson guard Ellie Gess and Big Lake forward Paige Domyahn did not help the competitiveness of 2 of those 3 games. The whole purpose of the Fury Classic, as the name suggests, is to showcase Fury talent, and there was a lot of that, most notably Andover’s Joli Daninger, Forest Lake’s Mackenzie Stumne and Armstrong’s Carly Krsul, Big Lake’s Emma Anderson, White Bear’s Jordan Ferrand and Prior Lake’s Riley Wheatcraft and McKenna Hofschild, Cretin’s Frannie Hottinger and Somerset’s Tori Martell, among several others. And, so, it was summer ball in January. But, anyway, returning to the purpose at hand. 1st String Center—Bren Fox, Norwood Young America, 6-3, junior. Fox was moving a little bit awkwardly and sometimes awkward became a slight limp. So I don’t know what was going on there but she looked a little bit uncomfortable out there. But mostly she made Cretin uncomfortable, battling inside and battling effectively for 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting with 17 rebounds, 7 offensive rebounds and 3 blocks. Oh, and those 7 O-boards were good for 12 Raiders points—Fox recording 5 buckets and an assist on those 7 plays—and she also blocked a 3-pointer at the final buzzer. Easily the top performer of the day. Power Forward—Frannie Hottinger, Cretin, 6-0, sophomore. Granted, Hottinger was among those who battled and lost to Bren Fox. But she was Cretin’s best player though not its top scorer. (Junior guard Elizabeth Edinger scored 15, Hottinger 13.) But Hottinger was around the rim throughout the 1st half, getting off 12 good shots (but, unfortunately, making only 2) while adding 6 boards. (In total she had 10 boards.) She is at her best crashing the boards without the ball on back cuts and going after the O-board, and she’s plenty strong and mobile to play outside-in effectively. Small Forward—Abigail Groeneweg, Forest Lake, 5-10, sophomore. A volleyball player and actually the Rangers nominal post because she jumps totally out of the gym. Outscored (19-10) and outplayed Armstrong’s (and the Fury’s) Carly Krsul as she (Groeneweg) is stronger and more mobile and more athletic. Terrific vertical, tenacious defender. Point Guard—Tori Martell, Somerset, senior. Dominated Maddie Monahan, and you know that is not an easy thing to do. She is just too quick and too instinctive in making great decisions with the ball. A classic triple threat, she scores at the rim, scores from the outside, and penetrates and dishes to her teammates. Shooting Guard—Masengo Mutanda, Armstrong, 5-6, sophomore. Quick on quick, does a pretty good impression of Ashley Bates, crashing the offensive board (at 5-6, remember). She hauled down 5 O-boards and if she had put more than one of them back up and in, Armstrong might be the winner. (But, in fairness, Armstrong did score subsequent to 2 others of Mutanda’s O-boards.) She scored mostly inside while making 1-of-3 3s. But, in a nutshell, she was simply the quickest player we saw today. 2nd String Center—Jordan Ferrand, White Bear, 6-2, junior. More active, more aggressive, especially on defense, than I’ve ever seen her. She scored 14 points mostly at the FT line and soared after rebounds, grabbing 11 on both ends of the floor. Power Forward—Emma Grothaus, Mahtomedi, 6-3, junior. As always, very impressive in her size and mobility and results, as she scored 15 points. I do wish more of her points came on initial offense. It seems that many of her points come when she puts back her own miss—that was true of 4 of her 7 scoring plays in the 1st half, for example. Point Guard—Joli Daninger, Andover, 5-7, senior. She didn’t have a totally Daninger kind of day but it was good enough. She only scored with Andover already leading Jefferson 12-7. She finished the 1st half with 12 points on 3-of-8 shooting with a pair of 3s, a 2 and 4-of-4 throws. Oh, yes, and 5 board, an assist and 2 steals. Good enough. Combo Guard—Abi Asperheim, Forest Lake, 5-8, senior. Like Daninger, Asperheim got it cranked up only slowly at first, too, but here we’re kind of talking the 2nd half when she scored 11 of her 14 points. First was a pretty baseline drive with a right to left crossover, then an even prettier play when in transition she gave not one, not 2 but 3 defenders a little hesitation, finally getting a clear lane to the rim after all 3 backed off. Then, inside of 4 minutes she scored off the bounce with the left hand, then on a steal and a 7-foot pull-up jumper, and finally on a game-winning 3 from the right wing. Shooting Guard—Elizabeth Edinger, Cretin, 5-9, junior. Along with Hottinger, Edinger competed all day while several of her teammates seemed to feel that a Class AA opponent wasn’t worthy of their full attention and effort. Well, it’s true that she also sat for a long while with fouls, but down the stretch she scored 3 straight Cretin buckets to get ‘em back in the game after an otherwise lackluster effort. Breakouts Center—Lizzie Karp, Andover, 6-3, junior. She’s a junior but she’s really only played ball seriously for a couple years. She’s athletic enough and just needs to develop a more instinctive style of play. She showed some of that with 10 points against Jefferson. Power Forward—Carly Krsul, Armstrong, 6-1, sophomore. Not really a breakout, I suppose, she’s a well-known commodity—certainly well-known to Forest Lake defenders, who were all over her all day long. So Krsul had to work hard, and did for her 10 points. Small Forward—Sam Sunnarborg, Jefferson, 5-9, sophomore. With Ellie Gess out, Jefferson hoped to get a little bit of production from a lot of kids, and that’s kind of what they got. A little bit of production, and not nearly enough against an experienced opponent. Still, Sunnarborg has some length and she’s athletic, and she found a way—or ways—to score 10 against, again, an experienced opponent. Point Guard—Asperheim. I’ve already recognized her, and she’s a senior, not ordinarily making her a good candidate for breakout status. But here’s a kid who has played a lot of ball over the years and whose skill set said “1,” but who was never quite forceful enough for a 1. And, now, suddenly she’s playing like a 1—and, a senior 1 at that—with confidence and making good decisions and not just protecting and dishing the ball but scoring herself and in bunches, no less. If that’s not a breakout, I don’t know what is. Shooting Guard—Annika Poe, Big Lake, sophomore. Big Lake is a threat to win Section 5AAA but they were totally overmatched by Mahtomedi. The fact that Big Lake forward Paige Domyahn was on the bench with crutches and a big fluffy sock covered with red hearts didn’t help. But, anyway, Poe popped from long range a few times and made enough to lead her team in scoring with 11. Also Deserving of Mention Center—Ashmera Patterson, Armstrong, 5-10, senior. Steady, reliable, fearless. Power Forward—Adri Perron, White Bear, 5-11, senior. Solid, possibly their best player. Wing—Riley Wheatcraft, Prior Lake, 5-11, senior. Not her best day, still made plays. Point Guard—McKenna Hofschild, Prior Lake, 5-3, sophomore. Ditto and ditto. Shooting Guard—Marisa Gustafson, Mahtomedi, 5-8, senior. Steady, reliable. And Why Not a Coach of the Day, Eh? The Suburban East is starting to get noticed a little bit. Part of the secret out there in the east metro is the great coaches. The best jobs of coaching I saw at St. Kate’s were delivered by Jeremy Post of White Bear Lake and Jen Wagner of Forest Lake, 2 teams that could just as easily have lost but for the coaches who wouldn’t let them.