Round 1
Mountain Iron-Buhl 45 Hibbing 40
Barnum 42 Cloquet 27
Grand Rapids 41 Sebeka 32
Crosby-Ironton 40 Esko 33

Round 2
Barnum 44 Mountain Iron-Buhl 35
Crosby-Ironton 49 Grand Rapids 41

Championship: Barnum 64 Crosby-Ironton 31
3rd Place: Grand Rapids 38 Mountain Iron-Buhl 34

Consolation
Hibbing 39 Cloquet 25
Sebeka 51 Esko 49

Consolation Championship: Sebeka 44 Hibbing 40
Consolation 3rd Place: Cloquet 50 Esko 40

Round 1
Cook 47 Hill City 14
Aitkin 25 International Falls 24
Ada-Borup 41 Roseau 22
Cook County 44 Lake of the Woods 24

Round 2
Cook 34 Aitkin 26
Cook County 33 Ada-Borup 27

Championship: Cook County 49 Cook 42
3rd Place: Ada-Borup 26 Aitkin 20

Consolation
International Falls 45 Hill City 16
Roseau 52 Lake of the Woods 46

Consolation Championship: Roseau 37 International Falls 34
Consolation 3rd Place: Lake of the Woods 41 Hill City 16

Round 1
Aitkin 19 Grand Rapids 13
Crosby-Ironton 25 Hibbing 18

Round 2
Grand Rapids 34 Hibbing 17
Aitkin 32 Crosby-Ironton 31

Round 3
Crosby-Ironton 40 Grand Rapids 21
Hibbing 32 Aitkin 29

First Place - Aitkin
Second Place - Crosby-Ironton
Third Place - Grand Rapids
Fourth Place - Hibbing

Barnum coach Randy Myhre on the upcoming season:

"The kids are always the same at Barnum you know, we want to win them all (games). We want to win it all and play on the last day that one can possibly play and that means getting deep in the state tournament. We lost a lot of talent, a lot of great players but our expectations are still the same for the kids coming back. We have a good nucleus of kids coming back off the state tournament team. We have Jessica Newman who is a full scholarship basketball player, Claire Rogers who is going to surprise a lot of people this year because she's an outstanding point guard. As a point guard she can score it, she can shoot it. Katie Myhre is great behind the arc and is getting pretty good off the dribble this summer. Caitlin Rogers is a player that didn't get a lot of varsity time last year but had to match up against our varsity kids in practices. Karianna Duesler is a lights out defender. We have a couple freshman who we think we can get a lot out of by the end of the season and we also have a student who moved into our school district this year from Wisconsin, a great point guard named Claudia Turner. So the cupboard is not empty even though we graduated three all state all stars in Katrina Newman, Sarah Myhre, and Leah Nordvall. We graduated a ton of talent but the cupboard is not empty."

Barnum coach Randy Myhre on the Breakdown Summer Showcases:

"The greatest thing about playing in the summer time is that it exposes any weaknesses you have. In tournaments like this you play against teams that want to get better, they are good, and they have good players and that helps. But when you come in here and compete like we are here today playing in the championship game, we've obviously done some things well. It gives kids confidence to come into new situations and play new positions so they can take care of business."

Cook County senior Brea Boomer on summer off-season basketball:

"We are playing a lot in the gym and we go to a lot of tournaments. We play as a team. Personally my focus this year is finishing my shots, not fouling, and playing better defense."

Cook County senior Ailee Larson on her senior season expectations:

"We have a lot of young players so we expect them to be able to step up this year and help us (returning starters) out rather than have us take it all on ourselves. Basically we need to work together, communicate, come together, and have a great season!"

Crosby-Ironton coach Randy Swanhorst on 2010-11:

"The outlook for next year is good. We lost four seniors and we have a new point guard. I really like our point guard, she didn't get a lot of time last year with the two seniors splitting time. Our post players had good experiences last year so we have high expectations for them. I think we will be pretty good, I think we will be real good. The issue is, and it's a good issue, and that's the conference which is a real tough conference and an even tougher section. We are here working hard in the summer and hope we will be ready for the season."

Crosby-Ironton coach Randy Swanhorst on the Breakdown Summer Showcase:

"Playing here is critical. I think it helps the fundamentals and ultimately the kids have to do stuff on their own. They have to become better players on their own. All of the things we do aren't going to provide it all. They have to have that love for the game to put in the extra effort. These are the kinds of things, and again these tournaments are well run and that's why we come up to it, but these are the kind of things where your team is on display and you see what you need to work on. The mistakes you make you can see and correct from these kind of events. I just think the summer is very valuable but it's getting to be tough on kids and coaches though because of the demand. It's really improved the basketball in Minnesota there is no doubt about that."

