State Tournament Stock Raisers Class A and Class AA

Top 5 Gainers

1. Emily Benrud, Goodhue, 5-6, junior. Just 5-5 but very aggressive, especially on the boards. She grabbed 28 rebounds. 5-5. 28 rebounds! She also scored 39 points and played aggressively at the top of Goodhue’s zone. Goodhue has so many guards, we just hadn’t focused appropriately on Benrud. Considering her size, her post-high school options may be limited, but she could be a very, very good D3 guard.

2. Alyssa Ustby, Rochester Lourdes, 5-10, freshman. Had heard about Ustby but not seen her. She’s a long 5-10 with advanced perimeter skills and also pounds the board on both ends. Just super-athletic.

3. Kylie Post, Maranatha, 5-8, junior, post guard. I saw her play in December and again in earlier March, and her really big strides came sometime in between there. So, technically, she didn’t really raise her stock at state, she had already done that in February. Still, she reinforced what I saw earlier this month. Coach Chris Buerman said, “She had to learn how to be a star player.” Certainly one of the most improved players over the course of the 2016-2017 season.

4, Tori Peschel, Sauk Centre, 5-8, freshman. Guard-sized but played like a 6-footer in the lane, grabbing 32 rebounds against bigger opponents all 3 games. Scored inside and out. We always liked Peschel but she was that much better than we knew.

5. Kora Kritzberger, Ada-Borup, 5-9, freshman, forward. Good looking freshman, strong, long, fundamentally sound as you’d expect of a Dave Smart pupil.

Class AA

Center—Betsy Schoenrock, NRHEG, 6-3, junior

Center—Victoria Johnson, Roseau, 6-2, junior. Two tall, lanky Class AA posts. Both were on the radar, for sure. Statistically they did about what you’d expect. Still, both impressed with their fundamentals, like keeping the ball up high, and exhibited nice form on their shots. I can’t imagine that these 2 won’t play after high school if they want to.

Forward—Tori Peschel, Sauk Centre, 5-8, freshman.

Point Guard—Shea Oman, New London-Spicer, 5-7, junior. Always a great ball handler, but she has really picked up her scoring with 66 points, mostly on a driving runner.

Shooting Guard—Alyssa Ustby, Rochester Lourdes, 5-10, freshman. Had heard about Ustby but not seen her. She’s a long 5-10 with advanced perimeter skills and also pounds the board on both ends.

Off the Bench—Taytum Rhoades, Minnehaha, 5-9, sophomore, wing. Always productive, the question was her size or lack thereof. But, she showed plenty of toughness, especially in the 1st round vs. a physical Sauk Centre.

Class A

Center—Hanna Geistfeld, GHEC/Truman/MLuther, 6-0, senior. Had seen her in the summer but had never seen her in high school with Martin Luther previously or GHEC/T/ML this year. She is still able to attack the rim, as we saw even 2-3 years ago. But she is a more complete player with improved mobility and ball-handling.

Power Forward—Allie Negen, Mountain Iron-Buhl, 5-10, sophomore. Negen is making strides in terms of her court awareness and overall skills. Looking for more aggression.

Small Forward—Kora Kritzberger, Ada-Borup, 5-9, freshman. G

Point Guard—Emily Benrud, Goodhue, 5-6, junior. The #1 breakout player of this tournament.

Shooting Guard—Macy Smith, Maranatha, 5-8, 8th grade. Played just a little but showed herself to be a super-athletic 8th grader. There’s no reason she won’t be a big scorer someday, maybe someday soon.

Off the Bench—Kylie Post, Maranatha, 5-9, junior, combo guard.