Section finals week: 6 seniors who went out with a bang

It is one of the most difficult times of the season, the moment when the final buzzer sounds in a section playoff game and the seniors whose team has just been eliminated suddenly realize that this is it. Their high school careers are over. All of the games. All of the practices. All of the bus rides and laughs and memories made. And all of the tears. At these moments there are almost always plenty of tears. This week, in the section final games of the 2019-20 Minnesota high school basketball season, we saw this ritual repeated multiple times over the eight games witnessed. We also saw some wonderful performances by seniors having their last hurrah. Thus we present a salute to some seniors who made the most of their final appearances and went out with a bang. WAYZATA’S BIG THREE Thursday night’s epic game between Hopkins and Wayzata, which was essentially the state championship of 4A ball, offered up three standout performances by outgoing seniors: [player_tooltip player_id="28788" first="Annika" last="Stewart"], [player_tooltip player_id="110540" first="Jasmine" last="Smiley"] and [player_tooltip player_id="110875" first="Alivia" last="Arnebeck"]. [player_tooltip player_id="56269" first="Lydia" last="Hay"] (MSU-Moorhead) was an important contributor in her last game for Wayzata, too, and senior Elise Prosser made a brief appearance, but it was the three starters who really shone. [player_tooltip player_id="28788" first="Annika" last="Stewart"], Wayzata (Nebraska) Stewart’s performance against Hopkins was simply incredible as she did all that was asked of her and more. Annika played 34 minutes, made 12 of 17 field goal attempts, including 2 of 4 from beyond the arc. The 6’3 power forward scored 27 points, pulled down 7 rebounds, blocked two shots and added an assist. On this night she looked alike a player who is about to take the Big 10 by storm. It hasn’t always been that way. I have to confess that Stewart is a player who has frustrated me over the years, not because she didn’t have it but because she didn’t always show it. Stewart has tremendous size and skill, and she can flat out shoot the basketball. Both of her parents were college coaches – mom Julie is now a Wayzata assistant – and her sister Hannah had a nice career at Iowa. Annika has been well-schooled, but a lot of the time she seemed content to hang out on the outside and knock down threes. With that kind of size, coaches expect you to get inside and bang a little and she was often reluctant to do that. The turning point came a few weeks back when junior [player_tooltip player_id="2090" first="Jenna" last="Johnson"] went down with a torn ACL and Stewart stepped up to fill that gaping hole. Man did she step up. In the games prior to Johnson’s injury Stewart averaged 16 points per game. In the dozen games since then she averaged 25. Everything about her play got better. Stewart has risen to #14 in the Prep Girls Hoops 2020 rankings. Thursday she played like a top 10 prospect and it was great to see. [player_tooltip player_id="110540" first="Jasmine" last="Smiley"], Wayzata For Smiley, Thursday’s game with Hopkins marked not only the end of her high school basketball career but the end of her time as a basketball player period. Jasmine has been a highly rated prospect for a long time. She made a splash in AAU ball on a really good E1T1 squad back in the day, and moved on to join [player_tooltip player_id="1915" first="Paige" last="Bueckers"]’ North Tartan team where she played an important role among some of the very best players in the class of 2020. At one point Smiley was a top-20 prospect. Then she had some injuries, including a troublesome ankle problem that went on for more than a year and it affected her play a lot. Thursday night we saw the Jasmine of old. Smiley left it all out on the floor, saving perhaps her finest high school basketball game for the last possible moment. Jasmine played 27 minutes. She just hustled and injected untold amounts of energy, grit and defensive presence into a game that had plenty of the same. Honestly it was a joy to watch her work one final time. Smiley is more than capable of playing college ball at the scholarship level but has elected to move on with her life and simply be a student. For her last act Smiley gave us everything she had to give and it was plenty. [player_tooltip player_id="110875" first="Alivia" last="Arnebeck"], Wayzata (UW-LaCrosse) Over the past two seasons Arnebeck has been one of the most improved players in the state. She became way more aggressive, played with a lot more confidence and proved over and over again that she could step on the floor in high-pressure situations and get the job done. Last year Alivia was Wayzata’s sixth player, a reliable contributor who could come off the bench, play extended minutes and make big plays at big moments. This year the 5’8 guard has been in the