The top 5 guard performances of Week #7  

We watched a have dozen great games last week, including nail-biters between Chaska and Wayzata, Crosby-Ironton vs Waseca and Shakopee at Prior Lake. The others weren’t quite as competitive but they certainly featured some great players. This is a rundown on the top guards we saw in Week #7. We already told you about the play of Becker’s [player_tooltip player_id="108304" first="Maren" last="Westin"] and Chaska’s [player_tooltip player_id="57077" first="Kaylee" last="Van Eps"] (Lehigh) in our weekly recap. Westin, ranked 5th among Minnesota sophomores, is a rising star in the class of 2023. Van Eps, the 7th-rated senior, is a wily veteran in the class of 2021. Both are going to do great things in college basketball. Here are five more guards who stood out last week. [player_tooltip player_id="177728" first="Olivia" last="Olson"] <strong>– freshman guard, Benilde-St. Margaret’s</strong> Watching Olivia never gets old, and Friday’s performance against DeLaSalle was one of her best... in the second half. The opening 18 minutes was a struggle for Benilde, who trailed the Islanders by as much as 15 and were down 12 at the break. They could do little right. After halftime the Red Knights, led by Olson’s onslaught and the excellence of freshman [player_tooltip player_id="215960" first="Tyreana" last="Reliford"], could do nothing wrong. Reliford scored in transition early in the half before Olson cashed in on two steals and a pretty little floater. Another Reliford transition followed and then another and before long the lead was down to just four points. Throw a <strong>Brooklyn Miller</strong> bucket into the mix and it added up to a 13-0 run. BSM ended up holding the Islanders without a field goal for more than 9 minutes, and their momentum ruled the day. The Red Knights cruised to a 62-45 victory, having outscored their opponents in the second half by 29. When it was all over, Olson’s contributions totaled 23 points, 17 rebounds, 6 assists and two blocks. Olivia is a remarkable talent, the kind of player who shows you a little something more every time out. She is so long, so smooth and so athletic that most defenders just don’t have the answers required to stop her. That’s why she is the #1 prospect in Minnesota’s class of 2024, and is destined to be a top-50 player in the country... or higher. After announcing her arrival as a varsity player with a 40-point performance against the Islanders in December of 2019, teams have been building their entire game plan around stopping the 6’1 guard. Still Olson has managed to top the 20-point mark in over half of Benilde’s games, has been in double figures in every game, and is currently averaging 22 ppg. As their young captain goes, so go the Red Knights. Against DLS, she was really going. [player_tooltip player_id="215960" first="Tyreana" last="Reliford"] <strong>– freshman guard, Benilde-St. Margaret’s</strong> As we mentioned in our above description of Benilde’s victory, Reliford played a key role for the Red Knights. She was dominant in the second half and finished with 20 points. It’s not surprising to see the #22-rated freshman turn in that kind of performance; she has been doing it all year. It’s a sign of the steady progress Tyreana has made since working her way into the varsity rotation one year ago. Reliford appeared in less than half of the games in the 2019-20 season, averaging just 3 points per game. This year she is a mainstay for BSM and is averaging nearly 12. She is a key to the success BSM has had forcing turnovers and scoring in transition, and just looks so much more comfortable than before. Tyreana, who was one of the top performers last fall at the Prep Girls Hoops Top 250 Expo, is following in the footsteps of her senior sister [player_tooltip player_id="109773" first="Jayla" last="Reliford"], the Robbinsdale Cooper point guard who has committed to the University of Jamestown. There is no doubt in my mind that Tyreana is heading in exactly the right direction to make it to college basketball herself. [player_tooltip player_id="205310" first="Tori" last="Oehrlein"] <strong>– 7th grade guard, Crosby-Ironton</strong> We just can’t stop writing about the 7th grader. If you have not seen Tori play yet it has to be difficult to grasp why we have already heaped so much praise on a kid who has barely begun her high school career. The reality is, she’s just that good and is making a very strong case to be the #1 player in the class of 2026. After another cardiac-inducing victory Monday night at Esko, Crosby-Ironton is now 11-1 and Oehrlein has nearly single-handedly turned them into a contender for a spot in the AA state tournament. Last year the Rangers were 16-12. The year before that they were 19-9. This year the only blemish on their record is a four-point loss to a very strong squad from Pequot Lakes. On Friday night against Waseca, Tori did what big-time players do – she took the game by the throat in the latter stages and practically willed her team to victory. Waseca had led pretty much the entire game until Tori nailed a long-distance three to give Crosby-Ironton the lead which then swung back and forth until Tori snared a huge defensive rebound in the final minute, sprinted the length of the floor, slipped deftly through a pack of defenders and finished at the rim with a soft