Buckets And Brilliance: Friday's Finest

It's Week 2 of the regular season here in Iowa and Friday night we had over 150 games being played across the state as we continue to move into the thick of the year. We saw several brilliant performances on the evening in all different forms, shapes, and sizes.   Below we highlight some of Friday's Finest players and touch on what they specifically brought to the floor in their contest.   Thanks for tuning in and enjoy!    40 Points & 11 Rebounds. A 40 point double-double in other words is what [player_tooltip player_id='777232' first='Melina' last='Snoozy'] did last night against in-town rival Sioux City East. Snoozy almost single handedly won this game by herself in the regards that she scored 40 points on 29 total shots while the Pirates registered 46 points as a group. This is one of those games where it didn't matter what you did to contain Snoozy. She was on fire from the start and she never looked back. She was making most of her offensive attempts with high levels of confidence and she didn't take off plays on defense. She stood her ground and stayed active on both sides of the floor. Snoozy remains to be one of the top prospects that the state of Iowa has to offer, that is still uncommitted at this time. She possesses over 20 P4 offers at this point so it's really just about where feels like home at the end of the day. I'm not sure where that will be but I can't wait to find out.     Xavier High School recorded the upset last night when they faced off against one of the best teams in 5A in CR - Prairie. Xavier ended up winning the contest by 13 points and that is because of the play of their star PG - [player_tooltip player_id='502101' first='Madden' last='Wilson']. Wilson registered 21 points & 20 rebounds to complete a 20/20 game, along with securing the W. There aren't many PG's that will ever record a stat-line like this. Even if the player is a high end rebounder, 20 is A LOT when there are several bigger players on the floor. Especially when your job is to control pace of play and the offense from the top of the key so this showing was impressive for a few reasons. Mainly because of the numbers in general and the victory when the final buzzer sounded. Wilson is a 2026 that is still uncommitted. She is a viable option for college coaches at multiple levels. She is the definition of a pass first PG with scrappy defense, a smart head on her shoulders, and she is a born leader. That is everything you'd want from a coaches POV.     Norwalk High School was in a battle last night on the road against Pella High School. The Warriors were only up 3-4 points going into halftime but in the second half they handled business and brought home the W by 20+ points. In their efforts the player that was the game MVP was [player_tooltip player_id='883552' first='Braylyn' last='Birmingham'], Birmingham recorded 39 points on some crafty and intelligent play. She really got to whatever spots she wanted to off the dribble but her team also ran some solid sets within the half court to get her other open opportunities in different situations. We knew coming into this season that Birmingham was legit and a name to know out of the 2028 Class. I'm happy to see that she is picking up right where she left off from last Winter with her fierce playmaking ability.     Riverside High School secured their third victory of the season last night with a 31 win over IKM-Manning High School at home. The leader in this one for the Bulldogs was PF - [player_tooltip player_id='1198465' first='Sydney' last='Somers']. Somers was just too much to handle for IKM. They couldn't stick with her physicality under the hoop or her motor with the pace she was working at so she got a lot of touches near the bucket for easy looks because of that. When the dust settled and the final buzzer sounded, Somer had 23 points (8/11), 7 rebounds, 2 steals, & 2 blocks. This is an efficient stat-line that Somer should be proud of. If she competes and produces like this all Winter long, it's going to be tough for regular season opponents to match their output.     North Mahaska got on the board last night with a win vs Iowa Valley High School, 54-21. In this outing the stand out for North Mahaska was SF/CG - [player_tooltip player_id='865264' first='Nataliya' last='Linder']. Linder is a mismatch problem for most. Someone who takes the court at over 6'1 with some guard like tendencies. The issue is that she is clearly one of the tallest prospects in her conference so she ends up by the hoop a lot because it's easy pickings in reality. A good example of that is last night. Linder ended with 13 points (6/7) & 10 rebounds. She did her job controlling what was happening around her in the painted area and that stood out to everyone watching. Iowa Valley never had an answer for that and because of it, the Warhawks ended up coming out as the winners when it was all said and done.

It's Week 2 of the regular season here in Iowa and Friday night we had over 150 games being played across the state as we continue to move into the thick of the year. We saw several brilliant performances on the evening in all different forms, shapes, and sizes.