Sebeka coach Mike Heino on playing in the Summer Showcase:

"It just gives us good experience. I have two starters coming back and it gives us time to gell, time for the younger players to come up. We've got two players that haven't played much varsity that are playing for us right now. It just gives us good experience as a team."

Mt. Iron-Buhl standout Charlotte Overbye on her summer of hoops:

"Our off-season has gone very good. We play in a summer league and we've gone to a few tournaments over the summer months. We do weightroom every single morning and we do a P90S workout as a team. We don't really lift weights, it's more of a work out where you use your own body weight and it's keeping our bodies in shape. We are going to keep playing after this weekend as we have a few tournaments left. Then in the fall we go to our fall sport. I played AAU in the spring with High Impact and we placed third overall. We missed going to nationals but the 8th graders on our team placed second in nationals."

Mesabi Range coach Dan Zbosnik on how the Breakdown Summer Showcase benefits his program:

"It's a central location for us. I'm getting a chance to see kids from out of our area. Ada-Borup for example, Cook County, and just knowing the caliber of players on the teams that are here, like Barnum with coach Myhre, it's a great one day shot where I can see a lot of great talent, a lot of good basketball fairly close to home."

Various coach opinions on LeBron James' "Decision":

"I like loyalty. I thought he should have stayed in Cleveland. Now I'm an anti-Heat fan." - Mike Heino

"I think it's amazing that Miami was able to get under the cap to bring all of those guys to their city. I know it's difficult for the city of Cleveland to lose a franchise player like that. LeBron has to look out for himself and obviously he felt he didn't have as good of a chance to win a championship at Cleveland so he's going to play with his buddies and it looks like a greater opprotunity. And I think Pat Riley had something to do with this." - Dan Zbosnik

"I think LeBron saw what happened with the Boston Celtics a couple of years ago when they got three guys in there and they went on to win a championship. Kevin Garnett had not had that championship until then. I think LeBron thought this was his only shot and he had to do what the Celtics did. He feels the three of them can build championships. I know LeBron said that he wants a lot more players, and they will find some more talented players. Boston found players to go with them. I think it's all about LeBron." - Jim Schwartzbauer

Pool A
Deer River 40 Aitkin 38
Roseau 51 Aitkin 47
Deer River 30 Roseau 29

Pool B
Mesabi East 41 Hill City 28
Bigfork 35 Mesabi East 34
Hill City 37 Bigfork 30

First Place: Mesabi East 70 Deer River 57
Third Place: Bigfork 50 Roseau 33
Fifth Place: Hill City 45 Aitkin 42

The Red Bracket opened up with tight contests on both ends of Grand Rapids Middle School. Bigfork survived a last second shot attempt from Brian Radtke (whose twin brothers Steve and Joe will be freshman on the team this year) escaping with a one-point win. Meanwhile, playing on a parallel court, Roseau took out Aitkin hitting free throws down the stretch for a four point victory. It was Aitkin's second loss of the event and those two losses were by a combined six points.

With so much parity in the division the Red Bracket final standings came down to the final minute of each game. First in pool A, Deer River won its second contest when Roseau's Bailey Sampson, a 9th grader, missed two game-winning attempts at the buzzer. Sampson has the type of determination and ability that will put him on the winning end of these situations in the future, but Sunday's misses meant Deer River came away with a second win and the right to play in the event championship. The Warriors had to grab a couple young Grand Rapids locals as well as a visitor from DeLaSalle (Wheeler Baker, who will be a talented freshman next year) to fill out their bench and they only won the pair of games by a combined three points but in the end they fought their way to the championship.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the curtain, Hill City needed a win to force a three way tie in Pool B. Junior guard Austin Lamke's shooting hand was scorching for the Hornets as he opened the gap between his team and Bigfork. With Bigfork hacking to save time, Lamke put the opponents away draining several free throws in the final minute. Hill City's win meant that everybody in pool B had a 1-1 record so the first tie-breaker of head-to-head wasn't a possibility. The second tie-breaker was points allowed and since Mesabi East held Bigfork to 35 points and Hill City to 28, the combo of 63 points was the lowest tota and placed the team against Deer River in the Red Bracket title game.

To continue the drama, both Hill City and Bigfork had allowed 71 points in the event so the third tie-breaker, a coin flip, was used to place Hill City in the fifth place game and Bigfork in the third place contest.

The low post game of Dan Settimi gave Mesabi East the advantage in the championship as the Deer River squad didn't have enough size to stop him or Garrett Larson around the block. The pair helped give Mesabi East a double digit lead until Settimi went down with a scary leg injury and didn't return. With the Giants stunned without their biggest player, Wheeler Baker went on the attack for Deer River. Baker used his smooth skill and length to attack the bucket at will plus Eastan Marleau drained a couple perimeter jumpers and the lead was cut to three points with three minutes remaining. However, the experienced offensive attack of the Giants weaved through the Deer River press to put the game away. In the final minutes, Mesabi East received at least one score from every player on the floor allowing them to walk away with a 70-57 championship victory.

