The Week That Was 12: Celebrating the Journey

Sometimes it's a recap. Occasionally a soap box. By the time we reach February, though, these Monday gatherings of Prep Girls Hoops news and notes are mostly a celebration. Pretty soon the season will have come and gone and so will the high school careers of many of the state's premier players. We think they are worth celebrating, don't you? Career milestones are all about long-term success, and the dedication and toil it takes to produce greatness. As we look back on the previous seven days of girls basketball in Minnesota, let's celebrate a handful of players who have achieved excellence..

AWAY FROM THE SPOTLIGHT

Tucker Downs Tucker Downs 5'11" | CG Mankato West | 2026 State MN –  2026 guard, Mankato West (South Dakota)

The names we know best in Minnesota girls basketball are players who excel all year long – the talented AAU performers fortunate enough to play on high school teams that compete under the bright lights during the winter season. Whether that's being part of Breakdown events or big holiday tournaments or the high school state tournament itself, players like Kate Holmquist Kate Holmquist 5'7" | PG Maple Grove | 2026 State MN and Mya Moore Mya Moore 5'10" | PG Orono | 2026 State #103 Nation MN and Audrey Shindelar Audrey Shindelar 6'0" | CG Stewartville | 2026 State MN are constantly top of mind. Others are not so fortunate.

Some programs just aren't on our radar very often, primarily because they don't travel much out of their own region, don't play in any major events, and have not traditionally had the type of team success to slip into the spotlight organically. Case in point: Mankato West.

If you've been reading here long enough, however, you know that the West lineup includes one of the state's top prospects in 2026 guard Tucker Downs Tucker Downs 5'11" | CG Mankato West | 2026 State MN . We've written extensively about her during the summer months since we first discovered Downs as a 7th grader playing for Minnesota Nice . I remember that afternoon like it was yesterday. We predicted greatness for Tucker back then and she has delivered. This year our top-rated prospect in Southern/Southwestern Minnesota has been healthy, too, and her results reflect that.

Downs leads the 11-11 Scarlets in scoring at nearly 22 points per game along with 8 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 2.3 steals. Last Friday she set a school record for most points in a single game with a 42-point performance in a win at Mankato East. That earned her some February fame to go along with the usual summer sunshine. Downs has committed to a resurgent University of South Dakota program in the Summit League.

TOP 30 OF ALL TIME

Kadence Pierce Kadence Pierce 5'10" | SG Ogilvie | 2026 State MN – 2026 guard Ogilvie (St. Ambrose)

Kadence is another player whose excellence often goes unnoticed during the winter months. She plays at Ogilvie High School, a small Class A program located about 90 miles north of the Twin Cities in Kanabec County. The 11-9 Lions seldom make headlines but that hasn't stopped Pierce from becoming one of Minnesota's top 30 scorers of all time. The 5'10 guard reached that milestone last week with a 30-point performance versus Hinckley-Finlayson that put Pierce over 3,000 points for her career. The Top 50 prospect joins Tori Oehrlein Tori Oehrlein 5'11" | CG Crosby-Ironton | 2026 State #56 Nation MN , Maddyn Greenway Maddyn Greenway 5'8" | PG Providence Academy | 2026 State #14 Nation MN , Morgan Mathiowetz Morgan Mathiowetz 5'8" | PG Sleepy Eye St. Mary's | 2027 State MN and Kate Thayer Kate Thayer 5'5" | CG Northome/Kelliher | 2026 State MN as the only active players to reach 3,000.

SURPASSING ONE OF THE BEST

Marta Forsline Marta Forsline 6'3" | PF Mesabi East | 2026 State MN – 2026 forward, Mesabi East (California-Davis)

Located in the town of Aurora up on the Iron Range, Mesabi East has been in the spotlight a fair amount over the past decade since Prep Girls Hoops has been around. That's a result of some strong individual prospects doing good work – most notably 2020 graduate Ava Hill who set all kinds of records before going on to run track at the University of Minnesota.

Ava's career scoring record of 2,581 points was established when Forsline was in the 6th grade. The 6'3 post set the new standard on Monday with a near triple-double against Deer River. Marta had a remarkable 49 points, 18 rebounds and 9 assists. After going 28 and 13 against Ely on Thursday, and 37 and 17 versus International Falls on Friday,  Marta finished the week with 2,644 points and counting. Ranked 17th among Minnesota's best 2026 prospects, Forsline will join D1 California-Davis in the fall.

REACHING 2,000

Camryn VanMaldeghem Camryn VanMaldeghem 5'10" | CG NRHEG | 2026 State MN – 2026 guard, New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva

Another big milestone was reached during Week 12 when Camryn turned in a 39-point performance in a 56-53 win over Hayfield-Schaeffer on Friday to surpass 2,000 career points. Camryn leads 21-2 NRHEG at 29 points per game and has topped the 30-point mark a dozen times this winter. That leaves her as the second all-time leading scorer for the Panthers behind the great Carlie Wagner. After scoring 3,982 career points, Wagner earned the 2014 Miss Basketball award. She went on to star at the University of Minnesota and was drafted by the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx.

HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF

Addison Bjorklund Addison Bjorklund 6'1" | PF Brainerd | 2027 State MN – 2027 forward, Brainerd (North Dakota)

Addy is an elite prospect who has earned the #8 ranking in the Prep Girls Hoops Class of 2027. She became the first player in her class to make a college commitment when she verballed to the University of North Dakota. Last week, Bjorklund reached 1,000 career points for Brainerd – 30 years to the day after her dad did it. It was Feb. 6, 1996 when Chris Bjorklund reached 1,000 before going on to a highly decorated run at the next level. In fact, his D1 career scoring mark of 2,006 points at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo still stands as the school's best of all time. Addy is averaging 17.4 points and 8.2 rebounds per game while shooting over 60% from the field for the Class 4A Warriors who are 13-6 on the season.

Here are some other 1,000-point scorers from Week 12:

THE ULTIMATE CELEBRATION

And now we come to the ultimate celebration – the joy of life itself. On Monday night in Maple Grove, a large crowd gathered for the Crimson game versus Minnetonka. Not only was it a fun Lake Conference matchup, it was also a celebration of Claire Stern, the former Maple Grove star who survived a near-death experience last summer.

After recovering from multiple cardiac arrests and living through a weeks-long search for a diagnosis, Claire has retired from basketball at North Dakota State and has launched the RareDNA Foundation. Monday's game, along with the NDSU game two nights earlier, served as fundraisers for the Foundation. Thanks to the generosity of basketball fans, the two games raised over $7,000. Here's a link to my story about Claire: The daunting journey of Claire Stern: “Mom and I going to die?”

Top photo (left to right): Maple Grove coach Mark Cook, Claire Stern, and Minnetonka coach Dre Jefferson.