Calls From Home: Kneepkens back on the floor for Utah

DULUTH — Duluth Marshall alum Gianna Kneepkens has made a successful return to the floor for her redshirt junior season at Utah as the Utes have set their sights on a return to the Associated Press Top 25. Kneepkens used a medical redshirt after breaking her right foot in a non-contact injury eight games into the 2023-24 season and returned to a very different season than the one she left. Top teammate and all-American Alissa Pili graduated and is now a reserve on the Minnesota Lynx, and the head coach that recruited her, Lynne Roberts, resigned four games into this season to become the head coach of the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks.

ADVERTISEMENT Utah is 11-2 on the season after associate coach Gavin Petersen was promoted into the position. According to the Deseret News, Kneepkens and the rest of the team were present at Petersen’s introductory press conference, with the junior grabbing the microphone to ask the final question. Kneepkens is Utah’s leading scorer by a wide margin with 18.



1 points per game in 27.4 minutes per game, leads the Utes in 3-pointers made with 38 and has made 55 of 59 free throws (a 93.2% clip).

Kneepkens has scored at least 13 points in every Utah game this season with a season high of 24 three times, most recently in Utah’s first Big XII game, a 102-82 home win over Arizona State on Dec. 21. She also came within one rebound of a double-double with 18 points and nine rebounds in a 69-48 win at Arizona.

Utah will be traveling a lot this season and has already played at Northwestern and in a tournament in the Cayman Islands over Thanksgiving in which the Utes knocked off No. 3 Notre Dame. Utah is currently second in the ‘others receiving votes’ category in the AP Top 25.

On Sunday, Utah plays at Iowa State, and the Utes’ last road trip of the season includes Cincinnati and West Virginia in late February. Jordan Zubich (Mountain Iron-Buhl) has seen spot duty in nine games of her first season at North Carolina, scoring six points in nine minutes for the Tar Heels in a Nov. 29 home rout of North Carolina Central.

UNC (13-2) is currently ranked No. 17 in the country. Calls From Home is an occasional feature meant to highlight the accomplishments of Northland athletes who go on to compete in college athletics or junior hockey outside the Northland.

If you know of an athlete we should add to our list, please email [email protected] with the subject line "Calls From Home." Kloe Zentkowski (Superior) has already started three games as a true freshman at Michigan Tech.

She played 17 minutes close to home at Romano Gym when the Huskies played Minnesota Duluth, recording three points and two rebounds as the Bulldogs claimed a 71-67 win on Nov. 24. She had career highs of seven points, eight boards and three assists in a Nov.

15 home win over Bemidji State, a contest that included three other players from Northland schools: Tieryn Plasch (Northwestern), Ashlynne Guenther (Duluth East) and Sage Ganyo (Mountain Iron-Buhl). ADVERTISEMENT Plasch is BSU’s second-leading scorer, averaging 10.2 points per game as a sophomore, but she dropped 22 plus six assists on St.

Cloud State on Dec. 19 in a 78-74 win. She and Guenther have started all 10 games the Beavers have played this year, with Guenther’s season best coming on Dec.

6 when she had 11 points and seven boards in a close 69-63 loss at Minnesota Crookston. She averaged 5.7 points and 3.

1 rebounds per game. Ganyo has played in all 10 BSU games this year, scoring a season-high five points in 17 minutes against Northern State on Dec. 13.

The Beavers play at Minnesota Duluth on Jan. 17. That Dec.

6 game against Crookston featured two Carlton County products, Rayna Klejeski (Barnum) and Natalie Mikrot (Moose Lake/Willow River). Klejeski started the Golden Eagles’ first four games of the season, recording a season-high 13 points in a Nov. 15 loss at Northern Michigan.

She also had five points and four rebounds in 26 minutes in a Dec. 7 loss at St. Cloud State and has an average of 3.

6 points and 1.3 rebounds in 12 games. Mikrot had five points in 13 minutes on Nov.

9 vs. Pittsburg State and has seen some action in all 12 UMC games this season. The Golden Eagles are in Duluth on Jan.

18. ADVERTISEMENT In Division III, Elly Schmitz (Hermantown) has been a force for Bethel in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, starting all 10 of the Royals’ games this year and leading the team in points (13.1), rebounds (7.

5) and blocks (1.7). She had 22 points and 12 boards on Dec.

