Prep Athletes of the Week: Poet Davis drives Minneapolis South back to boys basketball state tournament

Minneapolis South • basketball

South coach Joe Hyser describes Davis as a “great kid with a magnetic personality. He helped turned a six-win team last year into a 21-5 team this year.”

That one-season turnaround culminated Thursday, when Davis led the Tigers to their first state tournament berth since 1992.

Davis scored 20 points in a 62-61 victory over St. Thomas Academy in the Class 3A, Section 3 championship game. Davis also hit the tying and winning free throws with 20 seconds left and South down by one point.

“Poet was pivotal,” Hyser said.

Davis has been steady for the Tigers all season, averaging 20.1 points per game and scoring in double figures in all but two games.

Davis, a three-year starter and two-time All-City player, also averaged nearly four assists and four steals per game while making 45% of his field-goal attempts and 35 percent of his three-point attempts.

Benilde-St. Margaret’s • basketball

The junior guard scored 47 points in three games to help the Red Knights win their second consecutive Class 3A title. Bishop scored 18 points in the quarterfinals and another 18 in the semifinals.

Breck • basketball

The senior point guard scored 45 points in two games to lead the Mustangs to a state tournament berth. He scored 18 in an 87-61 victory over Blake in the Class 2A, Section 5 semifinals Wednesday. Two nights later, he scored 27 in the Mustangs’ 91-74 victory over Minneapolis North for the section title.

Minnetonka • basketball

The 6-0 senior scored five points in the final 15 seconds of the Class 4A championship game to help the Skippers outlast Hopkins 64-56. The Skippers led by 12 with 5:45 to play, but Hopkins pulled within 59-56 in the final minute. Nesseth’s basket and free throw with 15 seconds left made it 62-56, and she added two free throws with two seconds remaining.

Providence Academy • basketball

The 6-1 eighth-grader averaged 13 points and 9.3 rebounds in three state tournament games to help the Lions win their third consecutive Class 2A title. Peterson, who averaged 12.3 points per game this season, had 12 points and 10 rebounds in the championship game.

Orono • basketball

Wooley, a 6-9 junior, had 17 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists to help the Spartans outlast Benilde-St. Margaret’s 86-84 in two overtimes in the Class 3A, Section 6 championship game. Wooley’s layup sent the game to the second overtime.

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