The Week That Was #12: History in the making
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“She’s going to be special.” We hear that a lot about really young players just working their way into the recruiting sphere. Sometimes, as in the case of Tori Oehrlein Tori Oehrlein 5'10" | CG Crosby-Ironton | 2026 State MN…
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Continue Reading“She’s going to be special.” We hear that a lot about really young players just working their way into the recruiting sphere. Sometimes, as in the case of Tori Oehrlein Tori Oehrlein 5'10" | CG Crosby-Ironton | 2026 State MN , it even turns out to be true. The 8th grader from Crosby-Ironton has looked the part since first stepping onto a varsity court as a 7th grader and now she has already done something no other Minnesota player has done before. Last week Tori etched her name into the history books in a very big way and her remarkable milestone leads our recap of The Week That Was #12.
MAJOR MILESTONES
It was Dre Jefferson from the Minnesota Suns who first told us about Tori back when she was in the 5th grade, and from the first time we laid eyes on the girl a couple of months later we were in agreement about Oehrlein’s potential. The lanky guard was already special. Last week Tori scored 43 points in a win over Aitkin in just the 40th game of her high school career to reach 1,000 points faster than any player in Minnesota history. Although it was widely reported – including by the Minnesota State High School League – that Oehrlein had broken the previous record of 61 games set by Rebekah Dahlman of Braham, that wasn’t true.
In fact, the record was 49 games, a mark that had been set in the first week of this season by freshman Addison Mack Addison Mack 5'9" | PG Minnehaha Academy | 2025 State MN of Minnehaha Academy, who began her varsity career as a precocious 7th grader at the Blake School. Then on Friday night 8th grader Maddyn Greenway Maddyn Greenway 5'8" | PG Providence Academy | 2026 State MN of Providence Academy also reached 1,000 career points, doing it in just 46 games. All three are incredible players and these are remarkable times for girls basketball. The temptation here is to say it will be a very long time before we see someone get to 1,000 faster than Tori, but I don’t believe that’s true. There are just too many uber-talented kids on the way up and records, after all, are made to be broken.
While Tori’s accomplishment grabbed most of the headlines this week, hers wasn’t the only major milestone.
- Last week we told you about Lake City senior Natalie Bremer Natalie Bremer 5'11" | CG Lake City | 2022 State MN inexplicably being passed over for a Miss Basketball nomination. On Monday the MSU-Mankato commit added another item to her impressive resume with a career-high 39-point performance in win over a very good Plainview-Elgin-Millville team. Some 24 hours after that she became the Tigers’ all-time leading scorer (boys or girls) by passing Nate Heise’s previous record of 2,307 points. Nat’s record speaks for itself.
- Ronnie Porter Ronnie Porter 5'2" | CG Como Park | 2022 State MN ‘s resume is equally impressive, even more so after the St. Paul Como Park senior had a 41-point performance against the notoriously stingy Hill-Murray Pioneers this week. In doing so the #16-rated prospect in the Class of 2022 passed the 2,000 career points mark while leading the Cougars to an 85-54 win.
- One more player became her school’s all-time scoring leader this week as senior Abbie Riederer Abbie Riederer 5'8" | CG Mn Valley Lutheran | 2022 State MN of Minnesota Valley Lutheran topped Jessica Merseth’s career total of 1,637 points. The Upper Iowa University commit did the deed in a 58-56 win over Sleepy Eye.
- The journey of Cambridge-Isanti senior Mikayla Aumer Mikayla Aumer 5'9" | CG Cambridge-Isanti | 2022 State MN has been well-chronicled here for the past few years as the Top 20 senior transformed herself into a Division 1 signee at the University of North Dakota. This week Aumer reached one more milestone, recording her 1,500th career point.