"We mixed up our defense a lot and guys responded pretty well. We played some defenses that are different from what we did during the regular season as we have a totally different team. We had some 9th graders playing with us today and they came out and just hustled. Next year, we are re-building. We will be a pretty different team than what we had last year, we were pretty big last year. This year we will be quicker, we are going to press more, and we'll be able to get up and down the floor a lot faster." - Mesabi East coach Jeremy Fleming.

Pool A
Hibbing 41 Grand Rapids 36
Hibbing 53 Barnesville/Fargo North 46
Grand Rapids 53 Barnseville/Fargo North 39

Pool B
Sebeka 38 Barnum 37
Barnum 37 Chisholm 35 OT
Sebeka 59 Chisholm 55

First Place: Sebeka 55 Hibbing 52
Third Place: Barnum 38 Grand Rapids 31
Fifth Place: Chisholm 67 Barnesville/Fargo North 64

Led by hard-nosed seniors Ezra Coughlin and Logan Coleman, Hibbing picked up a confidence building win over Grand Rapids by five points. The game was close throughout but the veterans of Hibbing were able to control a Thunderhawk squad that was minus Austin Pohlen (one of only two returning players from last year's second place in state rotation). Coach Joel McDonald's Bluejackets are short in size but they showed a lot of heart playing consistent team defense and out-rebounding a bigger Grand Rapids team.

The second game saw Hibbing again outwork a bigger Barnesville/Fargo North squad with a 53-46 victory. Six-foot-six Fargo North senior John Mullen made his mark with some tip-ins and a couple jumpers but 6-foot-1 Hibbing center Logan Coleman still controlled the middle. Coleman attacked every board with two aggressive hands, he kept bigger opponents from moving deep into the lane, and he hit free throws down the stretch to keep Hibbing on top.

Sebeka defeated Barnum in what you could term, "a barn burner". With 4.5 seconds left the Barnum defense forced a turnover and called a time-out. The Bombers then cleared the floor for long 6-foot-3 junior wing Jacob Naslund to attack and get off a 15-foot running jumper. With the shot on target, the entire group of purple and gold Sebeka fans breathed a sigh of relief as it spun to the back of the rim and just missed. Sebeka escaped with a 38-37 win, led by the ball control of senior Ryan Sharp and the glass work of John Clark.

Barnum was involved with a second close contest against Chisholm. Fighting into overtime, the Bombers grabbed a quick two point lead and then defended perfectly the rest of the way to take game two. To finish pool play out, Sebeka took Chisholm's best shot and still outscored the Bluestreaks 59-55.

After defeating Barnum by a point and Chisholm by four, Sebeka had to battle for the full 40 to beat Hibbing. Both squads were as scrappy as they come and it's embodied by their leaders. John Clark of Sebeka and Logan Coleman of Hibbing are posts of the undersized variety. Both of them are as tough and skilled as most out there they just don't have the height of a player like a Kevin Noreen or a Cole Aldrich. What is for sure is that both have as much heart and seeing the two of them do battle was a competitor's dream.

In the final minutes Sebeka inched ahead on a pair of Clark free throws. Coleman forced him baseline into a tough shot but Clark's length was able to get over Coleman just enough that Logan had to foul Clark and the free pair gave Sebeka the lead. From there Clark grabbed numerous defensive boards, diving on the floor three times, and made two more sets of free throws. Coleman scored on a three-point play, sat down in a stance harassing whomever on the perimeter, rebounded, and simply gave his team the energy to play through the final buzzer. Down three, Hibbing had a three-pointer hit wide left, giving Sebeka the Sunday championship.  Coach Jon Lillquist certainly knew his team had went through some battles. Even more satisfying was that the Trojans battled against good teams and won three in a row.

"Evey game was a battle so it was a great tournament for us. It was good experience to see such good competition. I think one of the biggest things was that our experience helped out a lot each game. From playing at state and all those things, it makes a big difference. You get all those extra games in and I think that was probably the biggest factor for us, we have some veterans back and they made some big plays.

"We really think we have a good shot if things fall into place we could be back at state and have a chance to win it. We need some things to go our way obviously as everybody does, but we have three starters back and I think we will actually be a lot deeper this year. We should have a stronger bench and a little bit more of a high scoring bench so our sites are set pretty high." - Jon Lillquist.
 

Round 1
Virginia 47 Aitkin 23
Grand Rapids 27 Barnum 21

Round 2
Aitkin 31 Barnum 22
Virginia 43 Grand Rapids 35

Round 3
Aitkin 38 Grand Rapids 37
Virginia 43 Barnum 21

First Place: Virginia
Second Place: Aitkin
Third Place: Grand Rapids
Fourth place: Barnum