Midwest Live - Friday/Saturday Standouts

Cornhusker Hoops Report was at Midwest Live in Council Bluffs, IA Friday night/All day Saturday. Here is some of the top performances we saw.

Payton Sandfort - Kingdom Hoops 17U Navy

Sandfort was one of our 8 key players for this tournament, and he proved it against Team Buddy Buckets (OK) 17U and OSA 17U Adidas. He scored 20 points against Buddy Buckets and 15 against OSA while being closely guarded the majority of both games. He's a deadeye shooter with a quick trigger, a good handle on the ball, and good size.

Isaac Patterson - MOKAN Select 17U

Patterson dropped 17 points in a big win against a solid Colorado Hawks 17U squad and 24 in a close loss to Kingdom Hoops. Patterson was an effective driver and showed he could finish consistently.

Trevor Kasischke - Nebraska Warriors 17U

Kasischke dropped 30 points by my count against Oklahoma Power. The Warriors couldn't manage to pull out a win, but Kasischke was efficient and scored at will for them.

Team Buddy Buckets (OK) 17U

This team is the best team I've seen play this tournament so far. They started the tournament with a gritty 76-71 overtime win against a solid Colorado Hawks 17U team. Sean Franklin dropped 22 points for Team Buddy Buckets. In the 9:05 game Saturday morning, they beat MOKAN Select 17U 83-55. Ethan Scott (Pictured above) connected on 5 of his 8 shots from behind the arc and was tied for the leading scorer for Buddy Buckets with 15. James Locke also had 15, and Sean Pedulla had 14. Against Kingdom Hoops 17U Navy, Dalante Shannon ran the show, scoring 19 and hitting clutch free throws at the end to secure the win. And in their only loss, they gave OSA 17U Adidas all they could handle, losing 84-78. Sean Pedulla was fantastic, scoring 25 and playing great basketball despite being 4-5 inches shorter than the majority of the OSA team.

Tucker DeVries - OSA 17U Adidas

Tucker was great in both games he played on Saturday. He had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds against Team Buddy Buckets, and he dropped 25 points on 5/6 from 3-point range against Kingdom Hoops Navy. Tucker is a tall, lengthy sharpshooter with good court vision and deep range. High-Major schools should be in more contact with him soon.

Lincoln Supreme National 17U 2

If you like close games, this is the team for you. They won all 3 of their pool play games by a combined 5 points, and in all 3 games it came down to a defensive stop at the buzzer. Andrew Heffelfinger had 20 points in a win against WKE - Eddy in their last pool play game. Massimo Lojing had games of 16 and 14 in their last 2 pool play games, including clutch free throws to seal a win in their last game.