starting lineup. Not only has Alivia held her own, she has been outstanding. Arnebeck is the 89th-ranked prospect in the 2020 class. On Thursday Arnebeck played 26 minutes, contributed 6 points and 7 assists. She went to the basket, she defended hard and she matched up against some of Hopkins’ top guards, a Division 3 player going head-to-head against kids who will play at the Power 5 level in college. On paper those should be mismatches. On Thursday they were not. Alivia, who played AAU for E1T1, now moves on to UW-LaCrosse where she will no doubt have a terrific career. We will certainly remember her final game of high school basketball. THREE MORE SUPER SENIORS [player_tooltip player_id="110898" first="Sara" last="Kottke"], Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart (Bethany Lutheran) Sara is one of the nicest people in Minnesota girls basketball. She is also one of the most prolific scorers we have seen this season. And last. And the one before that. In fact Kottke closed out her career this week by recording her 2,000th career point in the waning moments of her final game. BLHS fell to Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s. The Mustangs are a very young team and they’ll be back. Sara will not. The 5’9 forward, who is ranked #112 in the senior class, will play next season at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, where she will no doubt have more success. On Friday night the Vikings pulled off a monumental upset by knocking Bethel University out of the NCAA D3 national tournament on the Royals’ home floor. Kottke should fit right in. This season she averaged over 18 points per game with a high of 32 against SESM. She topped the 20-point mark 10 times and failed to reach double figures only three times. Kottke added 7.4 rebounds per game and recorded season totals of 71 assists, 51 steals and 10 blocks. She is a leader who has nurtured her young teammates along, including her twin sisters Kristi Kottke and Rachel Kottke, who are both talented prospects in the class of 2024. Sara played her AAU ball for Minnesota Rise Martin. [player_tooltip player_id="145059" first="Sydney" last="Hauger"], Springfield (Gustavus) I haven’t had the opportunity to watch Sydney as much as I would have liked throughout her high school career. Springfield is one of those teams that doesn’t play a lot outside of its own region and doesn’t have a lot of visibility. From a distance, however, we have seen the 5’7 guard putting up numbers and received numerous positive reports about her play. Hauger averaged over 25 points per game this winter with a high game of 46 against Minnesota Valley Lutheran. Ranked #93 in the class, Hauger is an explosive player with excellent speed, nice elevation and an advanced level of skill. She plays with passion, and with the kind of confidence that top prospects almost always do. Springfield didn’t win their semifinal game Monday night at Gustavus. Hauger scored 24 points but it wasn’t enough as the Tigers fell to a strong Waterville-Elysian-Morristown squad that advanced to state in the section final on Friday. Sydney made it obvious that she will bring a lot to the table in D3 ball. Hauger, who was Kottke’s teammate with the Rise, will return to the same floor in St. Peter this fall as part of a very strong recruiting class for Laurie Kelly’s Gustavus program. [player_tooltip player_id="145076" first="Nancy" last="Soro"], Rochester Mayo The 5’9 forward and her Spartans teammates came oh so close Friday night to knocking off favored Farmington in the section 1AAAA finals played at Mayo Civic Arena. The Spartans turned in an excellent performance, leading at one point in the first half by as much as 11. Despite scoring three triples in the game’s final 24 seconds Mayo fell 62-60. Thus ended the high school career of Soro, a 5’9 forward who plays the game as hard as anyone. Soro had 8 points on the night and a ton of rebounds. What she lacks in the height department she makes up for with strength, energy and physical presence. Soro is a late bloomer. She showed us marked improvement last summer as a member of the AAU Air Minnesota squad and then carried that level of performance over into the high school season to earn a spot in the top 150. It was a year in which Mayo exceeded all expectations, reeling off 18 straight wins heading into Friday night’s final and nearly making it 19. It’s no coincidence that Soro’s improvement (she averaged about 12 points and 8 rebounds for the games posted) coincided with the rise of the Spartans. I don’t believe Nancy has made a college commitment yet. At least we haven’t heard about it if she has. But I do know there has been plenty of interest among both D2 and D3 programs. Whoever lands the gritty senior will be getting a good one. Top photo: [player_tooltip player_id="28788" first="Annika" last="Stewart"] of Wayzata saved her best for last this week. (Photo courtesy of StarTribune)