Rochester | Field 2 Field

SEC Showcase. Just a cool name for a great day of watching high school basketball. The first-ever Southeast Conference Showcase in Rochester, Minnesota, featured a full slate of basketball games featuring every team in the league. I went down to Rochester from the Twin Cities to specifically take in the Kingsland vs. Mabel-Canton boys’ and girls basketball games.

Kingsland won the girls’ game 53-43. The Kingsland boys made it a sweep, beating the M-C boys 53-49.

Here’s a few video highlights from both games, with the articles and pictures down below.

SEC Showcase Girls’ Game

The Knights came out firing early in the game and ran off 11-straight points to start the game before Mabel-Canton would score their first points. All-SEC standout Payton Danielson gave the Cougars their first two baskets of the game, the first coming with 13:38 left in the first half.

The Kingsland and Mabel-Conference game featured a couple of solid guards. All-conference guard Payton Danielson of Mabel-Canton (in blue) brings the ball up the floor, where Alyssa Link of Kingsland awaits to play defense. (Photo by Chad Smith)

The Cougars would knock that Kingsland lead down to 15-11 with 9:18 left in the period. M-C stretched its scoring run to 15-8 with five minutes to go in the half. The Knights kept their lead around four points over the final minutes of the first half, leading 21-17 with four minutes to go.

Kingsland would head into the halftime locker room with a 26-22 lead. However, most of the half belonged to Mabel-Canton, who outscored the Knights 22-15 after being down 11-0 early in the game.

The Kingsland girls came out firing in the second half, going on a 10-4 run to take a 36-26 lead six minutes into the second half. The Knights stretched their scoring run to 15-6. Leading by double-digits at 41-30 with 10 minutes on the clock. But Mabel-Canton still wouldn’t go away.

Lauren Wyffels of Mabel-Canton looks to inbound the basketball during their matchup with Kingsland at the SEC Showcase in Rochester. The Knights won the game 53-43. (Photo by Chad Smith)

The Cougars whittled the Kingsland lead down to four points (42-38) with 4:35 left. It was 42-40 Kingsland when MaKenzie Kelly of Mabel-Canton hit a free throw to tie the game at 42-all with 3:34 left. However, Alyssa Link of Kingsland answered with a big three-point basket.

It was 46-42 Knights with 2:15 to go. Link hit a couple of big free throws late to make it a 50-42 Knights’ lead with 25 seconds left. Anika Reiland hit free throws to stretch the Kingsland lead to 53-42 with five seconds left. A Danielson free throw for M-C made it a 53-43 final.

Link, who looks completely healthy and is playing without a brace after recovering from a serious knee injury last season, led the team with a double-double, getting a team-best 15 points and pulling down 11 boards. She had three big three-pointers and went three of four at the free-throw line in the second half, coming up with big points in clutch time. But she had help on the perimeter as well.

Sam Wernimont finished with 13 points, hitting three shots from outside the arc in the first half. Meredith Farlinger provided scoring in the paint, finishing with another double-double of 12 points and 14 rebounds.

Free throws were huge for Kingsland in the second half, when they made 12 of their 16 attempts (75%). It was a marked improvement from the first half when the Knights were just three of 10 at the stripe.

On the defensive end of the floor, Kingsland finished with six steals (Wernimont 2, Audrey Webster 2) and nine blocked shots (Farlinger 4).

SEC Boys’ Game

The SEC Showcase game tipped off in the Mayo Civic Center and points were slow in coming for both teams. The Knights trailed just 4-3 with five-and-a-half minutes off the first-half clock. Just over two minutes later, Brayden Gjere of Mabel-Canton grabbed an offensive rebound and landed a put-back shot to give the Cougars an 8-7 lead with 12:16 to go in the first half.

The Knights trailed 10-9 when Luke Howard drained a three-pointer to make it a 12-10 Knights’ lead with 7:23 left in the half. However, the Cougars’ Reid Crawford answered with a trey of his own to give MC the lead back at 15-14 with six minutes on the clock.

Both teams were settling into the neutral court and were finding the range more consistently on their jump shots. As the tempo picked up, another Luke Howard trey made it 22-15 Kingsland at 3:44 to go in the half. He attempted another three as the first half buzzer sounded and was fouled. He dropped in one of three free throws to make it a 25-19 Kingsland lead at the half.

Mabel-Canton came out swinging in the second half with a 7-0 scoring run to take a one-point lead (26-25) with 16 minutes left in the game. An offensive rebound and made basket by Reed Merkel broke the streak and gave the lead back to the Knights, 27-26 with 15 minutes left.

