AAU Preview: Comets host Great Plains Alliance in St. Cloud

The St. Cloud area is the place to be this weekend if you are looking for AAU action as the Minnesota Comets host the Great Plains Alliance tournament. It features all of the Comets' best, of course, along with a large contingent of teams from North Dakota and Central Minnesota. The best team in the event – subject to debate I suppose – is Fury 2020 Gauntlet which features a number of the best players in the coming junior class. The Fury lineup includes Alyssa Ustby of Rochester Lourdes, Mackenzie Kramer of St. Michael-Albertville, Jayda Johnston of Roseville, Molly Mogenson of Farmington and Zarea Chevre of Tartan. Games are set for the College of St. Benedict (CSB) in St. Joseph, Kennedy Elementary School (KES) in St. Joseph, Whitney Recreation Center (WRC) in St. Cloud and both the high school and middle school in Sauk Rapids. Tournament action begins at 4:10 p.m. Friday and wraps up Saturday evening. Here are five of the best games to see. <strong>FRIDAY GAMES TO WATCH</strong> <strong>Comets 11th Elite vs Fury 2019 Yellow, 4:10 p.m., CSB 5</strong> The Comets have a solid lineup that features Jordan Zrust (Buffalo), point guard Alyssa Daugherty (Zimmerman), Emma Schultz (Eden Valley-Watkins), combo guard Mariah McKeever (Ada-Borup) and more. The Fury roster includes three-point bomber Maddy Rice (Forest Lake), point guard Vanessa Wren (Hill-Murray), the versatile Ashley Schindele (Kimball) and sneaky-good guard Delaney Runyon of Hill-Murray. [caption id="attachment_8399" align="alignleft" width="200"] Alexa Schumann, Comets 10th Elite (Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted)[/caption] <strong>Comets 10th Elite vs Stars 2019 Turner, 6:30 p.m., CSB 5</strong> Alexa Schumann of Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted is one of the most intriguing players in the 2020 class. She's long and lanky and she can score. Schumann is joined on the Comets by Mya Roberts (Grand Rapids), Abby Barschdorf (Elk River) and Lauren Bjurman (Princeton). Derek Turner's Minnesota Stars 2019 team is quick and athletic. It includes point guard Andrea Gray (Hopkins), post Sierra Morrow (Mpls. Edison), guards Kayla Cox (Park Center) and Katie Vaske (Woodbury), and speedy defender Miyah Dubose (Champlin Park) <strong>BEST OF SATURDAY</strong> <strong>Minnesota PREP vs Stars 2022 Bjorgaard, 10:20 a.m., CSB 4</strong> Lilly Nuytten of Hastings, who we wrote about last week, is the Stars player with the most potential, while guard Hope Kanenwisher (Elk River) is quick and clever like her older sister Mikayla of Stars Antl. Watch also for Abby Grussing of Minnetonka. Kelsey Willems of Chaska is the leader of Dante Rabb's Minnesota PREP team, which also includes Chanel &amp; Ciara Kallevig from Prior Lake. <strong>Fury 2020 Gauntlet vs Southern Minnesota Fury 2019, 12:40 p.m., KES 1</strong> In addition to all of the 2020 Fury girls mentioned above, this high-octane Gauntlet crew includes Natalie Mazurek (Eden Prairie), Ravyn Myles and Sydney Stensgard (both of Simley) along with Lauren Frost (Park Center) and Kaylie VanDerWerf (Holy Angels). It is an embarrassment of riches that makes the Fury a truly elite squad. Katie Tornstrom of Caledonia, who is a solid D2 prospect, leads the Southern team which also features Annie Guentzel of Lakeville South and Lily Welch of Stewartville. <strong>Comets 9th Elite vs ND Pro Anderson, 3:00 p.m., CSB 1</strong> Paige Meyer of Albany is the Comets' point guard and she is one of the very best in the class of 2021. Crafty, aggressive, quick and feisty are words that come to mind when describing this D1 prospect. She's joined on the Comets' top 9th grade unit by three-point specialist Julia Bengtson of Becker and her high school teammates Megan Gamble and Courtney Nuest, who has put up nice numbers for the Comets all summer. <span style="font-size: 10pt"><em>Top photo: Comets 9th Elite will be among the host teams contending for a title this weekend at the Great Plains Alliance tournament.</em></span>