Maranatha, Becker, and STMA lead off the 2010 Summer Showcases

The Breakdown showcases kicked off in Rogers on Saturday with action all day in three divisions. 

Varsity Gold Final Round Results

5th Place: Zimmerman 36, Pine City 33
3rd Place: PACT winner over Jordan
1st Place: Becker 34, Rush City 30

Varsity Blue Division Final Round Results

5th Place: St. Francis 53, Isle 44
3rd Place: Elk River 53, Owatonna 37
1st Place: Maranatha 29, Rogers 25

Junior Varsity Division Final Round Results

5th Place: Becker 35, Zimmerman 30
3rd Place: Rogers winner over Jordan
1st Place: STMA 45, Elk RIver 40

The story of the Black Division was Maranatha Christian Academy point guard Darian Pittman’s control over the field. Pittman led MCA to three double figure victories controlling the pace from early Sunday morning, when he dished out his first two dribble attack assist, until Sunday afternoon in the championship when his trips to the free throw line iced the contest. Pittman showed a controlled but explosive dribble attack combined with complete vision of the court that allowed him to zip passes to open teammates from anywhere on the floor. Darian’s shooting stroke also netted him several perimeter jumpers and his control of the game was constant.

Pittman received much help from senior to be SaVaughan Jordan, 10th grader Isaiah Hanson, and many others from a deep bench. Despite playing in the frontcourt minus a couple inches Jordan put up double figure scoring in each contest using his quick leaping ability and aggressive scoring habits. Hanson was also a factor showing opponents shooting range and skilled footwork with his back to the bucket. In the end, GWF, Big Lake, nor Virginia had anybody to slow down the Pittman, Jordan, or the Mustangs.

Virginia pushed to the finals on the shoulders of strong guard play. Cavan Stackpool has been putting up good numbers at Virginia for a couple seasons already and Sunday he showcased a pretty three point stroke as well as some sharp handles moving the ball from Blue Devil to Blue Devil. Virginia came up short in the final but the effort was their and if they keep playing like this the results will be as well.

Big Lake took third on the broad shoulders of big man Anthony Saavedra who dropped his shoulder to make baby hooks plus blocked shots and controlled the boards. Despite missing senior point guard Mike Stephens the Hornets still took two of three building momentum for the up-coming season.

First Round

Becker 37 Warroad 30

Virginia 45 Rochester Lourdes 42

Maranatha Christian Academy 49 GWF 36

Big Lake 50 Eden Valley-Watkins 21

Semi-Finals

Virginia 58 Becker 50

Maranatha Christian Academy 48 Big Lake 38

Final

Maranatha Christian Academy 54 Virginia 44

Third Place

Big Lake 56 Becker 51

Consolation

Eden Valley-Watkins 39 GFW 33

Rochester Lourdes 56 Warroad 42

Consolation Champion

Rochester Lourdes 52 Eden Valley-Watkins 43

Seventh Place

GFW 41 Warroad 36

In a championship battle of Mississippi Eight teams Zimmerman outlasted St. Michael-Albertville 51-45 in an overtime where turnovers told the story. Zimmerman’s Caleb Lunning picked up a pair of steals and turned them into free throws for himself and then an assist to a cutting teammate. Back the other way, Joe Carpenter’s steal resulted in a Drew VanKuelen score and that was STMA’s second straight bucket on Thunder miscues giving the Knights a 45-44 lead. However, three straight turnovers forced by Zimmerman gave them seven straight points as Brandon Giese knocked down a trey and Blake Ehley scored at the rim a pair of times sealing the title game victory.

Zimmerman’s backcourt trio of Giese, Ehley, and Lunning is a scary bunch for the opposition. Lunning is a ball handler whose decision making ranks with the best and every motion is controlled, Giese can both knockdown the trey and lead his team with the ball in his hands, and Ehley played at the Showcase with aggressiveness that coaches love from the wing.

Joe Carpenter gave STMA controlled scoring from the wing through all three games. He was slashing for scores, hitting pull-ups, and knocking down tri-fectors. So many rave about Carpenter’s ability and on Sunday it was easy to see why. Joe received a ton of help from sharp-shooter Michael Wiese who was seen hitting a minimal of five perimeter jumpers in all three games usually of the three point variety. With size, range, and consistency with his shot Wiese is a definite player to watch heading into his junior year.

