West Metro Notebook: Underrated Eden Prairie? Boys' basketball team poised to make noise

This doesn't happen often, so read carefully: Eden Prairie is underrated.

Let the eye-rolling begin.

With talk of Champlin Park and Apple Valley as the teams to beat in Class 4A boys' basketball, and Hopkinson a 13-game winning streak, Eden Prairie's outstanding season has gone largely unnoticed. The Eagles, despite four of its starters playing football late into November, are 20-2 and poised to make noise in the Class 4A, Section 6 playoffs starting in two weeks.

Before the season, coach David Flom called the Eagles ''the most talented offensive team I've coached in my nine years at Eden Prairie."

The Eagles are scoring 77 points per game, led by senior guard Grantham Gillard, who is averaging 19. Forward Josh Lanasa averages 10.8 points and guard Blake Cashman 10 points.

All three played key roles on Eden Prairie's state championship football team, as did another starter, junior wing Carter Coughlin.

There is admirable depth, led by guards Brady Rudrud, Ryan Jacobus and Owen Chose, and post John Vermedahl.

Section 6 is likely the state's toughest, with five teams — Hopkins, Eden Prairie, Armstrong, Minnetonka and Edina — all capable of making a state tournament run. But expect Eden Prairie to be right in the thick of things come playoff time.

Bloomington Jefferson junior Zak Ketterson won't get to defend his 2014 Nordic ski racing championship, but that's because he's been busy impressing for the under-18 U.S. national team at the World Junior Nordic championships in Sweden.

Ketterson finished sixth in the men's 10K and 13th in the classical sprints. In both, he was the top American finisher. He also skied on the relay team that took fourth place, just 15 seconds from a third-place medal.

• Senior Kiera Nelson, point guard for Orono's No. 1, Class 3A girls basketball team, scored 29 points in a 69-64 victory over New Prague on Friday, topping the 1,000-career point mark in the process.

• Edina sophomore Sarah Filby won the silver medal in the individual women's cadet foil event at the 2015 Cadet/Junior PanAm Fencing Championships last week in Toronto. Filby is a three-time member of the Canadian women's cadet national foil fencing team.