Rogers opened the Roseville Girls Holiday Tournament with a 78-57 win over Mpls. South. In fact, it was 78-44 at the 5 minute mark, when South's starters closed it out with a 13-0 run over Rogers' deep bench to make it respectable. Rogers had 5 players in double figures, shot 47% from the field with 16 assists, according to my unofficial numbers. They must have averaged 8 to 10 passes per shot, while South had all kinds of 1-2-3 touch possessions, just a whole lot of 1-on-1.
Sophomore forward Ellie Buzzelle was, well, not quite her usual self, scoring only 19 points, but 14 of them as Rogers built a 42-29 lead in the 1st half. It was senior guards Alaina Brenning and Ali Karels who did a lot of the work for Rogers, with 25 points between them on (again, unofficially) 11-of-14 shooting, 5 assists and 2 turnovers. Inside it was freshman Clara Glad and Katelyn Maciej combining for 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting to go with 16 rebounds. Junior Mackenzie Matthies had a really nice game off the bench with 7 points on 3-of-5 shooting, 3 boards and a team-high 5 assists.
Bottom line: Rogers moved the ball, got those 16 assists, and then 15 offensive boards didn't hurt.
Jade Hill scored 21 for South.
Andover followed with an exciting 63-61 win over Woodbury. Andover led 30-25 at the half, and 45-36 and 49-40 in the 2nd before Woodbury came back to make a game of it. The Royals tied it at 53 at 4:06 on a Carley West bucket. They took their first and only lead of the 2nd half at 55-53, then 57-53 on a pair of cutbacks by Megan Hurley and Mary Grant. But, Andover finished on a 10-4 run, taking a 61-59 lead on a Sydney White 3 and getting the win on an Alyssa Gerth layup with 3 seconds remaining.
In fact, Gerth was in-bounding the ball from the baseline under her own basket. The Woodbury defender turned her back on the passer to face the court. Gerth bounced it off the defender's back, got both feet in bounds, grabbed the ball again, and laid it in. I've seen that a few times, but I don't think I've ever seen it for the game-winner.
White scored 30 for Andover on 3s, dribble drives, you name. She is a complete offensive player, strong, works hard to get open. Gerth is a smart, solid point guard, and scored 16. For Woodbury, it was mostly inside, where West scored 22 points and Mary Grant came off the bench to score 19. In the final 10 minutes, Woodbury had 4 offensive boards good for 9 2nd chance points. On the other hand, the officials had a tough night. They never called West's hook move in the lane, they didn't notice Andover's shooters getting hammered twice inside of 30 seconds. Emily Diemer got bodied so hard she had to come out of the game. No call. And, then Taylor Einck fouled out on a ticky-tack foul on the rebound as the official under the basket made a no-call but the official at half-court ran in to interrupt the proceedings. But Woodbury missed 2 possible game-winning FT to set up Gerth's game-winner.
Finally, Roseville defeated Hastings 53-47 in a surprisingly close game. It was 25-16 at the half as the Roseville didn't start to exploit their size inside until the half was half done. After that, Roseville's Jayda Johnston (18 points), Tamia Ugass (16) and Josie Haug (7) combined for 41 points. But 5 guards scored just 12 points for the Raiders. Meanwhile, Mallory Brake kept Hastings in it with 29 points. She scored 9 of Hastings' first 12 points and the Raiders from Hastings led the Raiders from Roseville 12-8. They shut the Creighton-bound Brake for the next 10 minutes but then she hit a 3 to get Hastings within 18-16. They didn't score the rest of the 1st half, however.
Brake scored 17 in the 2nd half to keep Hastings close. Her fellow 6-footer Lily Nuytten (pronounced Newton) added 11, but their teammates could only muster 7 points among them.
I did not see Centennial break away from a 26-26 halftime tie to defeat Cooper 61-49 as Jodi Anderson and Jenna Guyer combined for 34 points.
The Top Individuals
Center--1) Jenna Guyer, Centennial, 2) Mary Grant, Woodbury, off the bench
Power Forward--1) Jayda Johnston, Roseville, 2) Carley West, Woodbury
Small Forward--1) Mallory Brake, Hastings, the overall MVP for the day, and 2) Jodi Anderson, Centennial
Point Guard--1) Alyssa Gerth, Andover, 2) Ali Karels, Rogers
Shooting Guard--1) Sydney White, Andover, 2) Ellie Buzzelle, Rogers
The Semis
There should be a pair of competitive semi-final games today as Andover faces Rogers and Centennial takes on the hosts from Roseville. Rogers had by far the most balanced and distributed scoring and, well, their 3-4-5 players and their bench was deeper and better than any of the other 8 teams here, but Andover is going to be a bigger challenge for them than South was able to muster. Sydney White vs. Ellie Buzzelle will be a scoring contest to see. Buzzelle is maybe a tad better from long range but White is stronger going to the rim.
Centennial will also provide Roseville with a tougher challenge than Hastings did, and Roseville only beat Hastings by 6. Can Roseville's big 3 score 41 against Guyer and company inside, or can Roseville's guards get it going a little better. One or the other will probably have to happen for the Raiders to win.
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