In addition to Oehrlein and Greenway, there were four more 1,000-point scorers that we know of this week:
- Nia Holloway Nia Holloway 6'0" | PF Eden Prairie | 2022 State #45 Nation MN – 2022 forward, Eden Prairie (Minnesota)
- Kristen Watson – 2024 guard, Hayfield
- Maggie Westling – 2024 forward, Milaca
- Angel Hill Angel Hill 5'8" | PG Minnehaha Academy | 2024 State MN – 2024 guard, Minnehaha Academy
One more milestone of note this week belongs to 2023 forward Abigail O’Reilly Abigail O’Reilly 6'1" | PF PEM | 2023 State MN of Plainview-Elgin-Millville, who established a new single-season record with 254 rebounds. Abby is one of the most-improved players in the state over the past year and a half and – obviously – is a beast on the boards.
NEWCOMER OF THE WEEK
Elise Groppoli – 2025 guard, Hill-Murray
A few weeks back Hill-Murray was having issues with illness and injuries and the Pioneers were a little short-handed. That was the opening Elise needed to step into the fray and demonstrate what she could do at the varsity level. Let’s just say it went pretty well, and now the 5’3 speedster is earning substantial minutes and making a big impact for long-time coach Erin Herman. In her first few minutes Thursday at Mahtomedi, Groppoli had the misfortune to launch an airball for which the Zephyrs student section razzed her without mercy.
Elise shrugged off the noise and went on to have an excellent performance that included 11 points in the second half and some stellar defensive work. She’s quick and fast, with light feet, fast hands, excellent instincts and nice anticipation. She attacked the basket consistently and got to the free throw line as a result. Elise is also an active defender who did a really nice job on the perimeter. Groppoli will return this spring to Minnesota Fury’s 2025 Yellow squad.
GOING JUCO
There was a time when “going JUCO” was seen as a last resort for college prospects, and some still look at it that way. They’re misguided. As we’ve seen over the past couple of seasons, a year or two at junior college has proved to be just the ticket for a number of Minnesota players to make it to Division 1 including Solape Amusan (Illinois), Patience Williams (South Florida), NJ Weems (Lamar) and more. The latest success story belongs to 2021 Concordia Academy graduate Ivane Tensaie of Roseville, currently playing JUCO at the North Dakota State College of Science. She holds more than a dozen nice D1 offers! Ivane has actually made a verbal commitment already but is holding off on an announcement for now.
We mention this because on Saturday we made the two-hour drive down Interstate 35 to Mason City, Iowa to check in on some Minnesota prospects currently doing work at North Iowa Area Community College (NIACC) in an effort to move on to a higher level. There are seven Minnesotans on the Trojans roster. On Saturday four of them really stood out.
- Nora Francois – The 6’2 power forward from DeLaSalle is rebuilding her career after battling health issues in high school. She had 21 points, 10 rebounds and 5 blocks on Saturday while showing the type of form that at one time had her in the Top 10 of the 2021 rankings. Nora picked up her first D1 offer last week and there will be more to come.
- Audrey Martinez-Stewart – The lightning quick point guard from Cretin-Derham Hall played 39 minutes on Saturday stepping off the floor only briefly when an official saw blood dripping down her leg. Audrey ran the NIACC offense beautifully, demonstrating quality decision making and excellent skills. She’s garnering D2 interest and is open to any and all opportunities that come her way.
- Amaya Doree – The crafty guard from Champlin Park has always been sneaky good but you can see the growth in her game. She started for the Trojans, played big minutes and was steady as a rock at both ends of the court. She has plenty of great basketball ahead of her.
- Kourtney Manning – The 2020 graduate of Hibbing has had an outstanding two-year career at NIACC. On Saturday we saw the improvement in her game, as well, as Manning employed her exceptional length to cause problems at both ends of the floor. Kourtney has tremendous instincts, a nose for rebounds, and nice touch around the basket.
All four of these athletes will advance to four-year programs, either this year or next. They have grown their games, matured on and off the court, learned how to be successful in a college classroom and gained in their understanding of what it takes to succeed at the next level. Yes, scholarship-level JUCO is a viable path that more and more Minnesotans will be travelling in the years to come.
INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES
Remember when bigs didn’t shoot threes? Plenty of old-school coaches wouldn’t even allow them to try. Not anymore. In today’s basketball everyone has to be able to knock shots down from distance, including big post players. Junior Maraya Wiltrout Maraya Wiltrout 6'2" | PF Cambridge-Isanti | 2023 State MN of Cambridge-Isanti is a 6’2 power forward who has put in crazy amounts of time working to improve, including her outside shooting. It is certainly paying off. On Saturday Maraya made 7 three-pointers for the Bluejackets en route to a season-high 23 points.
Guards, on the other hand, have always had to shoot from distance and nobody has done that better this season in Minnesota than sophomore Claire McGregor Claire McGregor 5'7" | CG Maple River | 2024 State MN of Maple River. The scrappy guard has been positively lighting it up all winter and this week she had another 7-triple performance against Triton. Claire scored 32 points against the Cobras, to go along with 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 5 steals. Triton’s Brylee Iverson Brylee Iverson 6'0" | SF Triton | 2023 State MN , a Top 40 junior, scored 31 in the contest.
Other standout individual performances this week included:
- On Monday Jackson County Central senior Sadie Voss Sadie Voss 5'9" | CG Jackson County Central | 2022 State MN tied the JCC single-game scoring record with 44 points against Pipestone, tying the mark set by her cousin Alaina Wolf.
- On Saturday Lanesboro’s sizeable post Kaci Ruen owned the inside against LeRoy-Ostrander. The 5’11 junior, who hasn’t been on our radar before now, scored 43 points for the Burros.
- Tresa Baumgard Tresa Baumgard 6'0" | PF Chisholm | 2024 State MN of Chisholm had another monster game this week as she scored 38 points for the Bluestreaks against Nashwauk-Keewatin. The athletic forward is a Top 30 prospect in the Class of 2024.
- On Tuesday Hastings senior Lilly Nuytten Lilly Nuytten 6'1" | PF Hastings | 2022 State MN had a career-high 34 points against North St. Paul. The MSU-Mankato commit is averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds per game for the Raiders.
- This week we told you about Shelby Mortenson Shelby Mortenson 6'1" | PF Yellow Medicine East | 2022 State MN of Yellow Medicine East in our article about ‘5 under-recruited seniors you need to see.’ If you watched her this week you already know Shelby had a 30-point, 12-rebound performance against Canby, another in a series of strong games for the big post.
- Speaking of posts, lanky freshman Madelynn Luft Madelynn Luft 6'1" | PF Kerkhoven-M-S | 2025 State MN of Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg recored a triple-double this week against Dawson-Boyd on Thursday that included a whopping 10 blocked shots! Luft is a Top 25 prospect in the Class of 2025.
- Lilly Meister Lilly Meister 6'2" | PF Rochester John Marshall | 2022 State #55 Nation MN ‘s high school career is drawing to the close but the Indiana University commit from Rochester John Marshall just keeps on dominating in the Big 9 Conference with calculator-draining consistency. This week the Top 10 senior scored 29 points and had 18 rebounds in a win over Albert Lea. She is averaging 22 points, 12 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 2.2 steals and 2.2 blocks this season.
PLAY OF THE WEEK
Olivia Olson Olivia Olson 6'1" | CG Benilde-SM | 2024 State MN is one of those players we could offer accolades to pretty much every week of the year. The #1 prospect in Minnesota’s Class of 2024, with Team USA cred on her resume, is just that good. This week we’ll tip our cap to Liv once again for the play of the week, a home-run catch-and-score in the final seconds against Chaska that enabled Benilde-St. Margaret’s to score a monumental 65-63 upset over Chaska. The long-bomb inbounds pass found Olson just past half court from where she split two defenders, shook off some contact and put up a shot off the backboard and in with under 2 seconds left on the clock. It was outstanding.
That wasn’t Olson’s only spectacular play against the Hawks. Watch the complete highlights courtesy of KSTP television. It’s worth nine minutes of your time.