The Week That Was #2: Giving thanks for good basketball

Here we go again. Just one week into the season and Mother Nature has already been playing havoc with the girls basketball schedule. More than a dozen games were cancelled this week on Tuesday and Saturday. Crosby-Ironton was a participant in the Twin Cities Thanksgiving Tipoff at the University of St. Thomas until district administrators summoned the Rangers home due to impending stormy weather – insert eye-roll emoji and what-happened-to-hardy Minnesotans rant here – which left Totino-Grace without an opponent. Regardless, the show went on for the most part and it was a pretty good show at that. On Monday I saw St. Agnes at Fridley. On Tuesday it was Spring Lake Park at Roseville. We were off Wednesday and Thursday for the holiday. On Friday I saw all seven games at the Pat Patterson tournament at Hamline University. On Saturday I was at the University of St. Thomas most of the day, stopped in at Concordia-St. Paul for their afternoon encounter with the University of Jamestown, and then caught the final two games of the tournament at Hamline. As is often the case, the final game of the week was the best game of the week. More on Farmington vs Stillwater in a coming article. Here’s the best of what I witnessed during the Week That Was #2. A TALE OF TWO ANNAS It’s not easy facing the Hopkins juggernaut. Just ask Anna Tauer of Rosemount and Anna Mutch of Apple Valley. Both of their teams were given a thrashing by the Royals at the Pat Patterson tournament. Tauer, a 5’6 freshman, and Mutch, a 5’8 senior, demonstrated the very best way to handle such difficult circumstances: Never, never, never give up. Both players were still diving for loose balls, defending as hard as possible and playing with maximum effort even when things were well into running time. Mutch has been an all-in competitor for years now; Tauer is showing that she’s made of similar stuff. PLAYER OF THE WEEK <ul> <li>Winner – Paige Kindseth, 5’10 junior guard, Farmington. We’ll have more on Kindseth in our recap of the Farmington-Stillwater encounter in a day or two. The #10-rated player in the class of 2021 has been very good for a long time, but her performance this weekend was next-level awesome. At least one high-major recruiter was in the house watching and others are on the Kindseth quest, as well.</li> <li>Runner-up – Mackenzie Kramer, senior guard, St. Michael-Albertville. There was plenty of buzz in the gym this weekend about the play of 2023 #3 Tessa Johnson of STMA, and rightly so. The kid is an amazing talent, but Kramer (#4 in 2020) is still the Knight with the shiniest armor for now. Kramer had 43 points and Johnson had 40 as STMA scored a pair of wins at Hamline.</li> </ul> NEWCOMER OF THE WEEK <ul> <li>Winner – Olivia Olson, 8th grade guard, Benilde-St. Margaret’s. We’ll have more on her in our recap of the Twin Cities Thanksgiving Tipoff at St. Thomas. For now let me just say, ‘Holy cow!’ This kid is going to be very, very good.</li> <li>Runner-up – Tyreana Reliford, 8th grade guard, Benilde-St. Margaret’s.</li> </ul> TEAM OF THE WEEK <ul> <li>Winner – Farmington. The Tigers scored two impressive wins at Hamline.</li> <li>Runners-up – St. Michael-Albertville, Waconia</li> </ul> COACH OF THE WEEK <ul> <li>Winner – Drew Reiter of Fridley. When I arrived at Fridley on Monday evening I wasn’t aware there had been a coaching change so it came as a surprise to see Drew and Steve Reiter on the sidelines during warmups. Just a few minutes into the opening half of the Tigers’ encounter with St. Agnes it became obvious that the son and father were already putting their stamp on the program. The Tigers played hard, they were well-organized, they were disciplined on defense and they communicated constantly. This shouldn’t be too surprising given that living-legend Steve was the head coach at Blaine for 25 years before moving to the college ranks at Bethel University. It’s obvious the proverbial apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree with Drew. To accomplish what the Reiters have accomplished in just a handful of practices is nothing short of remarkable. I was impressed with junior guard Cadence Hanson, who made five threes and scored 21 points. Ah’Janay Yancy is a high-scoring senior with terrific instincts for the game. Sophomore guard Juliana Harris impressed us with her energy and athleticism. This is a team we’ll be paying attention to.</li> <li>Runner-up – Dustin Neibauer of Waconia. Neibauer, who took over this season from Carl Pierson, pulled all the right levers this weekend as the Wildcats rebounded from an 0-2 start to score nice wins over Roseville and Lakeville South at Hamline. The strategic cat-and-mouse game between Neibauer and Roseville’s Jeff Crosby was classic. In the end Waconia staved off a furious Raiders’ comeback to get the 62-60 win.