Also strengthening their reputations at the Summer Showcase in Rogers were Delano’s Mike Yahnke, Anoka’s Marcus Tyus, and Josh Stalberger from Detroit Lakes. With a pair of coaches coming down from the University of Mary, Yahnke gave them a grab bag of moves including an up and under score, a powerful drop-step bucket, a baby hook, and also face-up jumper. And that was all in a five minute span! The game of Marcus Tyus was as smooth as ever as the Anoka junior-to-be had the knees of defenders shaking. They couldn’t tell if they were about to be beat by a pull-up jumper, a crossover attack, or a simple ball reversal. Tyus has that quality of an offensive attack. And Stalberger is a jack of all trades in that he rebounds like a machine, his low post footwork is solid, he defends, and coaches can trust Stalberger away from the bucket too.

First Round

Elk River 54 Centennial 47

STMA 54 Detroit Lakes 27

Anoka 52 Delano 38

Zimmerman 59 Peqout Lakes 54

Semi-Finals

Zimmerman 73 Anoka 69

STMA 61 Elk River 36

Final

Zimmerman 51 STMA 45

Third Place

Anoka 47 Elk River 37

Consolation

Detroit Lakes 51 Centennial 49

Pequot Lakes 56 Delano 46

Consolation Champion

Detroit Lakes 52 Pequot Lakes 51

Seventh Place

Centennial 68 Delano 64

The story of today’s Gold Division play was T.J. Okafor. The 6-foot-5 forward did just about everything you would expect from an athletic forward and he did a lot of it. Okafor’s shot blocking was by far the most explosive the Breakdown has seen since Rodney Williams was in the gym and many of T.J.’s blocks came from the helpside.

Okafor also rebounded and defended at a high level denying post entries or wing passes from forwards like Cale Girten, Michael Schreiber, Trevor Morlock, Simon Krych, and Blake Maslonkowski. Offensively Okafor ran the floor and finished with fluidity plus he finished in the halfcourt set with a high percentage inside and out. Overall it was an eye-opening day for T.J, Okafor who may have been the best player at the Breakdown Summer Showcase on Sunday.

Champlin Park loses nine seniors so all of the Sunday participants that defeated a full team of St. Cloud Apollo Eagles played junior varsity last year for the most part. In addition to Okafor, Michael Sales and Anthony Hill also had big days on both ends of the floor.

The Rebels walked out of the Summer Showcase as two time champions earning their title t-shirts with a 50-47 win over Apollo. Maslonkowski had a three point opportunity at the buzzer but it came up short. The loss may overshadow a good day for the Eagles who did defeat an improved Mankato East team as well as Buffalo. Ibrahim Akubar weaved through the Rebel defense to supply Apollo with scoring in the final game making runners in the lane and pull-ups around the perimeter. Maslonkowski was dominant early in the championship game plus nobody on East or Buffalo could stop him from turning his shoulder and finishing. And Simon Krych’s offensive game continues to improve as he not only used more fluid footwork and sharper movements to score low but he also hit his mid-range jumper on a regular basis. Simon’s smooth stroke was also seen at the foul line where he shot a high percentage all day.

Buffalo’s Andy Ortmann continues to be one of the most gutsy shooters out there as he will take, and hit, big shots when his team needs him to or maybe even sometimes when they may not need a triple but it comes in handy anyway. Cale Girten’s defense was as tight as his mohawk plus he roamed the perimeter to knock down some shots for New Prague. And Rogers took third place utilizing the toughness of Trevor Morlock’s attack. The muscular swingman gives new meaning to the basketball term, “power wing”.

First Round

Buffalo 49 Stillwater 29

St. Cloud Apollo 54 Mankato East 45

Champlin Park 35 New Prague 33 OT

Rogers over Osseo in Forfeit

Semi-Finals

St. Cloud Apollo 54 Buffalo 43

Champlin Park 53 Rogers 42

Final

Champlin Park 50 St. Cloud Apollo 47

Third Place

Rogers 42 Buffalo 37

Consolation

Mankato East 65 Stillwater 52

New Prague 46 Osseo 43

Consolation Champion

New Prague 49 Mankato East 46

Seventh Place

Osseo 61 Stillwater 39

Braham and Coon Rapids played an exciting championship game from opening tip to the final buzzer. Coon Rapids is a much improved program playing a lot of athletic and excited youth. The Cards used that youthful exuberance to play quality team defense defeating Austin and Hutchinson in the first two rounds. Coon Rapids gave up a combined 75 points in those first two games while guard Edvonte Hibbler introduced himself to the state of Minnesota showcasing his scoring repertoire. The most impressive thing about Hibbler is that he will only be a sophomore next fall. Hibbler also had help from long armed post Omot Okwan who played with good energy on both ends.

The Cards were looking good defensively until they met a young fellow named Tyler Vaughan. Most know Tyler as the young gunslinger whose three point makes put the “Bomb” in “Bombers. As the championship game hit it’s most crucial points Vaughan started dropping three after three. In fact there was a stretch where Tyler hit three triples, teammate Ben Thiry hit a pair, and then Tyler hit another. Down the stretch Vaughan went to his mid-lane floater for a couple makes in transition and then there were the clutch free throws. Coon Rapids made the mistake of being up a point with 30 seconds to go and fouling Vaughan. Tyler made them pay by hitting two free throws and down the stretch he would make several more for a 62 to 59 tournament championship.

