Kiley Borowicz

Kiley Borowicz completed her career today by leading Roseau to its 1st girls basketball state championship. She scored “just” 20 points today, tying her lowest total yet in 9 state tournament games. She made 8-of-15 shots, both her lowest state tournament total in 2 years. But, hey, she had one of the state’s best perimeter defenders, Maesyn Thiesen, shadowing her most of the day. Just ask Watertown-Mayer’s guards or coach John Rosholt how tough Thiesen is defensively.

It was enough for the win, of course, 75-64, and all the attention on her opened things up a little bit for her sister, point guard Kacie Borowicz, who had 19 points on 7-of-15 shooting with 7 assists.

It all adds up to a pretty strong historical record—268 career points in the state tournament, good for 4th place all-time behind Carlie Wagner, Janet Karvonen and Rebekah Dahlman, just 8 points behind Dahlman. If she had scored her career average in the state tournament—going into today’s game it was 31—she would have been in 3rd place. She was that close.

All the women we have just mentioned in the same paragraph as Kiley, above, went D1. Carlie Wagner plays at Minnesota, as you know. Karvonen played at Louisiana Tech and Old Dominion—the UConn and Tennessee of that day. Dahlman plays at Vanderbilt. And Borowicz passed up Tyseanna Johnson (Iowa State) and Tayler Hill (Ohio State and the WNBA) this weekend.

“#44 is an awful, awful good player,” New London-Spicer coach Mike Dreier said. “They pressure the ball a lot…. They swooped on a lot of opportunities. They’re good.”

 “Kiley’s a playmaker,” Roseau coach Kelsey Didrickson said. “She plays big in big games. She’s good from (long range).”

So, why is Kiley Borowicz the only 2017 in our top 20 (Northstar Girls Hoops) who doesn’t have a college choice made yet? Well, because she doesn’t have any offers. Seriously.

Some people say she lacks foot speed. Others say, well, she’s unorthodox—she’s not a 1, not a 2, not a 3, not a 4. She has an unorthodox shot, or two. She shoots from long range more than she shoots from mid-range because, Kiley says, “I can’t shoot jump shots very well.” She said she shoots more of a set shot. But around the rim, she shoots a runner like Rachel Banham shoots or Raena Suggs. For most players, it’s a bad shot. For Kiley and Banham and Suggs, well, it goes in the basket.

Actually she reminds me of Carlie Wagner who, like Kiley, wasn’t the quickest but had terrific instincts and simply understood how to play the game, like Kiley. Carlie and Kiley are similar, too, in that neither really guards the ball or the rim. They’re always looking for the steal and the quick transition to offense, and they got it often enough—Carlie had 33 steals in 9 games, Kiley 39—to make it a good risk/reward proposition for them.

But here’s one difference. Carlie was always a volume shooter with state tournament games like 11-of-32 and 8-of-23 and 11-of-27. She also had a 20-of-34 and an 18-of-33 and a 17-of-34, and an overall FG shooting percentage of about 45. I mean, not bad. She had 3 .500 nights out of 9 tries. Kiley shot 51 percent. She shot 50 percent 5 times in 9 tries.

Kiley had 94 rebounds, Carlie 68. Kiley had more steals, as noted above. She had more assists, 34-26. Kiley had 31 turnovers, so her A/T ration was a “plus” (more than 1). Carlie had 52 turnovers for an A/T of exactly 0.50. They both played in  Class AA. Carlie played against Rebekah Dahlman and Kali Peschel and Chase Coley and won 8 of 9. Kiley played against Brandi Blattner and Maesyn Thiesen and won 6 of 9.

Bottom line: All Kiley Borowicz ever did was score 30 points every night and her team wins. I can't believe there aren't mid-majors out there who need some of that.

Kiley Borowicz is MVP of Class AA, and one of the “most underrated.”