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by Ryan James
The BREAKDOWN
(updated 6/23/2008)
Photo by Michael J. Much
http://minnesotapreps.rivals.com/
 This weekend’s Breakdown Summer Showcase in Rogers was highlighted by the play of Rodney Williams and the Cooper Hawks. There were four varsity tournaments going on at the event and two of them were won by Cooper teams. The highlights of Rodney Williams brought huge crowds and all of his games, as well as others, can watched via webcast starting Tuesday on the http://www.myfoxwebcasts.com/ website.
Cooper defeated Elk River in the first round in an absolute rout. The ball pressure of the Hawks set the tone for the game as the very quick Cooper guards forced several Elks turnovers. Of course the 28 points, nine boards, four blocks, and four assists from Rodney Williams didn’t hurt much either as he had a quick drop step dunk at the outset that seamed to quickly intimidate Elk River. That and the quick feet, as well as fast hands of the pressuring Cooper guards just had the Elks rattled.
Cooper is looking every bit of a top five team next year. Freddie Burton and Kenquane Brown look very much improved after playing this spring with 94 Feet of Game as Brown is attacking more off the bounce plus he’s a solid defender. And Burton is handling better, he’s shown to be effective from beyond the arc, and his pressure defense is extremely solid. Add that to the spot on shooting of Quincey Bethea, the post work of Joe Bright, and of course the five star game of Rodney Williams and what you have is a dangerous team.
Chaska picked up a nice win over Owatonna. The Huskies were without Kyle Melcher but they had the rest of the team but still fell to Chaska who last year won only four contests. But don’t expect that to happen again as this program has really dedicated to getting better this off-season.
Tyler Goetz is a very nice athlete playing on the wing and he could be a top scorer in the metro next year. Derek Jerde is another nice scorer, Andrew Martinson can be a deadly shooter, and inside Bronson Bryne is getting better with every game. Bryne’s feel inside looks to be improving as is the footwork at 6-foot-9 and his touch is not bad at all. These guys should be able to lead the Hawks to at least double figure wins next year.
STMA defeated Osseo
St. Cloud Tech defeated Rogers
Cooper had a tight game going with STMA and then the Knights challenged Rodney to shoot from deep. What happened was a pull-up 16-footer and a pair of three-pointers from Williams and a tie game moved into a 14-point lead for the Hawks. Also helping build that lead was the four first half three-pointers from Bethea and the constant pushing of the ball from Burton.
The second half became a route and a Cooper highlight session. Rodney had two mouth dropping put-back jams and Brown also showed his vertical with a pair of dunks. At this point the eastern half of the gymnasium was packed with onlookers as everybody wanted to get a view of Williams. In the loss Kevin Nelson of STMA hit three three-pointers and played a real tough game. He’s a skilled 6-foot-0 point with a nice touch.
St. Cloud Tech defeated Chaska by 13 points.
Quincy Bethea is moving into another category in terms of level of player. Last year he was a nice third option style contributing scorer but this off-season he has improved to one of the better shooting guards in the state as he has several tools. Next year he may join Rodney as daily 20-point scorers for Cooper. Bethea’s jumper was already good but this weekend it was deadly and his handles creating shots for himself look excellent.
At one point in the second half of the championship game against Tech, Bethea hit three straight shots including a three and then a four point play. He created space with some lightning quick moves and in the first half Bethea showed the ability to put the ball on the deck and score at the rim.
The Cooper running game gave them a double figure lead at the half as Tech was turning balls over due to the Hawk pressure. The other problem Tech had was struggling to finish inside because of the Cooper length and quick leaping ability. A few early blocks and you could see the Tech players were thinking twice about shooting in the paint.
Late in the game Tech made a run as Nate Wolters and Alex Hanks each had drives to the cup with the Tiger offense working more in a spread. These buckets put Tech within five but a turn over and then a Bethea to Rodney Williams alley-opp sealed the victory and the Tigers could not get any closer.
