Dells wins and Midwest Players Classic

Took in a Friday night game and a great day of basketball at the La Crosse Center on Saturday.

Wisconsin Dells 68 Mauston 66
Took in a battle of top South Central Conference teams Friday night. Dells jumped out early as Mauston struggled against the Wisconsin Dells defense. The threes just weren't falling for Mauston but, on the other side the shots weren't falling for the Dells either. 6'0 junior Riley Eck carried the Dells to a first half lead of six. Mauston did get things going with the high low game against the Dells zone. 6'0 senior Kyran Fitzgerald did a great job of getting to the middle of the Dells zone and scoring or finding open team mates. Despite Fitzgerald's lack of height he really does a great job of scoring in the paint and using his strength. In the second half Mauston's outside shooters 6'4 junior Cade Hall and 6'1 senior Joe Bauer got things going. I really like Hall's athleticism and ability to get to the hoop or hitting the three. For Dells Eck continue to carry the team right to the end. Mauston turned up the pressure and forced the turnovers which allowed them to take the lead late after trailing the entire game. The game end on a three by Eck with about 10 seconds left and all Mauston could do was heave a wild desperation shot.

La Crescent 70 La Crosse Aquinas 58
Aquinas probably had the best player in the game in 5'11 senior Brandon Merfeld. Merfeld was hitting threes at will in this game and at times he seemed to be the only guy that could score. On the other side La Crescent was a team effort as they did a great job of moving the ball. The two leading scorers 6'0 junior Isaac Peterson and 6'3 junior Zach Todd but, they purely benefitted from their team mates setting them up. Peterson got hot from three in the second half and carried the team, while Todd scored throughout by moving without the ball and grabbing offensive rebounds.

Kaukauna 75 La Crosse Logan 62
Two big stories of this game was the 1-3-1 zone defense of Kaukauna and their outside shooting. Kaukauna junior 6'2 Logan Jedwabny was easily the player of the game. Every three Jedwabny took you expected it to go in and he was playing on the top of the zone defense. Logan couldn't get anything going offensive outside of the occasional drive of 6'6 junior Jacksun Hamilton who was able to get to the hoop occasionally. Fellow junior 5'11 Keaton Ferris helped Jedwabny hitting his fair share of three point shots as well.

Caledonia 85 Mineral Point 57 
Mineral Point was without their superstar 6'5 sophomore Brayden Dailey who could very well be done with Mineral Point for sure. 6'4 junior Isaac Lindsey did his best playing a great overall game, hitting the mid range shot, the floater in the lane, and the three point shot. 6'0 sophomore Liam Stumpf helped out dropping the threes from the outside. Stumpf is very impressive from long range and hunting his shot. For Caledonia is was the young guns 6'1 freshmen Eli King and 6'0 sophomore Austin Klug doing the heavy hitting. Klug was on fire from the outside and Eli King is a tremendous athlete that can do a little bit of everything. In the second half it was all 6'2 junior Noah King. Noah King completely took over the second half using his strength to get to the rim, create separation  scoring from mid range, or grabbing offensive rebounds.

Minnehaha Academy 59 La Crosse Central 55
Easily the game of the day. 6'5 junior Johnny Davis had a great first half driving to the rim and scoring while his fellow junior stars brother 6'5 Jordan Davis and 6'7 Terrance Thompson never could get things going. In the second half the refs really let the players play allowing them to be very physical. Minnehaha star 6'4 junior Jalen Suggs and company got extremely aggressive with Johnny Davis which really seemed to frustrate Davis and ended up shutting down. Suggs was really all over Davis picking his pocket three or four times. Suggs also did his thing on the offensive end hitting mid range jumpers and driving to the hoop. The big difference maker in this game was the 7'0 sophomore Chet Holmgren. Holmgren blocked a ton of shots and hit four three point shots in this game. Despite his lack of bulk Holmgren moves incredibly well and he's only a sophomore so the weight will come.

Sun Prairie 72 Minneapolis De La Salle 61
The upset of the day. Honestly De La Salle just didn't look that great. Their star 6'3 senior Tyrell Terry did his thing hitting the three point shot, driving the lane, and running the offense but, no one else could get anything going. Sun Prairie's bigs used their size and quickness to score and really controlled things on the offensive end. 6'6 junior Delaware Hale was just flat out quicker then the bigs of De La Salle.

Martin Luther 81 Minneapolis North 73
Another game that I wasn't super impressed with the Minnesota team. 6'2 junior Joey Immekus was huge for Martin Luther in the first half as he seemed to get open threes time and time again on his way to 19 points. 5'10 senior Trequan Carrington was just flat out quicker then anyone else on the court. Despite Carrington's size he was able to finish in the lane and get his shot off any time that he wanted. Late in the game 6'2 senior Ace Evans was able to pick up a bunch of garbage points but, it was really Immekus and Carrington throughout the entire game. For North senior Eli Campbell was huge hitting the threes and being able to free himself for mid range jumpers as well. Campbell doesn't have Carrington's quickness but, he can get the open shots regardless. The biggest star in the game Martin Luther's 6'5 senior Xzavier Jones was relatively quiet in this one and his team mates didn't even look for him. I think sometimes post players can disappear in the way the game is played right now.

Overall was a good day of basketball and the Midwest Players Classic is a tournament to put on the calender every single year. I left the last game early as Onalaska easily beat Oconomowoc as Oconomowoc just isn't that good this year.