Blue Surprises in Girls All-Star Series

I said it would come down to guards and I said the best guards were:

1. Maroon--Mullaney, Biewen, Retterath
2. Green--Bailey, Adanane, Scherber, Cichy
3. Gold--Janning, W. Olson, Mehus
4. Blue--Foley, Thorn, Zeller

Well, wouldn't you know. Blue knocked off Green by 5 on Friday night, then edged Maroon 79-77 on Saturday to "win" the MGBCA all-star series.

I don't have any stats for Friday but on Saturday Alexis Foley scored 16 points for the Blue, Ellie Zeller and Whitney Tinjum added 14, Courtney Hulstein (also a guard) 12 and Christine Thorn 11. Tinjum, Zeller and Kionda Nicks pounded the boards and also excelled on defense, while it was Zeller, Foley, Nicks and Thorn who most moved the ball. Deb Williams of St. Paul Highland coached the Blue.

The other finalist was Maroon, coached by Brian Cosgriff of Hopkins. They defeated Gold on Friday as Marissa Grossfeld scored 15, AnneMarie Healy 13, Heather Strese 12, Kadidjah Shumpert 11 and Shayne Mullaney 11. Katybeth Biewen scored just 4 points but led Maroon with 10 boards.

On Saturday Mullaney scored 28 but only Strese joined her in double figures with 10. Otherwise Blue did a terrific job of inside defense, holding Grossfeld, Healy and Shumpert to 8, 8 and 5 points. Mullaney and Shumpert each had 8 boards.

Gold beat Green 73-63 for 3rd place. Marissa Janning may have led all scorers with 40 points in 2 games. The only other 20 point games I'm aware of are Mullaney's 28, Jackie Johnson with 22, Janning with 24 for Gold on Saturday, and Mikayla Bailey with 20, also on Saturday. Johnson probably led everybody off the boards with 14 and 8 rebounds for a total of 22. She also led all players in Kevin Anderson's stats defensive stops (24, 5 more than Grossfeld) and distributions (18, 1 more than Janning).

Perhaps the top 5 players would be:

C- Jackie Johnson, Eden Prairie and Gold
F- Marissa Grossfeld, Wayzata and Maroon
F- Whitney Tinjum, Chisago Lakes and Blue
G- Marissa Janning, Watertown-Mayer and Gold
G- Shayne Mullaney, Eden Prairie and Maroon

Second 5

C- Kadidjah Shumpert, Benilde-SM and Maroon
F- Kionda Nicks, St.Paul Highland Park and Blue
F- Heather Strese, Brandon-Evansville and Maroon
G- Alexis Foley, White Bear Lake and Blue
G- Ellie Zeller, St. Anthony and Blue

Third 5

C- Mariah Monke, Fergus Falls and Green
F- AnneMarie Healy, Providence and Maroon
G- Richell Mehus, Spring Grove and Gold
G- Mikayla Bailey, Osseo and Green
G- Christine Thorn, St. Michael-Albertville and Blue