It was a disappointing day for Class A and AA games at the Breakdown

<p>The East Court at the Breakdown Tip-Off saw 2 very entertaining Class AAAA games. Unfortunately, the 4 Class A and Class AA games were not so artistically successful. Players who were MIA or injured or otherwise didn’t play very much were a huge factor.</p> <p>It all started with Taylie Scott being MIA for Heritage Christian against Wheaton-Herman-Norcross. It turned out that she was played club soccer in North Carolina, which raised the obvious question. Heritage coach Lori Crellin said it was the only game Scott would miss and that “she’s a basketball player” first and a soccer player second. But, that didn’t help Heritage escape a 63-36 whipping on this occasion.</p> <p>The trend continued, then, with Kamryn D’Heilly’s retirement from basketball at Annandale. She is no longer a basketball player, she is a volleyball player. Then, 6-2 senior post Allie Spaulding took a blow to the head the missed most of the 1st half. The result of that and other factors was another whipping—Sauk Centre 63 Annandale 36.</p> <p>Then Roseau took the floor without 6-2 senior post Victoria Johnson, who told me she had a leg injury and would be back in a couple of weeks. Then Katie Borowicz drew 4 1st half fouls and played about 1 minute of the 2nd half and scored only 3 points. This one was closer, but Minnehaha won with relative ease 65-52.</p> <p>Finally, Maranatha defeated Sleepy Eye easily 78-46 but not because of any no shows. There were none among the team’s regular rotation.</p> <p>All in all, it was a pretty disappointing day for fans of small school ball on the East Court.</p> <p><strong>Wheaton-Herman-Norcross 63 Heritage Christian 40</strong></p> <p>Wheaton-Herman-Norcross overpowered Heritage Christian in running time 63-40 (it was 60-30 at 6 minutes) in the second game on the East Court at Hopkins Lindbergh in the 14th annual Breakdown Girls Tip-Off. With Scott out, Wheaton’s guards Emma Schmidt, Anna Rinke, and Izzy Schmidt, all 5-9, were too big, too strong and too experienced for Heritage. And Wheaton post Briona Edwards’ dominaed inside, too, because, don’t forget, Scott plays the baseline in Heritage’s 1-3-1 defense. Edwards, a 5-11 senior lefty, was able to get position down low, catch the ball where she wanted it, and bank it home way too easily.</p> <p><strong>Sauk Centre 63 Annandale 36</strong></p> <p>Unlike Annandale, Sauk Centre had all of their pieces on the table, and things got out of hand pretty quick—32-9 at the 6 minute mark. Bottom line is that more than missing D’Heilly (or even D’Heilly and Spaulding together) Annandale lacked quality guard play and ball-handling, just as it did last year. The Cardinals best player, Hannah Purcell, gets about a quarter of the touches that she should be getting. Meanwhile, Sauk’s three-headed monster—senior guards Maesyn Theisen and Kelsey Peschel and sophomore wing Tori Peschel—were able to do pretty much what they wanted and combined for 34 points.</p> <p>But, mark this game down as the breakout of 5-11 sophomore center Julia Dammann for Sauk. She scored with both hands, scored with contact, scored in traffic and ended up with 17 points.</p> <p><strong>Minnehaha 65 Roseau 52</strong></p> <p>Minnehaha coach Josh Thurow summed it up this way. “We played like crap and won, as opposed to the other night (versus Holy Angels) when we played great and lost.” Roseau coach Kelsey Didrikson said, “We just didn’t have any ball movement. We didn’t get people involved.” Still, Roseau led 32-24 late in the first half, but Minnehaha outscored Roseau 41-20 the rest of the way.</p> <p>Roseau still led 40-38 at 10:30 when the wheels really came off. Kacie Borowicz couldn’t buy a bucket and with Katie and Victoria out, the Rams weren’t able to put many points on the board. Nevaeh Galloway scored 8, Taytum Rhoades and Mia Curtis 7 and Terra Rhoades 5 the rest of the way while Roseau scored just 10 after 10:30 of the second.</p> <p><strong>Maranatha Christian 74 Sleepy Eye 46</strong></p> <p>Maranatha’s pressure defense was too much for Sleepy Eye, scoring 13 points on 14 Sleepy Eye turnovers in the first half alone. Maranatha used a 17-0 run to go ahead 28-9 at 6:30 of the first half and coasted from there. Maranatha coach Chris Buerman provided ample minutes to his deep bench, which meant there were some sloppy and foul-filled minutes and Sleepy Eye was able to rally back with 42-32 early in the 2nd half. But Buerman’s starting five of Jaclyn Jarnot, Kylie Post, Breianna Smestad, Kae Saena Barth-Lofton and Sophia Montgomery and primary reserve Macy Smith, just a freshman, were dominant on defense, off the boards and running an occasionally aggressive fast break.</p> <p>An 18-4 Maranatha run in the 2nd half put it out of reach. It looked like running time there for a minute at 74-41 but Sleepy Eye responded with five quick points. Still, their ballhandling was totally inadequate to the challenge. The final was 74-46.</p>