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By Chris Monter
FOXSportsNorth.com
January 15, 2011
The inaugural Midwest Players Classic held Saturday at the La Crosse Center featured seven teams ranked in the top ten in the Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa boy's basketball state rankings.
The talented players and teams in attendance should make this event a must-see in the future.
The following is a recap of the six games.
La Crosse Logan 79, Richfield 56
La Crosse Logan's "Big Three" combined for 60 points as the Rangers rolled to a 79-56 win over Richfield in the first game of the Midwest Players Classic at the La Crosse Center Saturday.
Trevor Jorgenson, a 6-foot-7 senior, led all players with 25 points. Jorgenson, who is Logan's career leader in points, rebounds and blocked shots, scored 19 in the first half. Vince Kube, a 6-foot-2 junior, made four 3-pointers as he scored 19 points and Ryan Koel sank three shots from beyond the arc in a 16-point effort.
Richfield was led by 6-foot-3 sophomore DeShawn Jones with 13 points. The Spartans' leading scorer, 6-foot-1 junior Jared Noonan, who was averaging 18.2 points per game, was held to just nine points.
Logan improved to 9-3 with the victory, while Richfield fell to 8-3 with the loss.
Eastview 50, DeForest 48
Eastview, ranked sixth in the state in Class AAAA, defeated DeForest 50-48 on an inside layup by sophomore Ben Oberfeld with 38 seconds left.
The Lightning led 31-18 early in the third quarter and 39-28 in the final period, but junior forward Joey King picked up three fouls in a one-minute stretch and Eastview was forced to sit their standout.
DeForest took the lead 45-44 when King fouled out with 3:26 left in the game. Eastview head coach Mark Gerber was hit with a technical 15 seconds later and the Norskies went up 48-45.
However, DeForest would not score again, leading to Oberfeld's heroics.
King led the Lightning with 16 points as he made four 3-pointers. Oberfeld had 15 and Chris Narum added eight points.
Deforest was led by Kyle Renz with 12 points. Jordan Blied added 11 and Ben Coorough had nine points.
Eastview improved to 8-2 with the victory, while DeForest slipped to 7-6, having lost four of their last five games.
La Crosse Aquinas 62, Minneapolis South 55
La Crosse Aquinas, which is ranked second in the state in Division 3 by The Associated Press, held off a scrappy Minneapolis South team for a 62-55 victory. The Blugolds led 44-37 going into the final period, but Peter Goldstein's follow-up basket put the Tigers up 45-44 with 4:55, for their first and only lead of the game.
However, six-foot-2 sophomore guard Bronson Koenig, who is considered the top player in the state for the Class of 2013, hit a jumper just inside the three-point line to start a 12-2 run.
Koenig paced the Blugolds with 19 points. Fellow sophomore Michael Conway had 18 points and Quinn McCartney added ten.
Minneapolis South was led Carnell Sheppard with 23 points, 11 in the final period. Fellow junior Thomas Ford chipped in with 17 points.
Milwaukee King 67. St. Paul Johnson 52
Milwaukee King, ranked No. 1 in this week's Associated Press rankings, bounced back from their first loss of the season Friday to unbeaten Milwaukee Riverside to defeat defending Class AAA St. Paul Johnson 67-52.
The Generals led Johnson 25-23 at halftime, but went on a 17-4 third quarter run to open up a 42-27 lead. King converted 17 of 22 free throws in the fourth period to seal the win. Austin Malone-Mitchell made 11 of 12 from the charity stripe in the final quarter.
Arroyo Edwards lead the Generals with 18 points and Malone-Mitchell added 17. Six-foot-7 junior Cinmeon Bowers, who has offers from Maryland, DePaul and Iowa, was ruled ineligible and scored 12 points in his debut.
St. Paul Johnson, who fell to 9-2 start, was led by junior guard Marcus Marshall with 18 points. UMKC signee Estan Tyler had 11 and Roosevelt Scott and Anthony Lee added ten points each.
Linn-Mar 74, Madison Memorial 64
Linn Mar, who is ranked No. 1 in Iowa, has showed that it can handle some of the best competition from Minnesota and Wisconsin the past two Saturdays as they defeated Madison Memorial 74-64. The Lions, who improved to 11-0, beat Apple Valley last Saturday in the Timberwolves Shootout.
Linn Mar jumped out to a 24-12 first period lead and maintained that margin through halftime and the end of the third period. The Spartans cut the lead to 68-64 with a minute left. However, the Lions made six straight free throws, including four from Matt Bohannon to seal the win.
The Lions were led by junior point guard Marcus Paige, who committed to North Carolina last weekend and Josh Montague, who scored 21 points each. Northern Iowa signee Bohannon added 16 points and Shane Benton, who is headed to North Dakota added 12.
Madison Memorial was led by Tre' Burnette with 17 points. Six-5 junior Junior Lomomba and sophomore point guard Brendan Ortiz added 13 points each. The Spartans fell to 9-3 with the loss.
Onalaska 68, Milwaukee Bay View 47
Onalaska jumped out to a 19-7 first quarter lead as they rolled to a 68-47 win over Milwaukee Bay View. The Hilltoppers, who are ranked first in Division 2, improved to 12-0 with the victory.
Omalaska, who led 54-24 after three periods, was without standout junior big man Nick Arenz, who suffered a torn ACL earlier this week. Tony Thomas, a 6-foot-6 senior and sophomore guard Matt Thomas picked up the scoring slack as they scored 17 points each. Nick Klos added 11 points.
Bay View, who fell to 1-10, was led by 16 points from Juvonta Leach.
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