Summer Showcase: Stewartville in midseason form
by Ryan James The BREAKDOWN(updated 6/15/2008)
The Breakdown Summer Showcase in Rochester gave a traditional meaning to summer basketball in southern Minnesota. Players took the court with your traditional “farmer tan” and grass stained basketball shoes. Some of their games may have been a little rusty at first but the officiating bashing was totally up to par. “Did you get these refs at K-Mart?” was the most creative statement asked.
Stewartville pulls the upset
The top first round game was Stewartville’s 58-52 upset over Tartan. It was not a monumental upset as the Tigers from Stewartville are a potential top ten team in class AA next season. But Tartan is Tartan, and the Tigers won led by Tom Gisler’s 23 points and solid rebounding throughout the contest.
Stewartville actually had a 14-point lead during the game but the Tartan defense brought them within a point. When the Titans made their run Marc Sonnen was at his best hitting a pair of threes, going inside for two baskets in traffic, and then creating three-point shots for teammates Charlie Buchmaier, Tim Lubke, and Chase Madsen.
However, the Tigers fantastic team play and great offensive chemistry led them to the victory as Sonnen fouled out with two minutes to play. Late in the game Gisler cut hard for buckets, Matt Smith made some athletic hustle plays, and the top notch passing of guard Derek Robey created easy baskets for every Tiger on the floor.
The other first round games were not as close starting with Bethlehem Academy’s 54-42 win over a bigger Lake City team. The TNL Express 16s group handled Austin 64-31 with there up and down style while Plainview-Elgin-Millville demolished Lewiston-Altura 61-22.
TNL 16s defeat PEM 
A sleeping giant may have been awoken at Champlin Park as this large school has a real nice group of 2010 kids. A group of four (Jasper Duberry, D’Andre Williamson, Scott Theisen, and Kyle Zimmerman) are having a real nice summer for the TNL team plus the rest of the grade is playing with the Minnesota Explosion AAU team.
Zimmerman was a real stud in the semi-finals as he scored continually around the basket with both strength and agility. He used his long arms and body control to stretch and finish shots plus he powered home some hoops over defenders to score for TNL.
Also for the Express, Theisen stroked about three three-pointers, Williamson was all over the glass, and Duberry ran the offense plus he played extremely tough on ball defense.
The Minnesota class of 2010 has just a ton of jet quick guards in the 5-foot-10 and under range and one to really keep a note on is Richfield’s Jauson Sewer. Jauson always gets his looks and his percentage for TNL in this game was not as good as usual, but he still put up the needed production for TNL to win.
The game was close and Plainview-Elgin-Millville came away with a lot of respect from the city kids that may not have been aware of them in the past. PEM started the game up 13-3 as Clay Olstad knocked down a quick pair of threes. Clay is one of the better shooters in the state of Minnesota’s 2010 class and the TNL kids are well aware of it as he hit about four threes and a number of other mid-range jumpers.
Clay’s older brother Cole Olstad was the catalyst for PEM as he played like a complete animal for the entire 40 running time minutes. He finished often over two or three opponents and he finished with great control. Cole also ran the floor well catching and finishing as he is very good in the transition game. Leading the Bulldog transition game was PEM’s point Cody Narveson who handled the extremely tough TNL ball pressure with great success. Cody showed the ability to not only take care of the ball against the pressure but he made sure the offense flourished.
In the end TNL was victorious 60-58. With 12 seconds left there was an offensive foul called on PEM that was controversial. Pending on who you asked it was the right push call or it was a terrible call to change the game momentum with. What do I think? I don’t know, I was looking over at the other court as Stewartville came back from seven points down to finish off Bethlehem Academy 50-44 on a game ending 13-0 run.
I sure didn’t miss TNL’s highlight buzzer beater as Ollie White hit a mid-range jumper to give TNL the victory. Ollie is a long forward from Mound Westonka who hit one of the more clutch shots off the summer to put TNL into the finals.
Stewartville Takes it 72-69 
The Tigers rained supreme as Duberry missed a three-point attempt at the buzzer for TNL. In what was an extremely entertaining game, and at times a shootout between Tom Gisler and Jauson Sewer, Stewartville just did the a few extra things needed to win the game.
The difference in the game at the end was Tom Gisler. He hit a three-pointer, then the next possession he up-faked the defender going baseline to hit, then Tom knocked down another three-pointer scoring eight straight points. With all the attention on Gisler the following possessions, the game opened up for the rest of the Tigers. On an in-bounds play, Gisler drew away three defenders and this allowed David Fritsch to slash to the hoop for an easy make. The following possession Derek Robey penetrated and created a lay-in for Gisler and finally Tom’s presence opened up Mike Orte to make what was basically the game clinching three-pointer.
TNL gave Stewartville all they could handle starting with Sewer who was knocking down three-pointers with ease. At one point he would hit three in a row and towards the end of the contest Sewer’s threes were the only thing keeping Stewartville from walking away with the Sunday championship.
Late it was Ollie White hitting another clutch shot for TNL and this one was near NBA range with a player in his face. White’s three-point make made the game a one-point contest and TNL had to foul. They selected to hack David Fritsch who calmly knocked down a pair of free throws and TNL could get nothing to fall before the final buzzer.
This Summer Showcase saw three of the top teams in class AA perform very well. Stewartville defeated both Tartan and TNL (a city AAU team made up of top 2010 talent) PEM played TNL tough and defeated L-A and Bethlehem Academy to take third place, and Bethlehem Academy lost a couple tough games that they may win come this winter.
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