Week That Was #9: Upsets, showdowns & a very big stage

It was an interesting week to say the least, beginning with Holy Family's monumental upset of Minnetonka on Martin Luther King Jr. Day followed by a pair of big Tuesday showdowns (Providence Academy vs Minnehaha & Hopkins vs Wayzata) and then the nationally televised spectacle at Hopkins. It was quite the week on the personal front, too. This is our attempt to recap all of it from The Week That Was #9. TEAMS OF THE WEEK Holy Family Class 2A Holy Family pulled off one of the more astonishing victories we've seen on Monday, taking down 4A Minnetonka on the Fire's home court in Victoria. Despite this week's multitude of strong individual performances chronicled below, it's hard to top what sophomore [player_tooltip player_id="322999" first="Jocelyn" last="Land"] did in Holy Family's win – 33 points, 20 rebounds and 13-for-14 at the free throw line. At the beginning of the week, everyone was talking about Tuesday's showdown between Providence and Minnehaha as a preview of the 2A state championship, but Holy Family has now made it a three-way conversation. (<a href="https://prepgirlshoops.com/2022/01/minnetonka-gets-burned-by-the-red-hot-fire/">Read all about Monday's upset here</a>) The Fire are now 15-2 and riding a 12-game winning streak. Minnehaha Academy While Holy Family's performance was certainly impressive, Minnehaha's dismantling of Providence was nearly as good. The Redhawks used some serious defensive pressure to throw the Lions off their game early, turning the tables on what we saw Providence do to Royalton the week before. MA built a 24-point halftime lead and never looked back en route to a convincing 81-54 victory. Freshman point guard [player_tooltip player_id="252379" first="Addison" last="Mack"] was very good again, scoring 26 points and going 11-for-11 at the free throw line, exactly the same totals as Providence phenom [player_tooltip player_id="252381" first="Maddyn" last="Greenway"]. Minnehaha senior guard [player_tooltip player_id="109134" first="Charita" last="Lewis"], one of the best seniors still available for recruitment, had 22. On Saturday the Redhawks did it again, pouncing on St. Peter early and scoring a 64-49 win over a strong Saints squad. Minnehaha is now 13-2, having lost only to Hopkins and by a single point to LaCrosse Aquinas. THE BIG EVENT On Friday and Saturday, Hopkins played host to some of the truly elite girls basketball teams in America at the ESPN Girls Basketball Invitational which offered a tremendous opportunity to showcase Minnesota's best against the best in the country. Game one may not have been the Royals' best performance of the season – they fell to an incredibly talented Sidwell Friends School team from Washington, D.C., despite the three-point excellence of junior [player_tooltip player_id="108320" first="Kelly" last="Boyle"] – but Tara Starks' squad roared back on Saturday with a big win over Grandview of Colorado. Hopkins, which scored a convincing win over Wayzata on Tuesday, has been the dominant force in Minnesota girls basketball for more than a decade. Unfortunately the Minnesota State High School League's antiquated rules prohibit Minnesota teams from travelling to play the best. In an era when 7th graders play nationwide, it's just silly to cling to this type of old-school thinking. It's also a shame that the rest of the country did not have the opportunity to see Paige Bueckers in high school. Thankfully the other teams were willing to come here during one of the coldest weeks of the winter to compete. Congrats to everyone at Hopkins who made this happen, and thanks for representing our state at the highest level. PLAYERS TO WATCH Brianna Nusbaum – 2024 guard, Spring Lake Park We mentioned the lengthy junior in our recap of top performers from MLK Day at Holy Family, but wanted to elaborate a little bit more on this under-the-radar prospect. Nusbaum has been putting up numbers for Spring Lake Park throughout the season while showing tremendous improvement in pretty much every aspect of her game. She has quick feet and hands which she puts to work particularly well on the defensive side of the ball. She also has quality handles and does a great job of getting to the basket to either score or draw the foul. Nusbaum has