Wendy's Hoops Classic at Loras College

[EastIowaHawk]

Five boys high school games are on tap this Saturday, Jan. 24 at Loras College in Dubuque in the Wendy's Classic featuring local and Iowa teams against teams from Illinois and Wisconsin. At 12:30 one-loss East Dubuque (ranked #6 in IL Class 1A) plays one-loss and highly-ranked Cuba City (#6, Div. 4), WI. At 2 p.m. Iowa Class 3A #1 Waverly- Shell Rock takes on 4A #12 (AP) Western Dubuque in a game featuring two future UNI players- Phyfe and Haldeman; at 3:30 Dubuque Hempstead 4A #7 (with guards Duax and Wilson) takes on Chicago-area Marian Catholic (which last year featured Tyler Ullis who now starts for Kentucky); (Whoops-- correction. Apparently there are TWO Marian Catholic Highs in Chicago area. This is the Woodstock team that graduated Brian Bulaga of Iowa and the Packers. Ullis went to the other school.) That game is followed by Dubuque Senior and 6-10 UNI commit Luke McDonnell against huge Naperville Central from the Chicago suburbs. The final game (around 6:30) is Dubuque Wahlert (3A #4) vs. IL 3A Bartonville Limestone (Peoria), which owns victories over Moline, United Township, East Peoria and Chicago Marshall. Usually there is no trouble getting a seat at the games, so it's a good way to spend a Saturday watching some pretty good teams and individuals.



This post was edited on 1/23 7:17 AM by EastIowaHawk

 

[MagicCoach]

5'3 Chase Adams plays for Marian....possibly the next Ulis. Small quick and ranked fairly high already.

 

[Ramsfor3]

Kudos to Loras College and KDTH who put on a great day of basketball.

For those outside of Iowa, Cuba City, WI in SW WI is a small school powerhouse. Coach Pettigue is approaching 850 wins and his teams are so fun to watch from a pure basketball perspective. His offense is a combination of dribble drive and pass and cut and it is a treat to watch. So many lay ups and open three pointers. Not sure why more teams don't copy his system.

Western Dubuque really played well and Haldeman is getting stronger as the season is progressing. WSR seemed to have some tired legs but fought back to make the game interesting. Velky is a terrific guard in his own right and Phyfe is a huge kid. For WD, Baumhover will have his hands full inside once they leave the WAMAC for post season play but the kid battles hard.

I had not read EIH's edit before leaving for the game. Who would ever think there were two Marion Catholics in Illinois? lol
I was waiting for the team we saw play Senior last year and this was a totally different squad.
Hempstead is good. Very good. They have a senior dominated line-up and Duax has the ability to put the team on his shoulders when they fall behind. They have size and speed and present match up problems all over the court because their 6'7 center is a good 3 point shooter. When he comes out on the perimeter, Wilson and Duax have open lanes to drive.
I have seen Hempstead 4 times now and I am not sure why teams do not zone them.

After playing 5 highly regarded teams in their last 6 games, Senior needed a win. Freshman Justin Blackmon has turned into the 2nd scoring option that Senior desperately needs. If they can keep the scoring in the mid 40's they have a shot to win any game on their schedule. But, I don't know if they have enough scoring options for games that reach the 50's.

Wahlert played well without Pemsel and Till. Without those two in the line up, the game opened up for Nolan Timp who responded in a big way. The Bartonville team seemed to be better than their 5-10 record would indicate as they had some nice individual pieces but way too much one on one play for my taste. Wahlert's foreign exchange transfer student is some kind of athlete. He looks to be slowly understanding the game better as well.

5 games.. way too many hot dogs and nachos - but a great day of basketball in Dubuque.