28 in a big win over Amherst at a tournament in Daytona Beach, Florida, leading all players in both categories. Schmitz, a 6-foot senior, is in her third season since transferring from Sioux Falls to Bethel before the 2022-23 campaign. Lexiss Trygg (Virginia) has started the last six games of the season for Bethany Lutheran.

The 6-1 senior forward is averaging 7.8 points and had a season high of 15 at Hamline on Dec. 14.

Alexa Snesrud (Cloquet) has been a key reserve for Concordia-Moorhead, averaging 13.9 minutes a game for the Cobbers and averaging 5.9 points and 3.

3 rebounds. Emma Lamppa (Rock Ridge) has played in eight games for Hamline this season, notching a career-high five points on Tuesday in a loss to Martin Luther. Junior Maddie Young (Cloquet) upped her game significantly in recent days, scoring 23 and 22 points in back-to-back games for St.

Catherine against Buena Vista on Monday and Minnesota Morris on Tuesday, raising her average from 4.5 to 8.1 points per game, third best on the team.

Young has started nine of her team’s 10 games this year. ADVERTISEMENT Eva Peterson (Superior) has played in six games at NAIA Grand View in Des Moines, Iowa with a total of 12 points. The University of Jamestown is in the process of reclassifying from NAIA to Division II but added two Northland players to its roster for 2024-25.

Jessika Lofstrom (Grand Rapids) is already a significant part of the rotation for the Jimmies and has played in at least 14 minutes of every game of her freshman season, averaging 7.4 points and 4.9 rebounds a game, including 15 points and six rebounds off the bench in a Nov.

2 win at Kansas Wesleyan. Hali Savela (Mountain Iron-Buhl) has seen the floor in nine games for the Jimmies and has a total of 20 points and 20 rebounds so far this season. The Jimmies are scheduled to play Mayville State on Saturday, a team that includes fellow MI-B alum Ava Butler , a senior forward.

Butler had 12 points in a game vs. Doane on Sunday and is averaging 3 points and 1.9 rebounds per game.

MEN’S BASKETBALL Isaac Asuma has already become a fixture in Minnesota’s lineup this season, as the Cherry freshman has seen 20 or more minutes coming off the bench in 11 of the Gophers’ 13 games. Through the end of the calendar year, he’s currently averaging 4.9 points, 3.

2 rebounds and slightly under 3 assists per game, with his best scoring performance an 11-point outing against Wake Forest on ESPN 2 in a tournament in Orlando on Nov. 29. ADVERTISEMENT There are now four players with local ties on the roster at Bemidji State.

John Sutherland (Grand Rapids), after a season in which he was all-NSIC, missed the first six weeks of this season due to injury but has scored in double figures in both games since returning to the Beavers’ lineup on Dec. 19. He’s averaging 12 points, 4.

5 assists and 3.5 rebounds as he gets up to speed. Austin Josephson (South Ridge) has contributed some size down low in Sutherland’s absence, as the 6-9 sophomore from Meadowlands has appeared in 11 contests and scored in nine, including eight points and three rebounds in a Dec.

14 home loss to Minnesota State Moorhead. Jobe Juenemann (Duluth East) and Isaiah Kastern (Solon Springs) are also on the BSU roster this year. Blake Schmitz (Hermantown) made his first collegiate start for Bethel in a Dec.

4 MIAC game vs. Concordia-Moorhead and finished with nine bounds and a season-high seven rebounds. Now a sophomore, Schmitz is averaging 6.

2 points and 3.3 boards for the Royals. Patrick Smith (Duluth East) also logged a first start for an MIAC team, on Nov.

30 when his Carleton squad played Wisconsin-River Falls. In nine games the 6-8 sophomore forward is averaging 2.4 points and 2.

9 rebounds. ADVERTISEMENT Sophomore Trent Gomez (Two Harbors) is very used to being in the lineup for Augsburg, as he’s notched eight more starts in his sophomore season to go with more than 20 as a freshman. Gomez is averaging 7.

2 points and 2.4 rebounds per game but blew up for 25 on Dec. 7 in a home win over Macalester, setting a career high.

He is joined on the team this year by transfer Connor Barney (Cloquet), who scored 10 points in 14 minutes in a Dec. 20 loss to Beloit in Daytona Beach, Florida and has appeared in seven games this season. Jase Nelson (Northwestern) has worked his way into the starting lineup for the last three games at Minnesota Morris, including a Dec.

13 trip to St. Scholastica in which he had nine points and five rebounds, well above his averages of 5.6 and 2.

9 respectively..