This was another very good basketball game between a pair of teams who will be top five coming into the 2008-09 season. The tournament champion Cooper Hawks will be much improved throughout their line-up and that has been well discussed. But Tech is also going to be very good as Nate Wolters has proved this spring and summer to be a top 12 kid in the state of Minnesota. He did a fine job of defending Rodney Williams physically plus he showcased his versatile offensive abilities all weekend long. He should lead Tech to another fine record this winter and along with Hanks they will be part of a very formidable duo.
St. Cloud Apollo should be good again led by Andre Garth on the outside and Tim Bergstraser inside. The Eagles dominated Fairmont by around 40 points as they just had to many long athletes for the Cards. Garth is a fantastic player in the open floor while Bergstraser is real space eater.
Monticello is going to be good again as they have three pieces to really build upon for the upcoming season in Tom Sawatzke, Josh Hibbison, and Matt Bigelow. All three of these players have been integral parts of the past two Magic teams and should have their goals set high for 08-09. The Magic beat Hutchinson in round one.
Anoka beat Buffalo
Pequot Lakes defeated St. Francis
Pequot Lakes is strong again this year as they handled St. Francis and Anoka in the first two games of the event. They moved on to play Monticello in the finals as the Magic beat Apollo in the semis by 12 points. Apollo struggled to finish some shots around the cup and with Sawatzke and Hibbison knocking down shots the Eagles could not recover.
The Magic defeated an up and coming Pequot Lakes group with an impressive effort on the defensive end. Matt Bigelow was a beast on the glass and with him limiting Pequot to only one look the Magic controlled the basketball game. With Bigelow, Sawatzke, and Hibbison the Magic have plenty of fire power but it was their team defense that made the biggest difference. When a Pequot player could penetrate the help of the Magic was right there to slow things down and force turnovers or tough shot attempts.
The Braham Bombers were short some size in their game with Albany and it hurt in the end. Braham has some nice players but they fell against the Huskies who were led by junior Zach Noreen. At about 6-foot-4 and looking like a mini Jeff Hagen, Noreen brought the ball up the floor for his team plus he has one of the better shots in his grade. Zach knocked down several long range looks plus the physical Albany players made a big difference in this game with Braham.
Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted defeated Becker
Cooper JV defeated Rockford
Eden Valley Watkins defeated the Pirates (Champlin Park-Park Center combo of JV players)
Albany defeated Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted as Zach Noreen turned a close game into a double figure lead with some important plays. Noreen first beat a defender off the bounce and finished with a finger roll in traffic followed by a strong defensive board on the other end. At this point there was some jaw-jacking going on and when Noreen drained a three the next time down he had all the ammunition to verbalize proudly with he opponents. The other semi-final was won by the Cooper JV who defeated Eden Valley-Watkins.
Proving that the program should be in for some good years in the future, the Cooper JV group won the Silver Bracket with an impressive 11 point victory over Albany. Terry Glass had a very impressive championship game and Glass will a junior reserve for the Hawks next season.
In a very good first round match-up the St. Cloud Apollo JV team beat Red Lake in a tough contest. Ryan Tesch of Apollo is a 6-foot-6 big who will be a sophomore and the next in line at Apollo to man the post. Tesch could not be stopped inside and it made all the difference. Dean Kessler has always had size starting with Jon Williams. When Big Jon left for the U it was Seth Noreen who stepped into the middle for four strong years. Then it was Kendall Smith the past couple seasons and now Tim Bergstraser has his turn this year. Tesch will play next to Tim and then as an upperclassmen look for Tesch to have a couple strong years.
Red Lake earned a lot of respect with this performance even though they lost by three points. Tim Lajeunesse led the team with his smooth drives and crafty finishes. Lajeunesse hit four three-pointers and was able to penetrate on any Apollo defender. Led by Laujeunesse and Rob Pemberton, Red Lake played an outstanding full court game but the Apollo half-court defense slowed them down enough to win when the buzzer sounded.
Mesabi East defeated Spectrum
Cannon Falls fell to Maranatha
Rush City beat Paynesville
Cannon Falls beat Mesabi East
Apollo JV defeated Rush City
Cannon Falls went home with an undefeated record as they pulled away from the young Apollo kids in the second half. |
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Looking ahead to 2008-09: Top juniors
Section Selection begins with favorites in AAAA
