Standouts From Day Four at the State Tournament

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>After another day of upsets and teams going to the next round, I want to highlight a few kids who stood out in the semifinal games at the Wells Fargo Center. Plenty of kids who stood out for various reasons, but I have my eyes on four kids I want to talk about this evening.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='246101' first='Aaliyah' last='Riley']</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>What's impressed me about [player_tooltip player_id='246101' first='Aaliyah' last='Riley'] since I learned about her a year ago is how well she solves problems during a game. Last season, teams didn't guard her and dared her to shoot. This season, she shot 38% from the 3-point line and established herself as a threat to punish teams from deep. Today, Centennial shaded her to go left. Late in the game, with under two minutes to go, Riley yanked an excellent right-to-left crossover and finished with some english off the glass to seal the game for Johnston. She's a winner at heart.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='311360' first='Jaeden' last='Pratt']</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Pratt is among the grittiest people I've seen play basketball at any level. Late in the third quarter, she took a shot to the nose and poured blood to the point trainers had to get a garbage can so she could bleed into something. The trainers brought her to the back and fixed her up, returned, and competed in the fourth quarter. She did everything she could to try and lift Centennial, and even though they came up short, I'll never forget what she did today.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='127632' first='Jenna' last='Twedt']</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Benton guard is a tough shot-maker, and she's comfortable taking some of the most challenging shots in basketball. Nothing scares her, and she has the utmost confidence in her preparation. I loved how she moved away from the ball to beat the defender face-guarding her all game and found ways to score down the stretch. At the end of the game, there was nothing Vinton-Shellsburg could do with her, she made plays whenever she wanted, and for most kids, the shots Twedt took were one's coaches would be ok with, but Twedt is not any kid, and she reinforced that tonight.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='545645' first='Halle' last='Vice']</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The senior's ability to make plays off the dribble makes Vice one of the most annoying players to defend. You can get out on her to keep her from shooting, but then she'll attack the basket and score or get to the free-throw line. She reacted to what Dowling was doing and made the correct basketball decision all game long. She's not the most exciting player you'll see, but she's one of the most effective.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->