The lead would go back and forth for the rest of the game. Kaden Rath hit a jumper to tie the game at 37 with just over eight minutes left. Another Howard three-pointer and a steal and layup from Nick Eickhoff made it 42-39 Kingsland with 7:15 on the clock.

As the game wound down, Kingsland started showing a full-court press. The Knights had shown a half-court trap before that and had some success forcing Mabel-Canton mistakes with the basketball.

Walker Erdman nailed one of two free throws to tie the game at 44. The teams traded baskets and tied the game at 46 all, when Howard hit the biggest three of the game off a Mabel-Canton turnover and Kingsland was back on top, 49-46 with 1:21 to go.

The Cougars’ Reid Crawford line up a three-point try that rolled all the way around the rim and fell away. The Knights grabbed the rebound and Erdman hit two free throws to make it a two-possession game at 51-46. However, Crawford came back the other way and drained a three to cut the Kingsland lead to just two points, 51-49 with only 4.7 seconds left.

Mabel-Canton tried hard to swipe the inbound pass and was forced to foul. Two free throws from Howard sealed the game and a Knights’ win, 53-49.

Howard and Erdman tied for the team lead in scoring, each finishing with 14 points. Howard was two rebounds from a double-double, grabbing eight missed shots and finishing with two steals. Erdman also grabbed eight rebounds and hit three of five free throws. Eickhoff chipped in 12 points on five of 11 shooting.

The team hit 19 of its 53 shots (35%) from the field. They were most effective down under the basket, making 13 of 27 shots (48%) from two-point range. The Knights did make enough free throws to win the game, but they could have given themselves a little more breathing room late. Kingsland was just nine of 18 from the stripe.

They finished with 32 rebounds, 12 offensive.

Defensively, the Knights came up with seven steals and four blocked shots.

St. Paul is one of my favorite cities to explore. Another Saturday means it was time to head off to the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary. I’d spent so much time exploring Minneapolis that I thought it was time to take a closer look at the sister city. What I didn’t realize was just how CLOSE I would be to St. Paul in spite of exploring a nature area.

One of my favorite parts of the Bruce Vento Nature Conservancy in St. Paul is the fact that there is so much interaction with trains down in that neighborhood.

The first thing I saw was a signpost that pointed in different directions I could go and different things I could check out. To my surprise, I saw a sign that said I was one mile from downtown St. Paul. Well, I can’t let the chance go by to check out one of my favorite places to take pictures. I’m an architecture buff and love the way St. Paul was put together.

Walking a short way down the sidewalk, I saw a familiar sign in the distance; “CHS Field.” For those who don’t know, it’s the home of the St. Paul Saints, who play in the Northwoods Baseball League. I couldn’t believe I’d walked approximately a mile and went from a nature sanctuary to the edge of a major city like St. Paul in that short of a time frame. I’d driven by CHS Field many times while traveling between the Twin Cities and Rochester.

One of my biggest surprises of exploring a nature area was how close I still was to the city. A half mile directly behind me on the same sidewalk was the nature area. A half mile ahead stood St. Paul. I love the surprises you find when exploring the Twin Cities. (Photo by Chad Smith

I did see something I hadn’t come across before. It looked like a big lot that contained railroad tracks running in a half-circle before splitting into at least a half-dozen separate tracks that each ran into a large gray building. It reminded me of an auto shop that has several different doors along one side that each run into a separate repair station. I’m pretty sure I’d found a repair shop for trains, but I honestly don’t know that for sure.

Walking around the block past the train depot, I found myself in St. Paul proper. I really love the architecture down there. I saw one building from behind that looked like an abandoned warehouse. However, walking around the front, it was an immaculate series of shops up and down the length of the building.

The only thing I was unhappy with while walking around St. Paul was the number of people holding cardboard signs. You know what I’m talking about, right? The homeless veteran signs always break my heart. I’ve spoken to more than a few homeless veterans (and handed out a few bucks too), with those some of the most heart-breaking stories you’ll hear. However, at the other end of the spectrum, there was at least one gentlemen holding a homeless sign who was literally dressed better than I was. Who knows what to believe anymore?

If you saw my last post about exploring, it should be obvious I find urban artwork (tagging) interesting. I saw my favorite tag earlier today that said “Freddy sucks eggs.” Thanks for the tip. It makes me glad my name isn’t Freddy.