been to the free throw line more than 70 times this season and her percentages are improving. We have seen Nusbaum the past three summers with the Rochester Shock. We're not sure how a player from Spring Lake Park ends up on an AAU team in Rochester but Keith Bland of the Shock is a good guy and pretty persuasive, too. Regardless, playing a prominent role there has clearly helped Brianna's development. Panthers coach Randy Eatherton says Nusbaum works as hard as any player he has ever coached. Clearly the effort is paying off in her first season of varsity basketball in which she is averaging 11 points, 4 rebounds, 4.5 steals and 3 assists while shooting 48% from the field. Brianna is a talented multi-sport athlete with a ton of upside. We look forward to watching her progress. [caption id="attachment_379458" align="alignnone" width="300"]<a href="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pgh/uploads/2022/01/Kelowna-waterfront-crop-1815x1192-1642960144.jpg"><img class="wp-image-379458 size-medium" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pgh/uploads/2022/01/Kelowna-waterfront-crop-1815x1192-1642960144-300x197.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="197" /></a> Kelowna, British Columbia[/caption] ON A PERSONAL NOTE I didn't watch nearly as many games this week as usual. My apologies, but I do have an excuse – and a note from my mother. Really. As I write this I am north of the border in British Columbia seeing my parents for the first time in two years and spending time with my son, daughter-in-law and grandson. As you probably know, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the Canadian border for a year and a half. When it reopened late last year I was ready to venture north as soon as possible only to discover that my passport had expired. Ugh. This week, with all of the bureaucratic issues taken care of, I made it into Canada late Thursday night. So I missed a few games this week. When your dad is 89, and mom is about to turn 87, some things are truly more important than basketball. If the authorities let me back into the USA on Friday night I'll be back in time for Saturday's Breakdown Community Clash at St. Michael-Albertville. [caption id="attachment_209193" align="alignnone" width="300"]<img class="wp-image-209193 size-medium" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pgh/uploads/2020/10/134_Brylee-Iverson_1-300x234.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="234" /> [player_tooltip player_id="108322" first="Brylee" last="Iverson"] of Triton[/caption]  STANDOUT SCORERS As usual we never learn about all of the top individual performances in any given week, particularly from smaller programs scattered around the state who, for whatever reason, don't see the value of posting any more information about their kids than the score of the games. Of those that did choose to celebrate their players' individual achievements these were the best of the best. <ul> <li>39 – Junior [player_tooltip player_id="108322" first="Brylee" last="Iverson"] of Triton scored 39 in a victory over United South Central.</li> <li>38 – 8th grader [player_tooltip player_id="252381" first="Maddyn" last="Greenway"] of Providence Academy scored 38 against the Blake School.</li> <li>38 – Junior guard [player_tooltip player_id="108321" first="Aby" last="Shubert"] of Kasson-Mantorville had 38 in a win over Cannon Falls.</li> <li>34 – Junior guard [player_tooltip player_id="186119" first="Ayla" last="Brown"] of Becker scored a season-high 34 in a win over Princeton.</li> <li>33 – Sophomore forward [player_tooltip player_id="322999" first="Jocelyn" last="Land"] had 33 points and 20 rebounds against Minnetonka.</li> <li>33 – Guard [player_tooltip player_id="108299" first="Tessa" last="Johnson"] of St. Michael-Albertville, the #1-ranked junior in the state, had 33 against Sartell-St. Stephen.</li> <li>33 – 8th grader [player_tooltip player_id="205310" first="Tori" last="Oehrlein"] of Crosby-Ironton is a regular in these weekly recaps. This week she had another 33-point game with 11 rebounds and 5 assists.</li> <li>32 – Senior guard [player_tooltip player_id="57928" first="Amber" last="Scalia"] of Stillwater, a University of St. Thomas commit, had 32 in a win over rival Roseville.