Division 4 State Tournament Preview

PGH scouts feature ranked athletes from Kansas.

Lena March 10, 2020 @ 08:00 AM

Division 4 State Tournament Preview Part 1 GAME 1: Crandon vs Aquinas TIME: MARCH 12 6:35 PM KEY PLAYERS FOR AQUINAS: [caption id="attachment_147530" align="alignright" width="170"] Becker[/caption] Aquinas is stacked with talent this season. Leading the team is Iowa State commit and prospective Miss Basketball, [player_tooltip player_id="132410" first="Lexi" last="Donarski"]. The 5’10 point guard is averaging 24.3 points, 6.9 assists and 5.4 steals per game. She’s incredibly skilled offense and can score from any spot on the floor. This season she’s turned into a defensive specialist and a stealing machine. She leads her team in steals and has over 130 this season. Playing alongside Donarski is Taylor Theusch. The 5’7 senior and Minnesota State Mankato commit is a shooting machine. She is a sniper from beyond the arc and will shoot with a defender in her face. She is averaging 14.3 points per game. In the paint for Aquinas is [player_tooltip player_id="132430" first="Courtney" last="Becker"]. The 6’0 senior forward is averaging 13.8 points per game and leads her team in rebounding with 8.9 per game. Becker is committed to Drake university. KEY PLAYERS FOR CRANDON: Crandon has been led this season by Tabitha Renkas. The senior guard is averaging 13.8 points per game for her team. At 5’5 she’s relentless on defense and isn’t afraid of any contact in the lane. Renkas is averaging 7.1 rebounds per game. The guard is also averaging 4.6 assists per game and does a great job distributing to her post player. In the paint for Crandon is Lindsay Littleton. The 5’9 senior center brings a lot of strength in the paint for her team. She is averaging 8.5 points and 7.7 rebounds per game. She’s a defensive specialist and causes a lot of havoc for guards trying to get past her in the lane. Lynzee McGeshnick has also been essential for her team. The 5’2 senior guard is averaging 8 points per game. McGeshick will most likely be assigned to Aquinas’s top scorer as she has very impressive defensive footwork. She has over 20 steals this season. GAME 2: Mishicot vs Melrose- Mindoro TIME: MARCH 12 8:00PM [caption id="attachment_147531" align="alignright" width="227"] Byom[/caption] KEY PLAYERS FOR MELROSE- MINDORO: Another team with an outstanding duo is Melrose- Mindoro. This duo is [player_tooltip player_id="132432" first="Mesa" last="Byom"] and [player_tooltip player_id="132418" first="Emily" last="Herzberg"]. [player_tooltip player_id="132432" first="Mesa" last="Byom"] leads her team in scoring with 17.1 points per game. The 6’3 senior forward does a great job extending her shot over defenders and finishing high on the glass. She in turn is a defensive specialist and does a good job of using her body. Byom leads her team in rebounding and blocks this season. She is averaging 9.5 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game. Beside her is [player_tooltip player_id="132418" first="Emily" last="Herzberg"], a 6’0 senior forward. She is averaging 16.1 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. Herzberg does an excellent job on the block but has also developed some guard like skills this season. She is averaging 4.3 assists. Both Byum and Herzberg are committed to South Dakota State. KEY PLAYERS FOR MISHICOT: Mischicot enters the game with a dynamic duo that’s led them to this game. The pair of 6’0 juniors have been super successful this season. Both small forwards for Mishicot have put up big numbers in important games. Leading the team is [player_tooltip player_id="132363" first="Kylie" last="Schmidt"]. The 6’0 junior and Purdue Northwest commit is averaging 18.6 points per game this season. She uses her size inside the lane so well and has a lot of offensive putbacks per game. Schmidt is averaging 10.4 rebounds per game and is leading her team. She also averages 3.3 assists per game. Desiree Kleiman is the other half of the duo. The Minnesota State Mankato commit is averaging 11.8 points per game and 5.6 rebounds per game. The two work really well together and because of their rare combination of size and skill, they’ve been a hard pair to defend.