Austin took third in today’s event defeating Melrose in the 3rd place game plus they defeated Monticello and lost a close one to Coon Rapids. The Packers are a team to watch in the future as they have some talented young underclassmen ready to step into roles this winter.

First Round

Braham 83 Sauk Rapids-Rice 52

Melrose over Jordan in Forfeit

Austin 48 Monticello 37

Coon Rapids 54 Hutchinson 36

Semi-Finals

Braham 67 Melrose 47

Coon Rapids 43 Austin 39

Final

Braham 62 Coon Rapids 59

Third Place

Austin 50 Melrose 37

Consolation Round Robin

Hutchinson defeated Monticello and Sauk Rapids-Rice

New Prague 50 Holy Family 15

Rogers 38 St. Cloud Apollo 35

Centennial 47 Delano 45 OT

Semi-Finals

Virginia 50 Centennial 45

Rogers 59 New Prague 41

Final

Rogers 57 Virginia 35

Third Place

New Prague 49 Centennial 32

Coach Bob Vaughan from Braham on having some size next year:

“We know we are going to be a little taller, we have five guys coming back from our state tournament team, and our junior varsity team last year only lost one game. So we think we should be, I don’t know, better than .500? We are going to be taller and I think that’s one of the major things. Last year we were just going by our guards and this year we may be able to get it inside a little but more.”

Coach Jeff Wall from Maranatha Christian Academy on his team’s summer plans:

“Basically we are working on a lot of ball handling and shooting skills during the summer, that’s a big part of out workout. We are hoping to improve in those areas across the board with our players. We are fortunate at Maranatha, a lot of our kids are committed and they like to come in and work hard during the summer. The other thing would be defense, in the summer, that’s a great time to spend time getting better defensively particularly in these tournament games. We are involved in about four or five weekend tournaments including the Breakdown tournaments. We also have skill development drills that we do during the week Monday through Thursday

Coach Rich Odell, head coach of Virginia, on why he plays in the Breakdown Summer Showcase event:

“We have opportunities to play in summer leagues up north but we really like to play some different teams. The quality of competition here is so good for us, to be challenged like this. I like to get away from playing up north. We come down here as a group, some of the kids stayed over night so they spend time together. The event is extremely beneficial to us because we are challenged and we don’t care if we get beat or not, that’s not the point. We are challenged and we find things that we need to work on. The event is well run, it’s well officiated, I just think it’s a great situation.

St. Cloud Apollo coach Dean Kesler on playing in the Summer Showcase:

“We play here because of the competition, that’s why. Seriously, it’s the competition. The competition is very, very good because Justin Hegna does a very good job of getting the best teams in Minnesota here. We usually leave here playing people we don’t usually play against and we know that we have played three great teams.”

Champlin Park coach Mark Tuchscherer on Champlin Park in 2010-11:

“The outlook is pretty good. We have a solid junior varsity team coming back as last year we had nine seniors graduating. Our junior varsity went 20-3 last year so there is a lot to look forward to there. It’s a big jump between JV and varsity but we have a very athletic, quick team that can play some good defense and we hope to turn that into offense.”

Anoka point guard Marcus Tyus on his team:

“I think next year is going to go pretty good. We have a couple guys missing from our team playing in the summer events but I think we will be pretty good. Spencer Grow returns at 6-foot-5 and he’s a pretty good wing man. Eric Brubough also returns and we have a pretty good sophomore in Brandon Lindquist.”

STMA shooting guard Joe Carpenter on next season:

“Next season is actually looking pretty good. For starters coming back we have myself, Jared Moran, Dain Krutzig, plus Mike Mooney and we will have some guys coming off the bench that will contribute to the team. We are looking pretty good this coming year although we are still the shortest team out there but we can be the fastest and the most physical, it all depends on how we play as a team.”

St. Cloud Apollo big man Blake Maslonkowski on next year’s goals:

“We have to go out, continue to play as a team and get ready to make a state tournament run if we could make it. We have to get ready for the section final game by playing as a team, getting better as a team throughout the season. As a group we have to work hard together and play as a team down the stretch.”

Rogers power wing Trevor Morlock on Rogers in 2010-11:

“We have some experience coming back with three returning starters and hopefully things will go well and we can have a good season. Coming back we have myself, Rory Donavon, R.J. Dean, and Michael Schreiber, guys that played mostly varsity last year. Trevor Berkley also. We just have to work next year on defense, defense is where we can win games.”