touch. A big-time play to be sure. Waseca made a pair of clutch free throws to tie things up and force overtime where the Bluejays quickly jumped out to a four-point lead. In the waning moments, Oehrlein nailed another long bomb to give her team the lead. It turned out to be the winning basket as the Rangers slipped past Waseca 62-61. Great stuff, and the kind of thing Tori has been doing a lot. Oehrlein is averaging 23 points per game. She’s shooting at over 50% from the field and nearly 45% from three-point range. Over the past half dozen games Tori is shooting 60% from three. She opened her high school career with a 23-rebound performance against Detroit Lakes and is averaging just under 12 per game along with 6.7 assists and 3.6 steals. Add all of this up and you have a remarkable story which we hope to keep on telling for the next six years. [player_tooltip player_id="109742" first="Kendal" last="Cox"] <strong>– senior guard, St. Michael-Albertville</strong> With Becker riding a two-year winning streak entering last week’s game at St. Michael-Albertville expectations were running high, but to say the Bulldogs struggled in the first half would be an understatement. Becker had trouble hanging onto the ball, had trouble executing their offense, had trouble getting their much-vaunted press working. In the second half the visitors eventually figured it out and went on to win the game thanks to a spurt of defensive excellence midway through the period. If you want to know why it was such a struggle let us boil it down to this: [player_tooltip player_id="109742" first="Kendal" last="Cox"]. Of course there were others who played very well – point guard [player_tooltip player_id="109124" first="Emma" last="Miller"] and post player [player_tooltip player_id="220824" first="Piper" last="Carlson"] first and foremost – but it was Kendal’s play at both ends of the floor that really stood out. She was just so darn difficult to deal with, but that wasn’t a surprise to Knights coach Kent Hamre. “Kendal has been one of our top defensive players since 8th grade, and she loves the challenge of guarding the toughest player every night out,” Hamre said of the Winona State commit. “Kendal is just a workhorse. She’s the leader who will do whatever you need, wherever you need it. She does it all for us.” We have been tracking Cox for the past five years. She has been one of the premier players in the class of 2021, consistently ranking among the top 30 prospects. Still she remains one of the state’s most under-appreciated players, but night after night she is physical, she rebounds hard, she can score and she’s willing to do whatever is required to secure the win. This year, Cox is averaging 14.3 points per game along with 6.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.4 steals. STMA has had some marquee players over the years – most recently 2020 graduate [player_tooltip player_id="1916" first="Mackenzie" last="Kramer"] (Lehigh) captured much of the limelight and now 2023 #1 [player_tooltip player_id="108299" first="Tessa" last="Johnson"] is poised for greatness – but Cox has had as much impact on the Knights rather substantial success as anyone. “Kendal is never very flashy,” Hamre said. “She just goes about her business and gets the job done.” [player_tooltip player_id="108324" first="Drew" last="Johnston"] <strong>– sophomore guard, Roseville</strong> On Sunday we named Roseville post player [player_tooltip player_id="109737" first="Tamia" last="Ugass"] as our Prep Girls Hoops Player of the Week, thanks largely to a 38-point performance at East Ridge. Ugass, as she has done all year, dominated in the paint, knocked down some threes and used her big body to be a defensive force. By all measures Tamia is having a great year. One person who deserves a lot of credit for that success, however, is her point guard. Johnston’s game has evolved significantly over the course of the past year and a half, and her improvement was on full display against the Raptors. Last year Johnston was thrust into the role as Roseville’s starter at the 1. That’s never an easy task for a freshman, especially on a team that plays a punishing schedule that forced Drew to handle the defensive pressure brought to bear by teams like Stillwater and White Bear Lake. At times it was a struggle. Fast forward to today and Drew is a much, much better player. The two adjectives that come to mind regarding Johnston’s play now are ‘aggressive and ‘confident.’ Against East Ridge she attacked the basket aggressively and without fear, she confidently knocked down open shots when the opportunity presented itself, plus she moved the ball well and ran the Raiders’ offense with authority. Johnston is a tactician who sees the floor and knows how to set the tempo. She can also dial long distance. At over 12 points per game, Drew is Roseville’s second-leading scorer. She’s also averaging 4.5 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 1.9 steals while shooting at better than 45%. It’s not easy to follow in the footsteps of a highly accomplished sister like [player_tooltip player_id="56227" first="Jayda" last="Johnston"] (Valparaiso) but Drew is a completely different type of player and is gradually carving out her own niche. Johnston is currently rated as the #31 prospect in the class of 2023 and Division 1 schools are showing interest.