A Look Ahead to Week #12

The 2016-2017 season just keeps zooming along. Section play begins in some places in just over 2 weeks! In about a month we’ll have our 32 section champion and state tournament entries identified. Amazing!

So, now, it’s week #12 and as always there are some big games on tap. Here are 10 of our favorites. St. Peter and Roseville each play in 2 of them.

Monday February 6

#8AAA Grand Rapids (18-3) @ #13AA Esko (16-4), 7 :15 p.m. The top 2 point guards in the frozen north square off—5-8 junior Heather Hamling of Grand Rapids and 5-3 Ava “Gonso” Gonsorowski of Esko. At the start of the season I might have said that Gonso had the better supporting cast but now I’m not sure that’s true as sophomores Meara Beighley and Hannah DeMars have come on strong for the ThunderHawks. But Esko has senior forward Selena Shady and five other 5+ point scorers. So this should be a good one. Our pick: Grand Rapids 60 Esko 53.

#10AA St. Peter (18-2) @ #3AA Norwood Young America (21-0), 7:30 p.m. Very likely a preview of the section 2AA North final. Both teams are in the middle of an overachieving season. I mean, NYA was expected to be solid, but 21-0 with a win over AAAA Cretin? And, St. Pete also unbeaten in their class. Our pick: NYA 58 St. Pete 54.

Tuesday, February 7

#3AAAA Apple Valley @ #4AAAA Lakeville North, 7 p.m. For 1st place in the South Suburban, as both are 11-1 and 18-2 overall. Senior guards Lyndsey Robson and Temi Carda go at it one last time. Robson has a better supporting cast, at least on offense, while North is clearly a better team on defense and has the home court. Our pick: Lakeville North 67 Apple Valley 62.

#8AAAA Wayzata (15-5) @ #9AAAA Roseville (18-2), 7:15 p.m. Another of many many non-conference games played by the Lake Conference teams because even with a double round-robin, they only get 8 conference games. Roseville gets that many one time around. Kaia Porter is overpowering the Suburban East but Mimi Schrader is a worthy challenge. Our pick: Roseville 55 Wayzata 49.

#9AAA Hutchinson (14-5) @ #12AAA New Ulm (18-3), 7:30 p.m. After a bumpy stretch, Hutch is back with 7 straight wins including 58-51 at Orono. New Ulm is coming off a 2nd loss to Waseca. Our pick: Hutch 67 New Ulm 62.

Thursday February 9

#10AA St. Peter @ #10AAA Waseca, 7:30 p.m. I suppose St. Peter’s performance will depend to some degree on how things went at NYA on Monday night. But, how, exactly? Don’t know. But, here’s what I want to know. How did the Bluejays, who have given up 13, 16, 18, 21 and 28 in games this year, give up 74 to NHREG last week? Our pick: If the real Bluejays show up, Waseca 41 St. Peter 39 (OT).

Friday February 10

#9AAAA Roseville (18-2) @ #11AAAA East Ridge, 7:15 p.m. The Raiders 2nd and much more important game of the week as this is for a share of the Sub East lead, though it’s true that East Ridge has had a series of unexpected stumbles, which is why they trail Roseville by 1 game in the loss column. Kaia Porter vs. Noelle Tomes, both seniors, at the 1. Strength (and guile) vs. quickness (and guile). And is Raptors power forward Kelen Kenol the most improved senior in the metro with a scoring average that has probably doubled, along with her shooting range. Still, betting against Kaia Porter has been a bad play of late. Our pick: Roseville 54 East Ridge 51.

Saturday February 11

#14AAA Hermantown (17-3) @ #6AAA Zimmerman (18-2), 2 p.m. It’s not too much of a stretch to say that this could be a preview of a state tournament matchup though 1) Grand Rapids will have something to say about that and 2) we’re talking a semi-final matchup (possibly, that is, a consolation semi) since neither would be likely to get a seed. But, all of that aside, this is a classic matchup of a big team (Herm) vs. a guard-oriented team (Zim). Usually when that happens, the home team wins. Our pick: Zim 72 Herm 69.

#12AA Pipestone (19-0) @ #19AA Tracy-Milroy-Balaton (17-1), 2 p.m. How good is Pipestone, really? Yeah, they’re unbeaten but, as you can see, Brett has then #12 in class, way behind 3-time loser New London-Spicer in Section 3AA. So, surely, they’re not going to go undefeated, right? They’re at Marshall on Tuesday so, who’s to say, they might not even come into TMB unbeaten. But, on the other hand, they’re a great defensive team, holding SW Christian to 50 points, 30 points below their average, at home. Our Pick: TMB 55 Pipestone 54 (OT).

#8AA Hayfield (16-4) @ #7A Lyle-Austin Pacelli (16-4), 7:30 p.m. Both teams are 16-4 but Hayfield plays a vastly tougher schedule. In fact, LP has won just one game by less than 19 points. When there’s a reasonable chance to lose, they lose. Our pick: Hayfield 65 Lyle Pacelli 63.