Surprises Galore at Girls Midwest Kickoff EDIT We now have all the finals

There were plenty of surprises at the Midwest Kickoff, at least in the top 2 (Gold and Silver) divisions, and at least based on Kevin Anderson's early ratings.

Gold was won by #5-rated (#4 among Midwest Kickoff participants) Metro Stars Black. I guess it just goes to show that one ought never to under-estimate Hopkins girls--i.e. Taylor Anderson and Nia Coffey, who led Metro Stars Black with 14 and 12 points in the 35-33 championship game win over All-Iowa Attack (AIA) Jensen. MC McGrory added 4 points, Leah Szabla 3 and Emily Spier 2.

Silver was won by AIA Johnson, a 10th grade team, #4-rated (#3 among participants). Johnson upset Metro Stars 15u 49-32 in the semis and then did the same to North Tartan's #1-rated and #1-seeded 15u team 52-41. Tia Elbert led Tartan with 13 while Cayla McMorris scored 9, Maddie Lee 6, Kenisha Bell 5, Anna Monke 3, Micaela Noga 2, Alexis Alexander 2 and Ayo Porte 1.

The MN Fury 2016 Blue played Metro Stars White (Martin) for the Platinum title, with Martin prevailing 48-31.

Metro Stars also won in the Emerald Division, Metro Stars Nelson beating Minnesota 36ers Keys in the final 65-41.

In the Pearl Division, the final was MN Heat Elite 7th 35 Winona Fury 24.

Bad Day for North Tartan

Overall it was a bad weekend and a bad Sunday for Minnesota's top club. The Elite was shocked 54-53 on Saturday in the Gold Division by Wisconsin Lakers White on a half-court 3 at the final buzzer. They went on to defeat Southern MinneMagic Black but then lose also to Kingdom Hoops Elite in the 5th place game.

Also in Gold, Wisconsin Lakers White went on to take 3rd place over MN Fury Elite 55-39. Minnesota clubs won 1 and lost 4 vs. Wisconsin entries.

Minnesota went 2-2 vs. Wisconsin (including 2-0 in championship round games) in Silver, but AIA Johnson knocked off 3 Minnesota teams en route to the title. North Tartan defeated Kingdom Hoops Red 67-40 and MN Fury 2014 Blue 50-43 to get to the final. Tonoia Wade led the way vs. Fury with 9 points, McMorris and Clare Lundberg added 8, Bell 7, Alexander 5, Elbert and Porte 4, Lee 3 and Noga 2.

North Tartan split a pair of finals with Kingdom Hoops. NT 15u Silver took 3rd place in Emerald, beating Kingdom Hoops Black 70-19. Tartan's 12u took 2nd behind Kingdom Hoops 7th (grade) 53-45 in Sapphire.

Finally at 4:10 NT Herbrechtsmeyer (14u) finally won a title in the Diamond division 46-25 over MN Fury Peper. At 5:20 NT West took the Ruby title 53-29 over MN Heat Elite 8th.

So, yeah, Tartan won a pair of titles. It hardly calls for a lot of doom and gloom. But most eyes were on the top 2 divisions, Gold and Silver, and the losses there were still the big surprises of the day.