Breakdown Fall League: Best of week 4
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Our advice to young players riding the rollercoaster on the long and bumpy road to college basketball is to make as many friends as you can along the way. When the ball stops bouncing, and all of your eligibility has…
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Continue ReadingOur advice to young players riding the rollercoaster on the long and bumpy road to college basketball is to make as many friends as you can along the way. When the ball stops bouncing, and all of your eligibility has been exhausted, it is those relationships that should stand the test of time. This week’s opponent could be next year’s teammate. The kid you just banged heads with on the floor might be your best friend down the road. That’s why it was so heartening on Sunday to see Sam Wills Sam Wills 6'0" | SG Visitation | 2025 State MN and Maddy Blaylark Maddy Blaylark 5'7" | CG DeLaSalle | 2026 State MN hug it out following their hotly contested encounter at Breakdown Fall League Week #4. They even posed for a quick photo to commemorate a nice moment between two quality prospects. That was among the many highlights on Sunday.
FRENEMIES FOREVER
Sam Wills Sam Wills 6'0" | SG Visitation | 2025 State MN is an elite player. The big guard from Visitation is a Top 10 prospect in the Prep Girls Hoops Class of 2025. The 6-footer with prodigious length offers a unique combination of size, speed, and skill. She plays the game at a very high level, always competes with maximum intensity, and usually smiles throughout. Beyond her obvious potential as a high-level Division 1 player it’s impossible not to root for a kid like Sam who clearly loves and respects the game and everyone she comes in contact with. Wills averaged 17 points and 9 rebounds per game last year for coach Faith Johnson-Patterson’s Blazers. With the graduation of three starters, even more of the load will fall on her broad shoulders this winter.
Maddy Blaylark Maddy Blaylark 5'7" | CG DeLaSalle | 2026 State MN of DeLaSalle is a crafty guard who has plenty of athletic ability but really excels at the more cerebral aspects of the game. By combining those two things she has earned her place in the Freshman 50, the first ranking of this year’s 9th grade class where she currently holds the #22 position. While sophomore PG Aneisha Scott Aneisha Scott 5'6" | PG DeLaSalle | 2025 State MN grabs the lion’s share of the attention at DLS – a profile she has earned in every way – Blaylark’s performance will have as much to do with whatever level of success the Islanders can muster up this season. Whether she is at the point or playing off the ball, on the offensive side of things or on D, Maddy is capable of executing beyond her years against all types and sizes of opponents.
On Sunday at Fall League the Visitation vs DeLaSalle encounter came down to a single point with the Islanders sneaking out of the gym with a victory. Regardless of the outcome of this exhibition contest the two kids in the photo are winners.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Aubree Hultman Aubree Hultman 5'7" | PG Forest Lake | 2026 State MN – 2026 guard, Forest Lake
One of the things we like about Fall League is seeing how the newcomers fit with the veterans as we try to determine which younger players might be able to make an impact at the varsity level. Many of the programs have already sorted things out to a large degree and their various teams at Fall League reflect that because they are grouped by ability level. In some cases, however, high school coaches don’t like to make those decisions before tryouts are officially held and the younger players are lumped in with other kids of their age at this time. That’s how you get a prospect like Aubree Hultman Aubree Hultman 5'7" | PG Forest Lake | 2026 State MN playing with other 9th graders in a JV contest. If you watched Forest Lake’s 9th graders play Chaska’s 9th graders on Sunday then you know that not all freshmen are created equally. In other words, Hultman put on a show.
The crafty point guard, who is ranked in the Top 35 of the Prep Girls Hoops Class of 2026, was on fire from start to finish. She scored in every imaginable way. And when she wasn’t flying end to end and beating opposing players with some stylish displays of one-on-one basketball she was drawing defenders and dishing to her teammates for an open look. We quickly lost track of just how many buckets Aubree scored, but it was a ton. She staked her team to a 21-point lead at the half and the Rangers went on to win by a score of 65-22.
To add insult to injury, Aubree is just coming back from a torn ligament in her thumb and was wearing a some sort of a wrap/cast contraption on her left hand. It didn’t seem to hamper Hultman’s play in the least and she scored at least two or three buckets by finishing in tight with her left hand. She knocked down sweet baby jumpers, made buckets from distance, and just generally ran roughshod over the competition. Aubree is explosive. Her first step is strong. Her sense of timing and pacing is very good. And she has competed against the best of the best opponents in AAU. Honestly, I don’t know enough about the Forest Lake roster at the moment to know what other options coach Dave Ostercamp has for his varsity point guard position, but if he has one better than Hultman she must be really special!
