Midwest Kickoff, Part 4: The 2018s

We saw 8 2018 teams on Saturday in 6 different games. 2 of them matched 2018 vs. 2018. Those were So Minn Fury 2018 Elite hammering the Thunder 2018 Blue 86-45, and Fury 2018 Elite defeating Rise 11th Purple 62-25. Fortunately, most of the games matching 2018s vs. younger girls were a lot more competitive.

Stars 11th DeSart 41 Rise 10th Purple 40 (OT)

Our 1st game of the 2017 summer season was a worthy lid-lifter, going into OT. Rise 10th Purple, giving up a year of strength and experience, battled back from deficits of 9-0, 13-2, 17-11 at the half, and 27-17 at 12 minutes of the 2nd half. Joey Batt (New Ulm) scored 3 times, and Abby DeWitt (Fairmont), Cassie Heinrichs (Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s) and Caitlin Rorman (Blue Earth) each scored twice as Rise rallied to tie it up at 40-all. Batt, however, missed a possible game-winning FT at :02, and the Stars pulled it out, scoring the only point of OT.

Noelle Josephson (Anoka) tied Batt with 13 points, scoring twice off the bounce, twice in transition, once off the glass and onceon a back cut. She added 5 boards, 2 assists and 3 steals. Bren Fox (NYA) and Lily Schoknecht (Anoka) dominated inside. Fox scored 8 points with 9 boards and 2 blocked shots, Schoknecht 7 points with 5 boards, 2 assists and a block.

Fury 2020 Blue 68 Northern Lights 11th 40

Fury 2020 Blue easily defeated Northern Lights 11th 68-40 despite giving up a full 2 years of age and experience. The Lights stayed closed through 12-12 and 23-19 but Fury closed the 1st half on a 13-2 run with point guard Molly Mogenson (Farmington) scoring the final 4 points of the half for a 36-21 Fury lead. The Lights played Fury evenly again in the 1st 7 minutes of the 2nd half, trailing 45-32. Guards Mogenson and Annie Guentzel (Lakeville South) then led a 23-8 Fury run to close out the game.

The Fury runs, not surprisingly, were triggered by a pressure defense that started turning the Lights over. Lights guards Kylee Hren (Hermantown), Haley Grover (Bigfork), Lauren Raboin (Superior, WI) and G. Vogt (unknown) turned it over 14 times among them. Katie Lundeen of Northwestern, WI, was the top player on the floor, however, scoring 15 points on 4-of-5 FG and 7-of-8 throws.

Mogenson finished with 10 points for the Fury, while Ravyn Miles (Simley) led the Fury with 12 points and Ysareia Chevre (Tartan) contributed 8, Lauren Frost and Sydney Stensgard 7 and Guentzel 6 and Alyssa Ustby (Rochester Lourdes) 5.

So Minn Fury 2018 Elite 86 Thunder 2018 Blue 45

The Thunder mostly are from Prior Lake, we were told, and one school was no match for the SMF all-stars. It was 57-22 at the half as Ashley Gustavson (Mankato West) outside, Sydney Schultz (Owatonna) inside, and Wynter Bergner (Rochester Lourdes) both inside and out scored scored 39 points among them. Gustavson was especially deadly, hitting 3-of-3 3s, 3-of-3 2s and 1-of-1 1s, 7-for-7 overall. Hayley Dessner (Plainview-EM) had 6 boards in the 1st half

Tayler Hill 11 54 Elite Fury 2019 Blue 49

The Hills won 3 games and the flagship division, the 11 Black, at the Midwest Kickoff. This was their closest game. The Hills started out strong, leading 9-0, 22-8 and 31-17 at the half as Morgan Hill (Mpls. South) attacked the rim for 11 1st half points (well, 3 came from long range).

We were watching the Crossfire 10 Theisen-Iowa Barnstormer blood bath on the adjacent court at the same time so we can’t say exactly how the Fury got back into this one, but they were with 48-45 at 1:23 of the 2nd half after a 3 by Taylor McAulay (Centennial) with an assist from Abby Johnson (Eden Prairie). Hill missed a pair of throws and the Hills turned it over on a 5-second count on an in-bound from their own baseline. But McAulay and Courtney Crouch (White Bear) turned it over twice for the Fury, too, and Masengo Mutanda (Armstrong) went 6-for-6 from the line inside of 45 seconds. McAulay scored twice more—7 of her 9 points came in the final 1:23—for a final score of 54-49.

Hill and Mutanda finished with 11 each and McKenna Hofschild (Prior Lake) with 14 for the Fury.

Fury 2018 Elite 62 Rise 11th Purple 25

Rise went 0-for-3 today, losing by 1 and 3 and, then, by 37 here. And, yet, they didn’t look that bad even here. The Fury Elite just looked that good. And, it was only 29-19 at the half, but the Rise could not get a good look at the rim anywhere inside the arc. They shot 1-of-8 2s during one stretch, but made 3-of-5 3s.

Not only did the Fury have a big size advantage inside with Monika Czinano (Watertown-Mayer), Jordan Ferrand (White Bear) and Gabi Mocchi (Champlin), but also on the perimeter with 6-0 Sydney Lodermeier (Goodhue), 5-11 Maddie Loder (Orono) and 5-10 Kali Grimm (NYA). Meanwhile, the Rise’s scorers are people like 5-10 Natalie Harmon (Mankato West) inside and 5-7 Madi Heiderscheidt (Sleepy Eye) outside.

It was 33-6 Fury in the 2nd half.

Metro Stars 11th Weise (Metro Stars Black) 63 LaCrosse Elevate 2018 Johnson 37

It was getting late and it wasn’t all that competitive and so my attention was not 100 percent riveted on this game. I’m sorry. But, let’s just say that Rachel Hakes (Woodbury) played aggressively, especially on defense. I’d like to see her get more aggressive on offense and look for her shot more, even on an all-star team like this. Brynne Rolland (Apple Valley), Allie Spaulding (Annandale) and Sidney Zgutowicz (St. Francis) used their bodies to their advantage inside.