The Best of Williams Wednesday

On Wednesday, we saw 4 Class AAA quarter-finals and 2 Class AA quarters. Here are some of the best performances we saw. Center—Annika Hoff, Northfield, 6-3, senior The senior dominated inside at Northfield defeated Mankato West. Always a strong defender and rebounder, she also scored 13 points in this one. Power Forward—Courtney Gould, Alexandria, 6-1, senior Gould led Alex with 15 points, and scored 7 of its 1st 11 as the Cards took an 11-5 lead early. Cooper made some adjustments but Gould stayed tough, adding 5 boards and 3 blocked shots. Small Forward—Hannah DeMars, Grand Rapids, 5-10, junior DeMars scored 12 points and helped move the ball against Holy Angels’ full-court pressure defense. And she was everywhere on defense, grabbing 6 defensive rebounds and 5 steals. She’s super athletic from a physical standpoint, but more than that she is a great mental athlete who makes good decisions with terrific anticipation. Point Guard—Heaven Hamling, Grand Rapids,5-9, senior There’s not much to add here. Hamling has been doing this sort of thing for years—scoring 18 with 7 assists and 8 steals. Just super skilled. Shooting Guard—Hannah Johnson, Willmar, 5-10, junior Turned in the day’s top performance over other, more celebrated players. She scored 14 but more than that, she was the glue that kept Willmar from melting down. She was Willmar’s only reliable ball handler, and without her, Willmar would have been trounced by DeLaSalle. She made one play late that defied belief. Willmar threw a jump ball out to half court against De’s full court pressure, and Johnson went up and got it over 3 DeLaSalle defenders, 2 of whom were taller than she. She came down on the center line, and could not retreat. She made a quick decision to advance right through the triple-team and did so successfully to maintain a critical Willmar possession. Second Team Center—Meara Beighley, Grand Rapids, 6-0, junior Did her thing in the lane, but also was an important part of Grand Rapids’ full-court press-breaking strategy. Forward—Jada Buford, Cooper, 5-8, senior Long a solid scoring threat, but she never got a lot of minutes at Park Center, so she transferred to Cooper when big sister Kiara became the coach. The rest of her game—the ball-handling, the defense—is finally coming together and so she’s getting enough minutes to make a bigger scoring contribution. She led all scorers among all 4 AAA games with 20 points. Point Guard—Kacie Borowicz, Roseau, 5-8, junior Not much to add to Kacie’s legacy except another state tournament victory. She scored just 15 but added 6 boards, 2 assists and 2 steals. Shooting Guard—Ava Hill, Mesabi East, 5-9, sophomore Nobody in these parts had seen her or teammate Hannah Hannuksala. Well, we’ve seen them now and both are elite guard talents with quickness, handles and big-time scoring ability. Hill scored 25. Shooting Guard—Aja Wheeler, Cooper, 5-7, junior The all-around leader for the #1 seed, she did a little bit of everything—11 points, 6 boards, 3 assists, 3 steals. Third Team Center—Victoria Johnson, Roseau, 6-2, senior Forward—Jaclyn Jarnot, Maranatha, 6-1, senior Forward—Evelyn Dolan, Tracy-Milroy-Balaton, 5-8, senior Point Guard—Kaylee Kirk, Tracy-Milroy-Balaton, 5-6, senior Shooting Guard—K.J. Davis, Maranatha, 5-8, junior Breakouts Center—McKenzie Duwenhoegger, Alexandria, 6-0, junior Had not seen her before. She played hard and especially went after it on the boards. Point Guard—Hannah Hannuksala, Mesabi East, 5-6, freshman Had not seen her before. Now we know why Mesabi East is playing at state. Hannuksala and Hill are 2 very skilled and very heady guards with great handles and even a better nose for putting the ball in the basket. Shooting Guard—Katie Borowicz, Roseau, 5-4, freshman OK, we've seen Katie before but she just keeps getting better. Really knows how to play the game. Shooting Guard—Desiree Ware, Maranatha, 5-4, 8th Shooting Guard—Macy Smith, Maranatha, 5-8, freshman We picked Maranatha to win it all but they're going to be even better in a couple of years if not next year, and Smith and Ware are the primary reasons why I say that. By the bye, there’s probably 1 or 2 of you who noticed that I didn’t write up Wednesday night’s Class AA quarter-finals. I didn’t want to write something I might regret. But having slept on it for 2 nights, I’ll just say that I thought Maranatha went overboard. They led Mesabi East 52-42 with 11 minutes to play, then outscored the Giants 33-7 the rest of the way. It was 65-45 at 6:36 and the starters stayed in, and 75-45 at 3:08 and still a couple starters stayed in the game. Is winning not enough? Must opponents be humiliated? There’s lots to admire about Maranatha basketball but I don’t admire that