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Denali Blackwell celebrates a win over McGregor Mercs January 13, 2023
Cook County High School Sophomore guard Denali Blackwell had an outstanding year on the basketball court and area coaches noticed, casting their ballots which named him to the 2023 Polar League all-conference team.
Denali averaged 19.3 points per game to lead the Vikings in scoring. He ended the season with 385 points which puts him on track to score over 1,000 points for his high school play. If he accomplishes this feat, he will join a very small group of Vikings who have gone over 1,000 points. The most notable one of course is Will Ramberg who now plays for the Golden Gophers.
A ball hawk, Blackwell had 2.6 steals per games (51) to lead the team and he was third on the Viking’s squad with 80 rebounds, trailing only senior guard Derek Smith’s 123 boards and Recko Helmerson-Skildum’s 86 rebounds.
Denali led the team in blocked shots with eight, and he was second on the team in assists with 46, trailing Derek Smith’s 48 assists. He also had the best free throw percentage on the Vikings with 63 percent of his attempts going in from the charity stripe.
Deceptively quick and great ball handler, Denali was hard for defenses to stop because he only needed a small window to launch his high arching shots from deep on the court. He made 36 three pointers and set a school record with 37 points in one half of play. Fellow sophomore guard Rohan Rude, who missed several games with injury, had 24 makes from behind the three-point line. Denali was second in field goal percentage on the team with 37 percent of his shots finding the bottom of the net. Derek Smith finished the season with 38 percent of his shots finding the basket.
Denali and Rohan Rude were named captains with Derek Smith this season. Both Rude and Blackwell will be juniors next year and a lot of the other players are coming back so the Vikings should be a lot of fun to watch in 2024. Congratulations to Denali for his great play this season!
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