Breakdown Pre-Season: Good things come in threes it seems

Good things come in threes. At least that’s what they say. The origins of that old saw are murky at best but it was certainly true Sunday in Hopkins in the junior varsity division at the Breakdown Fall League. We spent the morning watching some up-and-coming young basketball talent and the Rule of Three kept resurfacing. Here are some threesomes of note. A trio of triplets You can’t get much more three-thentic than actual triplets. Although they don’t look alike or play alike the Hanna sisters of Maple Grove are the genuine article and they can all play at a high level. Addie Hanna, Bella Hanna and [player_tooltip player_id="206227" first="Lexi" last="Hanna"] were members of the Crossfire Davison squad that had a strong showing in the 2025 D1 AAU state tournament this summer. On Sunday they were competing in the JV division at Breakdown as part of composite group of Maple Grove-Minnetonka-Wayzata 8th graders playing up, a team that included top prospect [player_tooltip player_id="205298" first="Jordan" last="Ode"] who we profiled a couple of days ago in our recap of Friday’s opening night at the Prep Girls Hoops Fall Exclusive. Addie is a 5’5 point guard, a real floor general who distributes the ball well in the half-court and in transition. She has a high basketball IQ and can shoot the three at a good clip. Bella is a 5’9 wing who runs the floor and attacks the basket. She, too, can shoot the three but is effective down low and can rebound, too. Both were quite good on Sunday. The sister who really impressed us, though, was Lexi. This kid has a motor that does not have an off switch. She is long and strong and simply will not take ‘no’ for an answer. She defended with passion and pressure, forcing turnovers and using her length as a disruptive weapon. She rebounded hard and scored several second-chance baskets as a result. She delivered a very physical brand of basketball, which is always a big-time plus in my books. Lexi has a nose for the basketball and plays with some serious sandpaper. We look forward to watching these 2025 triplets for years to come. You can see them Friday in week two of the Prep Girls Hoops Fall Exclusive where they are playing on the Oregon team. A trifecta of Royals The big blue train from Hopkins just keeps on rolling. The Royals’ varsity squad was very impressive on Sunday afternoon – we’ll have details on that in a day or two – but the JV team looked equally good in the morning. There are plenty of familiar faces who’ll likely play a lot of JV this winter including ranked prospects [player_tooltip player_id="109155" first="Alicia" last="Bates"] (2022 #79) and [player_tooltip player_id="108333" first="Jasmine" last="Dupree"] (2023 #37), who are waiting patiently for their varsity turn. It was a trio of fresh faces that caught our attention on Sunday: Tatum Woodson, Macaya Copeland and Aaliyah Crump. If the Woodson name rings a bell, it should. Tatum is the younger sister of [player_tooltip player_id="108298" first="Taylor" last="Woodson"], the #2-rated prospect in the class of 2023. Tatum is an 8th grader with a strong athletic build, nice quickness, excellent speed in the open court and a quality skill set. Copeland is a little leaner than Woodson but she, too, is quick and athletic and knows her way around the basketball court like you would expect from a quality Hopkins prospect. The most exciting possibilities among this group may belong to Crump. She’s super long – I forgot to check but the 6-foot mark appears to have been eclipsed some time ago – and incredibly graceful for an 8th grader. Everything looks easy for Aaliyah. She runs the floor a lot like a [player_tooltip player_id="108299" first="Tessa" last="Johnson"], can leap in the way of a [player_tooltip player_id="108348" first="Nunu" last="Agara"], and has the kind of flow we’ve seen from [player_tooltip player_id="177728" first="Olivia" last="Olson"]. Crump is just so smooth and natural and can move her body in ways that most players can’t even describe. Aaliyah played this summer for North Tartan’s top 2025 team. Next year she’ll play three years up for Tara Starks and the Metro Stars. A trey of Knights St. Michael-Albertville isn’t quite as tough a varsity lineup to crack as Hopkins, but it hasn’t been far off in recent years. The Knights have been loaded of late but this year’s roster does offer a little bit of daylight for the newcomers. The Knights will be led by [player_tooltip player_id="108299" first="Tessa" last="Johnson"], [player_tooltip player_id="109124" first="Emma" last="Miller"], [player_tooltip player_id="109742" first="Kendal" last="Cox"], Piper Carlson and the very talented freshman [player_tooltip player_id="178259" first="Kaylie" last="Cox"]. We saw a trio of sophomores playing JV on Sunday for STMA who are certainly making a case for themselves, as well. Guard Gabby Voigt puts a ton of time into developing her game and is a streaky shooter who could get varsity minutes. Maggie Lindeman is a slasher, a scrappy player and really good defender who fights for every inch and has a nose for the ball. The player who really shone on Sunday was big forward Julia Wagner. We have written about Julia in the past so it was nice to see how much progress she has made since the last time we took a good look. She’s big and strong and has some nice moves down low. She also has soft hands and nice touch around the basket. What impressed us the most about Julia on Sunday was how much more aggressive and physical she was playing. That, more than anything, will be the primary determining factor as to whether or not she can earn more than minimal varsity minutes this winter. We should also mention two more STMA guards who played well on Sunday and have a chance to make a splash at the varsity level in the future. That would be sophomore Mackenzie Berg, who goes hard and is coming off a very nice summer with 43 Hoops. She was her usual feisty self in the game I saw against Hopkins. The other is Mylin Lemke, a sophomore who played up this summer on coach Matt Pryor’s impressive North Tartan 2022 Elite squad. Mylin is a scrapper who can also fire the long ball. A single Saint Although we have run out of trios to trumpet, there is one single Saint we need to note. That would be 8th grader Malani Sandifer of Saint Agnes. The tiny St. Paul private school is the home of [player_tooltip player_id="29538" first="Brigid" last="Boyle"], a top-60 senior who has committed to play Division II basketball next year at Wayne State. She started out her high school career under the tutelage of two 2018 standouts – [player_tooltip player_id="1549" first="K’Lynn" last="Lewis"] (St. Olaf) and [player_tooltip player_id="1555" first="Adaya" last="Sandifer"] (Anoka-Ramsey) – and now she is mentoring Malani, who is Adaya’s younger sister. There’s plenty of great basketball in the Sandifer bloodlines and Malani showed glimpses on Sunday that she will do the family name proud in the years ahead. Top photo: The Hanna triplets of Maple Grove from left to right are Addie, Lexi and Bella (Photo courtesy of Hanna family)