State Tournament Report: Day One Impressers In 5A

Today was the first day of action in Des Moines for the 2025 State Tournament. In the 5A Class we saw all sorts of prospects do a bunch of different things in attempts to help their programs. In this piece below we discuss five players that did their jobs within their contest. Whether that be scoring the ball at a high rate, defending, or anything in between.   Thanks for tuning in and enjoy!    Over the last few games of the season, [player_tooltip player_id='644558' first='Daya' last='Phillips'] of Johnston has been starting and seeing the floor at high rates for her Dragons squad because of an injury to Jaliyah Kinnetz. In the Dragons first game of the State Tournament, Phillips ended up impacting the floor on both ends in a healthy victory. Offensively, she kept it simple and got to the bucket more than a few times. She ended the contest only missing one attempt for the field, along with grabbing a few boards and making some other hustle plays. Johnston is the favorite to bring home the 5A Title. If they want to accomplish that, Phillips will have to continue to be a constant contributor on both sides. They have a lot of weapons but their starters playing well is an important factor into their future success.     [player_tooltip player_id='1207110' first='Ava' last='Martin'] is in the conversation for Performance Of The Day after what she put together this morning against Pleasant Valley. Martin started the game 5-5 in the first half from the field, 4-4 from three point land and she followed that up going 3-4 in the second half, with all of those coming from behind the arc as well. This outburst helped the Jaguars start this thing off with a 20-5 run in the first quarter and they never looked back. As you can tell, Martin was hitting everything her way. She was finding spots around the outside that had space and from there, she made the defense pay off her catch-and-shoot ability. This performance started slow but in the end, everyone knew who was the Player Of The Game was. It wasn't even a conversation.     Someone that has been going under the radar this season is [player_tooltip player_id='671472' first='Layla' last='Trytten'] of Dowling Catholic High School. Trytten is an unsung hero for her Maroon team. She has all the ability that you need as a guard to make an impact at the 5A level and that was on full display today. Early on in their game it was the small stuff. Little buckets off a rebound, patient looks offensively, stops on defense, but in the fourth she really took over. In that quarter alone Trytten scored 10+ points on some efficient shooting. She was hitting three after three in the corners and once she was overplayed, she would take it all the way to the bucket or to somewhere else on the court for an easy assist. This isn't someone who is college committed yet. If she has the aspirations, she has the foundation to be a D2 prospect. I think that was proven today.     The PV Spartans started things slow in the first quarter, only scoring 5 points today but they ended strong, just coming up short at the final buzzer by a few. One of the constants for the Spartans that made a difference was [player_tooltip player_id='609462' first='Isabelle' last='Kremer']. Kremer is listed at 6'3 and she truly seems to be that size. Along with that size, she demonstrated a lot of skilled ability today. She displayed a smooth 15FT jumper off the catch, she hit her defender with a step through after being cut off in the middle of the lane at one time, and she defended her position near the paint at a respectful rate. She might not of scored the most amount of points but she did a great job of holding her own in a lot of aspects as a prospect. If it wasn't for her, this game would have gotten out of hand and stayed that way.     Waukee NW vs CR - Prairie was a battle throughout the entire duration of the contest. Prairie was up 3 at half but NW took the victory by the 6 when the game came to a close. The player for the Wolves that was inevitable was guard, [player_tooltip player_id='935274' first='Vana' last='Bilic']. Bilic plays with a hard-nosed demeanor, she makes plays with her three level scoring ability A LOT, and she competes with a ton of energy. In this one specifically, Bilic was everywhere. She was scoring at the rim off of her team's set offense, she pulled up and hit a three at one point in transition to start her groups third quarter run, and she never seemed to feel pressure. All in all, Bilic just played a well rounded game as a whole and that's what was needed to move the Wolves onto the next round on Thursday morning.

Today was the first day of action in Des Moines for the 2025 State Tournament. In the 5A Class we saw all sorts of prospects do a bunch of different things in attempts to help their programs. In this piece below we discuss five players that did their jobs within their contest. Whether that be scoring the ball at a high rate, defending, or anything in between.