2010 Girls AAU State Tournament Features a Smorgasboard of Guards

It's girls AAU state tournament weekend Saturday and Sunday at the new East Ridge High School in Woodbury. 7 championship games will run back-to-back on Court 1 beginning with the 10 & unders at 8 a.m. and continuing through the feature game, the 16 & U final at 4:10.

16 & U action on Sunday also features the semi's on Courts 3 and 4 at 11:30 a.m. If all goes according to the seeding, always an iffy proposition, the semi's could feature North Tartan Coury versus Metro Stars Reiter and Minnesota Stars Borowicz versus Minnesota Fury Storm. If so, then these games will also feature a veritable smorgasboard of great ball-handling guards.

NT Coury can throw waves of 'em out there, beginning with Rachel Banham of Lakeville North, plus Marissa Janning of Watertown-Mayer, Shayne Mullaney of Eden Prairie and Bri Williams of Hopkins. The Metro Stars counter with Katybeth Biewen of Edina, Britney Scherber of Jefferson, Michelle Young of Woodbury and Jordy Falk of St. Francis. Advantage Tartan, and that's without even considering their frontcourt including Kayla Hirt of Bemidji and Mariah Clarin of Princeton. An interesting sidelight to this game would be Mullaney and EP teammate Morgan Van Riper-Rose on one side, with EP teammate Jackie Johnson on the other.

Stars Borowicz feature Kayla Becken of Centennial and Aubrey Davis of Kennedy, while the Fury can counter with Tessa Cichy of Hill-Murray and Alexis Foley of White Bear Lake. Toss-up. Inside the Stars' Apiew Ojulu of Lakeville North (plus Megan Grossfeld and Kayla Timmerman of Wayzata, and Jade Martin of Kennedy) will do battle with the Fury's Beth Doolittle of Hill-Murray and Lisa Loeffler of North St. Paul. Advantage Stars.

So then it should be perennial rivals Tartan versus Stars Borowicz at 4:10.

Meanwhile, the 15 & U final at 1:50 figures to match North Tartan Hedstrom and Minnesota Stars Taylor/Smith. Tartan can throw another wave of guards out there, including Mikayla Bailey and Rebekah Dahlman, and swing players Tesha Buck, Kali Peschel and Whitney Tinjum, plus Kadidjah Shumpert inside. The Stars feature guards Janay Morton, Allina Starr and Taylor Stewart. Saturday's semi's should also feature Minnesota Fury Cerisier and guards Mariah Adanane and Molly Simpkins, and North Tartan Blue with guards Kaylee Dorn, Whitney Olson and Ellie Zeller.

11:30 a.m. Again, if all goes according to the seeds--and apologies to those who are going to upset them on Saturday but are not mentioned here--the 14 & U final would pit Minnesota Stars Smith/Taylor with Savanna Trapp and Paige Waytashek against Minnesota Fury Peper and Natalie Van Whye.

12:40 p.m. At 13U, North Tartan Alexander with Grace Coughlin, Micaela Noga, Issy Odor and Tonia Wade is the top seed.

10:30 a.m. North Tartan Kuppe is the top seed in the 12 & U class, and T. T. Starks of Mpls. North is their ticket. If you only see one game, well, it's hard to go against the 16U final but, still, I'm not sure you shouldn't stop by earlier in the day to see what Starks can do. She is pretty clearly the top Minnesota prospect since Tayler Hill.

Enjoy.