Tony’s Takes: What I liked in Week 9

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Another great week of basketball in the books. The following players have turned in some top notch performances that have led to some overall team success in some cases, while others are fighting to stay above water. Whatever the case, these young hoopers answered the call for their respective squads. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline">[player_tooltip player_id='337629' first='Stella' last='Timmins']- guard, St. Anthony Village</span></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Huskies are off to a pretty good start this season and that's large in part to the recent play of [player_tooltip player_id='337629' first='Stella' last='Timmins'], who's currently ranked 43rd in the Prep Girls Hoops class of 2025. Stella got off to a slow start by her standards, but she has picked up her play and shooting which helped the Huskies go 3-0 last week with wins over Holy Family, Richfield and Robbinsdale Cooper. Timmins averaged 23 points per game over that stretch while shooting lights out from beyond the arc. If the Huskies are to continue to have success, Timmins along with senior <strong>Meghan Pryzbilla</strong> and junior guard [player_tooltip player_id='339192' first='Leilani' last='Abraham'] and host of others will need to continue to fill it up early and often. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline">[player_tooltip player_id='208184' first='Zahara' last='Bishop']- guard, Benilde-St. Margaret's</span></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Bishop and company has done yeoman's work keeping the ship afloat without [player_tooltip player_id='296523' first='Kendall' last='McGee'] and Michigan commit [player_tooltip player_id='177728' first='Olivia' last='Olson'] recently returning from a hand injury. Pictured above, Zahara is the 18th ranked prospect in the class of 2025 and is averaging just under 17 ppg on the season, getting it done all over the court. In three games last week, the Red Knights went 3-0 with Bishop averaging just under 15 ppg during the run. With Olson back in the fold, Bishop has adjusted just fine and has continued being a playmaker for herself and others. Bishop will need to continue to excel on both sides of the ball for the Red Knights to successfully defend their state title in March. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline">[player_tooltip player_id='215943' first='Somah' last='Kamara']- guard, Robbinsdale Cooper</span></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>While Cooper is looking to get things going in the right direction under first year coach Ebony Rich, Kamara is doing more than her share of the heavy lifting to get them there. Always a menace of defense, she is virtually unstoppable if you give her lane to the basket. Somah is also averaging about two made 3's a game, so now you have to account for that, as well. In a win over Minneapolis North on Saturday, Kamara notched a double-double pouring in a game high 32 points while grabbing 10 boards and nabbing 6 steals. In a loss to St. Anthony the night before, she poured in a game high 33, doing all she could to will her team to a win. The Hawks ended up falling to the Huskies 82-75, but she went down swinging. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline">[player_tooltip player_id='605702' first='Ashley' last='Bryfczynski']- guard, Waconia</span></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Waconia has had a rough go at it to start the season, but things are starting to look a little brighter for the Wildcats as of late. They went 2-1 last week and are currently riding a three-game winning streak thanks to senior Bryfczynski and her lights out shooting during that stretch. Bryfczynski is far from a one trick pony as along with leading the team is scoring at just under 15 ppg, she's also one of the team leaders in steals as she has great anticipation and shoots the passing lanes with the best of them. She's gotten some help during this run from the likes of <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1194442' first='Audrey' last='Brown']</strong> on the offensive end and junior forward <strong>Faith Turner</strong> blocking shots and taking names in the lane. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline">Briana Foster- guard, Park Center</span></strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Every time I see Foster it looks like she's grown a bit. She's still slight of frame, but she's stretching out in the right direction... up! She helped the Pirates go 1-1 last week falling to a very tough Centennial squad on the road 69-67 and laying the smack down on Champlin Park at home 90-47. Only in 8th grade, Foster has always been a shooter as evident by the shooting performance she put up against Centennial, dropping a game high 25 while shooting 5-9 from beyond the arc. Foster followed that up with a 16 points against Champlin Park evening the season series at 1-1. What has impressed me more is Foster's much improved ball handling under pressure. She's uses her length and calm demeanor to get where she wants on the court and does everything with a smile on her face. Keep an eye on this one. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->