Prep athletes of the week: Another Jones heats up for Apple Valley

Tre Jones has had many great weeks of basketball in the past and no doubt will have many more. But the junior guard — Minnesota's highest-rated recruit in the Class of 2018 — admits that last week's stretch was one of his best.

Jones scored 34 points to lead the Class 4A, No. 3 Eagles to a 60-51 victory over No. 4 Lakeville North on Tuesday. Three days later he followed up with a school-record 48 points in a 75-57 rout of Rosemount. The previous high belonged to his brother, Tyus.

"Individually, it was the best week I've ever had," Jones said.

"The shots felt great when they left my hand," he added. "My teammates were playing unselfishly, and it felt like every shot was going in."

While the individual achievements were nice, Jones said, what he really has enjoyed is how well the Eagles have played this season.

"This is the closest team I've ever been on," he said. "We've got 14 juniors on the team, a lot of the kids in my grade I grew up playing with. Every day, every practice, it's so much fun to go out and play with them."

The senior forward scores in bunches, and she did so in big way in the Raiders' 7-2 victory over Stillwater in the Section 4, 2A quarterfinals. Gaffney scored a season-high four goals. including a natural hat trick in the second period, bumping her season total to 14.

The senior guard, a varsity regular since eighth grade, broke a 16-year-old school record for career points in the Knights' 59-39 victory over Chisago Lakes. She had 21 points, along with four rebounds, three assists and three steals, and now has 1,622 career points.

The senior won both disciplines at the Section 4 meet, taking the Classic race by 1 second and freestyle race by 4, to win the pursuit title in a time of 24:43, 5 seconds ahead of the runner-up. Kraftson paced Stillwater to the team championship.

She is only a sophomore, but the 6-foot forward became the leading scorer in girls' basketball history at Henry Sibley. She scored 19 points in a 67-40 victory over North St. Paul and 29 points in a 64-60 victory over Spring Lake Park, giving her 1,257 career points.

JIM PAULSEN