TEAM ON THE RISE
Tartan High School in Oakdale is a program that has been through a ton of ups and downs over the years. In recent seasons it has been mostly downs as the Titans have won just a dozen games over the past three years. A succession of head coaches have given it a try at the Class 4A school in the East Metro but without much success. Watching them on Sunday, however, I was struck by just how much progress coach Xavier Munoz has made with his group in the past 12 months. Munoz, a graduate of Ada Borup & the University of Jamestown, has definitely got his team trending in the right direction. Their ball movement was so much better. Their defensive coverage has improved. Their compete level is way up. And you could sense the positive energy. Of course it helps to have a player like Vienna Murray Vienna Murray 6'0" | SG East Ridge | 2026 State MN running the show!
Vienna is a special talent. A Top 10 prospect in Minnesota’s freshman class, Murray is an exceptional athlete. Standing 6 feet tall with a monster wingspan, Murray can sprint and leap and score with the best of them. Her shot is a thing of beauty. She can also defend all five positions. That’s why the North Tartan standout is being recruited by a series of excellent D1 programs. Last year she had to do it all for the Titans. Despite being double teamed pretty much every night Vienna averaged over 14 points, nearly 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals per game. She had to stay on the floor pretty much every minute of every game and the team’s success was largely predicated on how much of a superhero she could be on any given night.
What we saw on Sunday was a more balanced squad. 2027 guard Mia Hernandez Mia Hernandez 5'6" | CG Tartan | 2027 State MN is really starting to come into her own. Behind the studious glasses and impish grin there’s an excellent athlete with well-developed skills who has played high-level AAU basketball and done very well. It’s tough making your way as a 7th grader on a struggling varsity team, but one gets the sense that Mia is going to make big strides forward this season as an 8th grader. Seniors Livia Murray (Vienna’s older sister) and Tijah Stroman will be key pieces to the puzzle and there were some youngsters on the court Sunday who showed promise, as well. Things may finally be looking up in Oakdale.
READY TO BREAK OUT
Desirai Chappell Desirai Chappell 5'6" | PG Richfield | 2025 State MN – 2025 guard, Richfield
Desirai is on a roll! The month of October has been very good to the Richfield point guard. At the Prep Girls Hoops Top 250 Expo two weeks ago she was excellent and earned a spot on our colleague Tony Ragulen’s “All Gas, No Brakes” team. Last weekend she was recognized by Breakdown Sports for her Fall League performance. That happened again on Sunday, some 24 hours after she had another great day of basketball at the Featured 40. All of the accolades are well-deserved because Chappell is proving herself a worthy candidate in the Class of 2025. Offensively she can do so much – she’s explosive, quick, highly-skilled and aggressive. Desirai plays the game with a lot of confidence and isn’t afraid to take or make contact even though she has a relatively small frame. Defensively we saw some real potential from Chappell late in Sunday’s encounter with Tartan when she was assigned the task of guarding Murray. She put a ton of pressure on the elite prospect, forced a couple of bobbles and a turnover, and was generally up in Vienna’s kitchen. As Tony said, all gas, no brakes!
Stella Timmins Stella Timmins 5'11" | SG St. Anthony Village | 2025 State MN – 2025 guard, St. Anthony Village
Like Murray, Stella was relied upon a ton last year as a freshman at St. Anthony Village. She proved more than up to the task, delivering over 14 points per game and leading the Huskies in a variety of ways. With a season of varsity experience in the books, and another summer of high-level AAU competition on her resume, look for Timmins to take it up another notch or two this season. This is a prospect with a ton of natural ability. She’s got great length and moves about the court with ease. Timmins has skill and she’s smooth. One other thing we know for sure: Stella can shoot the heck out of the basketball! With the continued improvement of point guard Leilani Abraham Leilani Abraham 5'8" | PG St. Anthony Village | 2025 State MN , SAV has the potential for a potent one-two combination that will be difficult for opponents to contain. Stay tuned because both Abraham and Timmins have what it takes to make it at the next level.
Zoe Verhasselt Zoe Verhasselt 5'7" | CG Hutchinson | 2025 State MN – 2025 guard, Hutchinson
Fast. Fast. Fast. Ask us for three adjectives to describe Zoe’s game and we might just choose one x 3. Her game is all about speed and quickness and playing at a frenetic pace. What has improved Verhasselt’s productivity the most of late, however, is the fact that she has slowed down. Just a little. Yes, there is such a thing as playing too fast, but Zoe is starting to figure out timing and pacing and that tweak is making her much more effective. Verhasselt is no longer going flat out all the time. That is a big step forward for this athletic guard whose skill development has come a long way over the past couple of years. Her ball handling is much-improved and her shooting looks really good, as well. Zoe is constantly on the attack. On Sunday she was intermittently burning defenders one-on-one to get to the rim and burying step-back threes. We’re excited to see where all of that takes her this season.