Surprise–3 tougher, more aggressive teams win

I started my Thursday with a slippery drive down to South St. Paul where St. Paul Harding and South St. Paul won 1st round games in the 10th annual South St. Paul Holiday Classic. In each case, the more physical team (by a long shot) won.

Then, I also saw Cannon Falls demolish Trinity 52-25 to take 3rd place in the Randolph tournament.

St. Paul Harding 52 New Life 42

This one was possibly decided before opening tip-off, as New Life was missing 4 of its top 6 players. Sydney Gunderson is done for the year with an ACL. Hannah George and Nadia Nelson have concussions. Emmy Erickson has an undisclosed injury but will be back after January 1.

But, they still play the game, and this one stayed closed through 27-26 Harding at the 12 minute mark of the 2nd after a 3-pointer by New Life’s Carly Hagar. It was her 4th of 6 3s for a total of 20 points. Hagar is an athletic sophomore who obviously loves to shoot the bomb, and New Life coach Greg Wilson also loves her to shoot the bomb, especially now with so much of his normal firepower out of the lineup. It’s true that she shot-puts the ball off her shoulder but, hey, it goes in.

But from 27-26 it was the Poe Show, as in Shay Poe, who scored 17 of her 22 points for Harding in the 2nd half. After a sluggish 1st half, Harding picked up the pace in the 2nd half. Poe opened it with a steal-and-2 and followed that immediately with a defensive rebound and a coast-to-coast rush for 2 more. 30 seconds later she took another defensive board upcourt quickly and fed Caitlyn English for a bucket and Harding’s biggest lead of the day at 23-19. New Life got back within 27-26

Now, Poe assisted on back-to-back buckets and hit a 3, then a 2. She also got in Hagar’s face and even blocked a pair of 3s down the stretch. Another Poe assist of a bucket by Dre’annah Owens made it 47-37 and New Life was unable to mount another charge.

Poe finished with 22 points on 7-of-13 shooting with 9 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals and those 2 blocks. Bethany Brocker of New Life was the only other player in double figures with 17.

South St. Paul 46 Albert Lea 34

The Packers were not very good hosts, at least not based on an inadvertent slap to the face of Albert Lea guard Rachie Rehnelt midway through the 1st half. But, while inadvertent, it exemplified a tough, physical defensive effort by the Packers, who held the Tigers big scorers, guards Rehnelt and Sam Skarstad to just 17 points, and Albert Lea had nobody else to pick up the slack.

The Packers were bigger, stronger, tougher. They were methodical on offense but had Albert Lea in helter-skelter mode with their defensive intensity. It was tied at 17 with 1:38 left in the 1st half but 2 Albert Lea turnovers led to a 24-17 Packers advantage. South St. Paul shot just 11-of-36 in the half, Albert Lea 9-of-24, but the Packers won big in odd numbers. They had 3 3s and 5 FT in the half, while Albert Lea made no 3s and just one throw. The final was 46-34.

Rehnelt, a very slight but very smart senior guard, scored 12 for the Tigers. For the Packers, seniors Roxy Veldman, who mostly guarded Rehnelt (but did not deliver the big slap to the face), and Kori Rutkowski each scored 12. They are also the 2 who more than anyone impart their pit bull personality to the Packers.

Cannon Falls 52 Trinity 25

Trinity floundered against a deep, aggressive Cannon Falls team though Trinity’s Anna Michaud was the best player on the floor. She finished with 11 of Trinity’s 25 points, 13 boards, 2 steals, 2 blocks but also 6 turnovers.

Before the game Trinity coach Jonathon Frenz, who at 26 must be one of Minnesota’s youngest head coaches and one of the few to coach his sister (Anna Frenz), told me that he had only 3 varsity players back from last year, “and none of them is a point guard.” That pretty much told the story of the game as his ball-handlers got picked time and again to the tune of 32 turnovers.

Meanwhile Cannon Falls and head coach Samantha McCamy, who played for Fred Kinschy at Hayfield, has a nice nucleus of experienced players and a bevy of young talent. She went 10 deep, not to keep the game close but because that’s what they do and it served not to keep things close but to wear Trinity out. It was 22-10 at the half, and it was still a 12-point game at 29-17 at 13:36. But, from there, the Bombers closed it out on a 23-8 run for the win.

The Bombers big guns are seniors Tatum Pickar, a 5-4 point guard, and Kaly Banks, a 5-10 wing. Pickar is a classic 1, a gym rat, who takes charge of the ball and the game for her team. Banks showed the ability to score in a bunch of ways.