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Best Buy Summer Classic: MN Notes

The 2011 edition of the Best Buy Summer Classic kicked off today with Minnesota representing quite well. Minnesota Pump N Run defeated Double Pump Elite and the following 17s won their pools: Sw Stars, EOTO, Minnesota Comets Elite, Southside, Grassroots, and Minnesota Fury.
The Minnesota Comets defeated Nebraska Select 58-54 in a game that can be best described sluggish. The competitive ability of Tyler Vaughan and Joe Burt pulled the Comets through down the stretch as Vaughan hit three second half treys and Burt just plain battled doing a little of everything. Kevin Heysee came up big late as well cutting to the rim to score twice (one assist from Vaughan and the other from Burt) and he grabbed a huge defensive board in traffic late that helped secure the victory.
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Minnesota Pump N Run pulled off an upset over Double Pump Elite as Carnell Sheppard hit a buzzer beating pull-up jumper at the top of the key. It was the culmination of a hard working defensive effort combined with clutch shooting from Will Dunn, key contributions from Nick Jorgensen, an all around game from Wally Ellenson, and a strong finish from Sanjay Lumpkin. Dunn scored 13 points while Ellenson scored a dozen.
In game two the Pump N Run fell behind 32 to 9 and needed three time-outs before they woke up. From there Wally Ellenson hit six three-pointers, made a couple other jumpers, and scored 30 points as the Pumps came within a basket of the Atlanta Celtics. Problem was, the Pump s dug themselves just too big of a hole and the attacking Celtics wore them down. Atlanta scored in transition early, they scored in transition late, and down the stretch made a load of free throws to grab a 76-70 victory.
The Minnesota Pump N Run 16s crushed NIBA 68-42 and it was a total team effort. But standing out to a lot of people observing was the banging force that is Ian Theisen. The 6-foot-8 four man commanded the boards from start to finish, he blocked a couple shots, and on the inside he drop-step finished several times with a heavy turning elbow. Ian also showed great hands both on the block and in transition. He caught and finished on the break a couple times with ease against contesting defenders.
Minnesota Fury pummeled Wisconsin Starz 80 to 48. The Starz could not move or stop Michael Schreiber who drop stepped baseline to do what he wanted all game. Also, Prairie Seed jitterbug Trent Pollard had a quality showing zipping around with the dribble to hit step back and pull-up jumpers plus he created for others. And Joey Bartlett was his usual rebounding, hard defending, hard cutting self.
The Southwest Minnesota Stars defeated the Iowa Pump N Run and Wisconsin Wizards to win their pool. Despite not having Zach Huisken the Stars still received balanced efforts getting a pair of double figure scoring games from Brett Bergeson, Mitch Weg, Jake Holt, and Kyle Kilgore.
This morning Minnesota Heat Bui defeated Ajays Elite as Justin Pahl added to his fantastic summer by nailing a jump shot at the buzzer.
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