Granite City Classic: Some high points from St. Cloud

From blowouts to breakthroughs to buzzer-beaters and beyond, the Granite City Classic lived up to all expectations this week in the St. Cloud area. There are a ton of great holiday tournaments across the state of Minnesota but none bigger or more in the glare of the spotlight than the annual Breakdown USA event in rock country. There were 70 teams on the docket this year – 28 of the girls variety – making it one of the largest high school tournaments in the country. We plunked down courtside at the College of St. Benedict for 22 hours of basketball over two days. As a result, we managed to see 14 games and 24 different teams and there was plenty to get excited about. We’ll have a variety of coverage over the next few days but let’s start with these few highlights of what we watched. [caption id="attachment_370835" align="alignnone" width="300"]<img class="wp-image-370835 size-medium" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pgh/uploads/2021/12/Ava-Meierotto_Regan-Juenemann.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /> Meierotto & Juenemann[/caption] Duluth Marshall wins on a buzzer beater in double OT It doesn’t get any more dramatic than the Hilltoppers’ 61-59 win over Pierz on Thursday. The Pioneers were incredibly impressive and got the early jump. At halftime it was a one-point game and the margin was razor-thin all the way to the end. With three seconds remaining and the game tied at 50, Marshall’s standout freshman [player_tooltip player_id="296516" first="Regan" last="Juenemann"] had a chance to win it with a Eurostep to the hoop but the ball stayed out of the cylinder and the game went to extra time. At the end of the first overtime Pierz had their opportunity to triumph but watched a quality three-point attempt bounce off the rim as time expired, leaving the game even at 52. In the second overtime, Duluth had a four-point lead with under 30 seconds remaining but Pierz forced a turnover to score at the 24-second mark. The Pioneers cashed in again with just 9 seconds on the clock to tie the game at 59 and a third extra period seemed likely. Instead, Jeunemann quickly obtained the ball and made a mad dash for the other end of the court, driving directly into oncoming traffic at 100 miles per hour. Somehow she slipped the ball into the hole at last possible instance before the buzzer sounded. That’s exactly the type of thing Division 1 prospects do with the game on the line, isn’t it? It was so dramatic and so impressive that even the Pierz bench offered up applause for Regan’s last-gasp heroics. She finished the game with 28 points while standout 8th grader Ava Meierotto had 18. The Pierz Pioneers put up an impressive fight There are over 400 high school basketball teams in Minnesota and we probably have decent knowledge on about 60 percent of them. Our intel on the Pierz Pioneers, however, was practically nil prior to their encounter with Duluth Marshall. It didn’t take very long to figure out a couple of key pieces of information: they are well-coached, they play incredibly hard and, in spite of a lack of household names, have plenty of quality personnel to get the job done. After falling to Holy Family on Wednesday, Pierz brought their ‘A’ game to St. Ben’s on Thursday and delivered a heck of a performance. We were super-impressed by coach Matt Poepping’s squad. They had a strong game plan, moved the ball very well, defended with high energy and an advanced degree of commitment, and scored the basketball. Seniors Katie Leindenfrost and Kiara Olesch, junior Ashley Kimman, and sophomores Lyndsey Strohmeier and Alyssa Sadlovsky form a strong nucleus, but they have big challenges ahead. As residents of section 7AA, the obstacles on the road to state include Crosby-Ironton, Proctor, Esko, Pequot Lakes and Duluth Marshall. After our introduction to the Pioneers this week we’ll definitely be paying more attention to their efforts in the weeks ahead. [caption id="attachment_370836" align="alignnone" width="300"]<img class="wp-image-370836 size-medium" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pgh/uploads/2021/12/Sage-Ganyo.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /> Ganyo[/caption] Mountain Iron-Buhl conducted a free clinic Coach Jeff Buffetta’s Rangers had played just once in 19 days before making their way south to Granite City. Let’s just say any worries the squad from the Iron Range might have had about being rusty were put to rest immediately. The Rangers opened the game against Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa on an 8-0 run that had the Jaguars reeling from the get-go. They barely touched the ball for the first five minutes. Before long the game turned into a clinic on how to play fast, move the basketball at pace and bring defensive pressure for 94 feet. Before long Mountain Iron’s cushion was 20, then 30, then more. After the Rangers scored the first 14 points of the second half they were somehow ahead 51-5 against a quality BBE team that 24 hours later scored 81 points and won! The margin eventually reached 60 before Buffetta’s bench did mop-up duty to preserve a 72-18 win. [player_tooltip player_id="178277" first="Jordan" last="Zubich"] and [player_tooltip player_id="352774" first="Sage" last="Ganyo"] scored 22 points apiece with Ganyo reaching the 1,000-point milestone. Since opening the season with a narrow loss to St. Croix Lutheran, MIB has reeled off eight straight wins including another romp over Rockford on Thursday. Their average margin of victory over that stretch is 41. [caption id="attachment_209164" align="alignnone" width="300"]<img class="wp-image-209164 size-medium" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pgh/uploads/2020/10/86_Emily-Crandall_1-300x185.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="185" /> Crandall[/caption] Sartell-St. Stephens rattled their Sabres Speaking of impressive... how about the play of the Sabres from Sartell-St. Stephen’s. We watched them knock off Lakeville South 70-57 on Thursday, some 24 hours after scoring a 50-35 win over a quality team from Buffalo. Coach Katie Martin likes to play fast, and there’s no question that she has the personnel to do that. The Sabres are quick and athletic and play aggressive pressure defense. That’s a recipe for success in modern basketball and it was too much for Lakeville South to handle. Junior [player_tooltip player_id="352781" first="Chloe" last="Turner"] scored 16 points in a breakout performance for Sartell. Junior [player_tooltip player_id="220843" first="Avery" last="Templin"] did an outstanding job running the offense and had 17. Senior guard Megan Driste posted 16 thanks to an 8-for-9 success rate at the free throw line. The squad’s most highly-regarded prospect, junior [player_tooltip player_id="148322" first="Emily" last="Crandall"], is a defensive dynamo whose relentless motor and physicality sets the tone for Sartell. The Sabres are 8-1 on the season now, but the Class 4A newbies won’t have an easy road ahead. If they hope to get to the state tournament for the first time since 2010, their to-do list in section 8 includes getting by St. Michael-Albertville, Rogers and Elk River.