</li> <li>32 – Senior guard [player_tooltip player_id="12718" first="Ellie" last="Buzzelle"] of Rogers put up numbers again. The Grand Canyon commit scored 32 versus Spring Lake Park.</li> <li>32 – On Saturday senior [player_tooltip player_id="108316" first="Taryn" last="Hamling"] of Grand Rapids had her fourth 30+ game of the year. The North Dakota State commit posted 32 against Hermantown.</li> <li>30 – Sophomore Kristen Watson of Hayfield scored 30 points against Medford, a game in which her teammate Natalie Beaver had 28. Their Vikings are still undefeated.</li> <li>29 – Junior [player_tooltip player_id="148317" first="Lilah" last="Bergen"] of Columbia Heights is one of the least-noticed high-quality prospects in the Class of 2023. The quiet leader had a season-high 29 in a loss to St. Anthony Village.</li> <li>28 – Big post [player_tooltip player_id="339226" first="Shelby" last="Mortenson"] of Yellow Medicine County continues to impress in her senior season with a 28-point performance in a win over Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg</li> </ul> [caption id="attachment_379460" align="alignnone" width="300"]<img class="wp-image-379460 size-medium" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pgh/uploads/2022/01/Ava-Stier_1000-300x214.png" alt="" width="300" height="214" /> [player_tooltip player_id="109135" first="Ava" last="Stier"] of Waconia. Photo: <a href="https://x.com/AvaStier" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter</a>[/caption]  MILESTONES Seems like we have had a flurry of 2,000-point scorers of late and this week there was another: [player_tooltip player_id="30148" first="Ellie" last="Colbeck"] of Fergus Falls. The South Dakota State University commit, who is ranked 9th in the Prep Girls Hoops Class of 2022, became the third Otter to reach the milestone joining Hannah Draxten and Bailey Strand in the record books. Meanwhile, Albert Lea senior [player_tooltip player_id="109163" first="Taya" last="Jeffrey"] this week became the all-time leading scorer for the Tigers. The Jamestown commit broke the record with 1,341 points. Also this week [player_tooltip player_id="109153" first="Mya" last="Shones"] of Lake City became her program's all-time leading rebounder. The Wisconsin-Eau Claire commit topped the 925-mark for her five-year career. There were a flurry of 1,000-point scorers over the past seven days. Congratulations to: <ul> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="109135" first="Ava" last="Stier"] – 2022 forward, Waconia (MSU-Mankato)</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="109130" first="Selam" last="Maher"] – 2022 guard, St. Louis Park (Smith)</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="109154" first="Joslyn" last="Carlson"] – 2022 forward, Goodhue</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="108307" first="Savannah" last="McGowan"] – 2023 post, Robbinsdale Armstrong</li> <li>Katelyn Vesledahl – 2023 forward, Fosston</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="353920" first="Kayli" last="Hinze"] – 2023 guard, St. Clair</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="302255" first="Maci" last="Farmer"] – 2023 guard, Jackson County Central</li> <li>[player_tooltip player_id="302264" first="Hannah" last="Compton"] – 2023 guard, Legacy Christian Academy</li> </ul> There are three more milestones we need to mention. The first would be Rogers junior [player_tooltip player_id="108300" first="Clara" last="Glad"] who had 18 points and 10 rebounds on Tuesday against Spring Lake Park enabling the UC-Davis commit to reach 500 career rebounds. The second is White Bear Lake coach Jeremy Post, who recorded his 300th career victory. And the third is Minnetonka coach Leah Dasovich, who earned her 200th victory including the Class 4A state championship in 2016. WELCOME BACK One final note. This week marked the return to action of senior [player_tooltip player_id="12715" first="Mara" last="Braun"] of Wayzata. The University of Minnesota commit, and #2-rated senior in the state, was back on the court Thursday at Buffalo where she scored 20 points to lead her team to a come-from-behind win over the Bison. Mara missed 8 games with a knee injury. Top photo: The Hopkins Royals represented Minnesota on the national stage last week. (2021 photo by Crissha Walton)