</li> </ul> MILESTONES Senior Nneka Obiazor of Eden Prairie topped the 1,000 career points milestone this week, as did Waconia’s Tess Johnson. The senior scored 9 of the final 10 Waconia points in a win over Lakeville South, enabling her to become the 8th player in school history to reach 1,000. Anna Schmitt, who went on to have an outstanding college career at Concordia-St. Paul, tops the list. Meanwhile, Paige Bueckers became the all-time leading scorer for Hopkins on Friday night, surpassing Leslie Knight, whose career mark had stood for 15 years. A couple of coaches also reached milestones this week as Stillwater’s Willie Taylor collected his 500th win (most of those at St. Paul Central) and Winona Cotter’s Pat Bowlin won his 600th. Send us milestone achievements as they happen – 1,000 points or more, school records, individual game milestones, etc. We’ll publish them here every week. AT THE NEXT LEVEL <ul> <li>What a week it was for the Division 1 mid-majors as there were upsets all across the country. In South Dakota State’s defeat of Notre Dame, Henry Sibley graduate Tori Nelson had 15 points and 13 rebounds. The freshman, who played AAU ball for the Minnesota Stars, was a top-10 player in the Prep Girls Hoops Class of 2019. Lindsey Theuninck (Mankato Loyola), Kallie Theisen (Wayzata) and Sydney Stapleton (Centennial) also played key roles in the Jackrabbits’ win.</li> <li>The University of South Dakota, whose starting lineup includes Win-E-Mac graduate Madison McKeever and Hannah Sjerven of Rogers, scored a convincing win over Ohio State and beat the University of South Florida. The 7-1 Coyotes have defeated three high-major squads this season.</li> <li>At the junior college level, #3-ranked NIACC continues to roll. Cretin-Derham Hall alum Autam Mendez had 27 points and 11 rebounds in a big win over Grandview. It was Autam’s ninth career double-double. Minneapolis Edison graduate Sierra Morrow and Robbinsdale Cooper’s Sierra Lynch had 18 points apiece.</li> </ul> There are too many games and players to keep track of so if you know of athletes doing great things at the next level please let us know and we’ll pass it along. THE WEEK AHEAD Unless you have a specific rooting interest in one team or another – the team your kid plays on, for instance – there’s no question that the premier contest on the docket this week is Hopkins at Farmington on Friday night. We’ll have more on that in a day or two. On Monday I’ll be in Medford to watch Emma Kneifel and the Tigers play host to Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial featuring Olivia Harazin, Lexi Cloyd and Lakesha Carter. Tuesday I’ll be checking up on freshmen Emily Christenson and Grace Knupp, and sophomore Britt Carlson, three youngsters who are expected to some make noise for East Ridge this season. The Raptors will play at Roseville. Wednesday I’ll be at Minneapolis Southwest to see Virginia Johnson, Jhanae Greene and company face Cristo Rey Jesuit. On Thursday I’m planning to see Erika Lane and Brainerd at Cambridge-Isanti. Hopefully Mikayla Aumer is back in the Bluejackets lineup after nursing a broken right hand for the past few weeks. On Saturday I’m off to the Big South Showcase at Jackson County Central for six games. The field includes Waseca (Gus Boyer), Redwood Valley (Haley Garman), Marshall (Jordyn Hilgemann) and St. Peter (Morgan Kelly). Here are a few more games you may want to check out this week. <ul> <li>Monday – Dover-Eyota, featuring sophomore standout Malia Nelson, travels to Byron where they’ll face one of the biggest players in Minnesota in 6’3 junior post Sacia Vanderpool and sharp-shooting sophomore guard Riley Schnell.</li> <li>Tuesday – Prior Lake travels to Eden Prairie for a 5:30 p.m. game. It’s also a 5:30 start at Holy Angels where the Stars meet up with Minnehaha Academy. Wayzata will be in Maple Grove for a battle of two of the state’s 4A powers.</li> <li>Friday – If you can’t make it to the Farmington-Hopkins encounter, the Alexandria at Fergus Falls game promises to be a good one. Ditto for Elk River at St. Michael-Albertville and Northfield at Red Wing, which is always a fun rivalry to witness.</li> <li>Saturday – Totino-Grace travels to Hill-Murray; Lakeville South is at Rochester John Marshall.</li> </ul> If you have news to share please send me a direct message on Twitter (@gmachoops) or via email (<a href="mailto:gmachoops@gmail.com">gmachoops@gmail.com</a>). See you in the gym! Top photo: Senior guard Tess Johnson helped Waconia win twice this weekend in tournament play while passing the 1,000-career points milestone. (Photo courtesy of StarTribune)