The 1st day after Christmas and the road less travelled

For the past 5 or 6 years, I have spent the days after Christmas mostly at Hill-Murray and Roseville. This year, it’s the road less traveled. Wednesday—Mounds Park and Irondale. Thursday—South St. Paul and Randolph. Friday—OK, a road that is not so much less traveled, that being the one that leads to Northfield, St. Olaf and Hopkins-Eastview.

But today (Wednesday) I saw St. Croix Prep put on a pretty good show in beating St. Paul Humboldt 69-49 at Mounds Park. Later, Tartan and Irondale made pretty hard work of beating Jefferson 66-52 and Duluth East in running time, respectively.

St. Croix Prep 69 St. Paul Humboldt 49

I remember when St. Croix Prep opened up in 2004. The question then was, how much are they going to hurt the Stillwater Ponies. Over the years, I don't know the answer to that question. But, right at this moment—if you wanted to assume that if there were no St. Croix Prep, their girls would be at Stillwater High, which is of course a questionable assumption, but if you did—the answer is that they’re hurtin’ em.

Stillwater, of course, has the 2 world-class guards. You have to wonder how 6-0 senior post Olivia Witt might look in the Ponies lineup. It says here she would look pretty good. She’s averaging 16 ppg and 10 boards, and today I saw why. She scored 22 points on 8-of-16 shooting with 5 boards, 5 steals, an assist and a block.

Senior guard Ashley Cheeseboro was almost as impressive except for some careless passes and 6 turnovers, total. But she scored 15 on 5-of-12 shooting (with 3 3s) with 6 boards, 3 assists, 3 steals and a block.

The juniors, guards Jade Fisher and Annika White also impressed, scoring 23 points between them with 4 assists and 5 steals.

All in all, they’re a very athletic team with good size, good skills and a nice understanding of the game. Mostly, they play together and to each other’s strengths. I don’t think they’re a serious threat to Minnehaha in Section 4AA, but based on today’s performance a spot in the finals thereof is not out of the question. Witt is the real deal and gives them a big leg up over a lot of AA teams.

Humboldt is also an athletic team but, unlike St. Croix, they’re young and they’re small. They are not a good shooting team and whatever shooting touch they have deserted them for 2 long stretches. They were down just 15-14 midway through the 1st half when St. Croix put a 15-0 run on them. Then in the 2nd half it was an 18-2 run that brought them to the very edge of running time. Piper Flemming was their one bright spot. For some reason, however, she did not start and her minutes were pretty limited, though she is their top scorer both for the year. Today she led the way with 13, 5 boards, 4 steals and 2 blocks.

(Lest anyone be offended that I left Mounds Park after St. Croix and Humboldt and before the hosts beat up on Hope Academy 62-33, as I told coach Dan Haase, it’s not because I don’t care about his team. I’ll be back to see Mounds Park play Duluth Marshall on January 13. But, today, I was off to Irondale to see another team from Duluth.)

Tartan 66 Jefferson 52

Jefferson hung tough with Tartan’s athletic bunch, trailing just 31-28 at the half. Tartan finally got some separation at 47-33 at the 8 minute mark, but they could not or would not put the Jaguars away thanks to a persistently questionable shot selection and a 7-of-23 shooting performance in the 2nd half.

In the 1st half Tartan’s aggressive defense forced 17 Jefferson turnovers, but the Jaguars compensated with some excellent shooting, 9-of-18 including 4-of-8 3s. 6 of Tartan’s 13 buckets came in transition. Zareia Chevre was personally devastating on both ends of the floor with 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting and 7 steals. She got into Jefferson’s passing lanes possession after possession, then beat the Jaguars down the floor for three breakaway layups. She finished with 20 points on 8-of-13 with 5 boards. Gabby Hicks and Aurora Roberts also created havoc for Jefferson with their defense.

After an intense 1st half, both teams ran out of gas in the 2nd half. Tartan was unable to maintain its defensive intensity, so Jefferson had a little better time of it running their offense, but their shooting also fell off the cliff. The final was 66-52, but it was as close as 60-52 as Tartan just couldn’t put the Jags away.

Roberts added 12 points off the bench and Ka’Tia Cummings had 10. Caroline Anderson was Jefferson’s best player, scoring a team-high of 14 points, and she also turned it over just once despite probably more touches than any of her teammates. Logan Mahoney and Claire Bannigan also scored in double figures but had 11 turnovers between them.

Irondale 58 Duluth East 26

Irondale put Duluth East away early, leading 15-3 and 27-8 at the half. The Knights’ ¾ court 1-2-1-1 defense caused East a lot of difficulty, including 12 turnovers, in the half and the Greyhounds also shot an eye-popping 3-of-16 from the field. Meanwhile, Sophie Findell, a smooth combo guard, was lighting it up for Irondale with 14 1st half points on 5-of-9 shooting.

Irondale also has a two-headed post in senior Sarah Loken and freshman Dora Okpara. Loken scored 5 in the 1st half, while Okpara had a couple nice scoring moves in the post in the 2nd half. Observers wondered how the 2 might function together, and they did play together for just a few short minutes in the 2nd half without distinguishing the tactic either way.

East is small and young and did I mention small? They started a couple seniors but also a freshman and 2 sophomores, and their only effective big is also a freshman who came off the bench. Soph guards Shay Calloway and Macy Hermanson provide hope for the future. Calloway led the way in the 1st half with 5 points, while Hermanson scored all of her 12 points in the 2nd half. But, both are small and got bounced around pretty good by a not terribly physical Irondale team. Thank goodness the basketball gods did not match them up with a truly physical team like Tartan.