Fall Exclusive Week 3: Big Ten Top Performers

The Prep Girls Hoops/Jr All-Star Fall Exclusive has been a success so far as we wrap up the third week and the end of pool play. Next week we will see who brings home the championship for the second annual event. The cool thing about these events is anything goes; the referees let the girls play, and girls are able to play freely making it a pretty positive environment. Here are some of the top performers from the Big Ten division. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="148332" first="Ashlee" last="Burchette"] - 2023 guard, Bloomington Kennedy</strong> Burchette<em> (pictured above),</em> who is on team Buckeyes, is one of the lucky ones who get to play all of these games on her home court. The 5’7 point guard is a problem on both ends of the floor. She can beat almost anyone off the bounce and is really good at creating contact on the drive, where she ends up at the free-throw line quite a bit. Her best asset on offense is driving to the hoop but the guard can also knock down the three with ease. She is quick and is good at changing speed, where she can go from 0 to 100 really quickly. On the defensive end she is scrappy and aggressive making it hard for the ball handler to dribble. My favorite thing about her defense is she is not afraid to get in her opponent's space, which help her create steals. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="220845" first="Molly" last="Garber"] - 2023 small forward, </strong><b>Blaine</b> On a team full of girls who can score in all facets, Garber has also made a statement at the Exclusive. On Friday night the small forward was looking to score and that she did. She stayed aggressive on offense and was able to finish around the rim in many different ways. The 5’11 forward continuously got to the line and knocked down her free-throws. Lets not forget about her defense where she uses her length to grab big rebounds and is smart with the ball, either kicking it out or putting it back up after an offensive rebound. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="215991" first="Abby" last="Richter"] - 2024 small forward, Edina</strong> Richter is ball of energy when she is on the floor and doesn’t take a possession off. The 5’11 forward has great size and a nice build that allows her to play both inside and out. Richter is never standing still on offense and is always looking to cut or slash down the lane where she can finish with both hands at a high volume. She is the type of player who fights hard for boards, especially on offense where she gets easy put-backs. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="215972" first="Norah" last="Danielson"] - 2024 small forward, Delano</strong> The 6’0 small forward had to step up on Friday as her Hoosiers team was missing almost half of their players. When warm up started for the first game, only five girls were out on the court. Like I said before, in this showcase anything goes, so the Hoosiers asked phenom 6th grader <strong>Chloe Johnson</strong> to stay and play, so that they would have one sub. Johnson held her own against kids 6 years older then her. Teammate [player_tooltip player_id="339093" first="Kylee" last="Wooten"] also stepped up with her great defense getting multiple stops. Danielson was very active on offense and finished around the rim on both sides. She was able to get multiple and-one opportunities and knocked downed the free throws with confidence. The small forward is hard to guard with her size and her ability to spread the floor as she can also knock down the three. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="339110" first="Haylie" last="Jerde"] - 2024 point guard, Cambridge Isanti </strong> Jerde controlled the pace of the game for her team, showing she is a true point guard. The 5’5 sophomore has a great basketball IQ and is willing to pass up a shot to make the extra pass. Her ball handling skills are proficient, which showed when she was pressed in the backcourt and was able to handle the pressure on her own and bring the ball up. She can attack off the bounce but prefers to shoot the three where she has a nice stroke from beyond the arc. On Friday Jerde demonstrated she has some new moves in the bag hitting a few step-back threes.