Saturday, March 16, 2024

Boys' basketball subsection finals, robotics at Grand Forks (VIDEOS*)


A robotics video was posted below on this blog post on Monday.

Here I'll get more videos posted on Sunday. I've been busy getting caught up from the past week of activities. I am finally done uploading all the videos recorded at Grand Forks last weekend. Remember! There's the Brooten Ambulance pancake breakfast, and the Padua Pub will host their second day of St. Patrick's Day weekend activities throughout the day Sunday. The parade in Padua starts at 1 p.m. sharp.

Here's action from the first half of Wednesday night's basketball game:


As I wrote in the last blog post, West Central Area's boys' basketball team is heading to the state tournament for the first time in school history. The Knights beat Ada Borup-West 60-56 last night (Friday) in Fergus Falls to claim the Section 6A title. Over the weekend, the Knights earned the No. 2 seed at the state tournament, which is quite noteworthy. Cherry is the top seed in Class 1A, while Fertile-Beltrami is the No. 3 seed, Mountain Lake Area/Comfrey is the No. 4 seed and Nevis is the No. 5 seed. WCA tips off in their quarterfinal game at 3 p.m. on Thursday, March 21 at Williams Arena against unseeded Heritage Christian Academy.

**Here's action from the second half in the subsection finals:


I've got part of the robotics story that was published in the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper posted in a web article on the newspaper website. It includes a video from Saturday at the Alerus Center last weekend: Voice robotics story.

Here's the first match of Saturday in Grand Forks a week ago:


As I wrote in The Voice last week, it was really a sight to take in to witness the robotics team recover from multiple mechanical issues that hampered the cause on Friday. They finished strong and have much to be proud of with how they performed under pressure! That's what matters.



Labels: , ,

Girls' basketball state tournament - and a busy weekend locally!


At the Class 1A state girls' basketball tournament today, Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart defeated Underwood 66-49 in the third-place game. In the consolation championship, Mayer Lutheran leveled Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 70-38 to take fifth place.

In the state title game, top-seeded Goodhue is holding a 39-29 halftime lead over defending state champion Mountain Iron-Buhl. Goodhue Wildcats senior Elisabeth Gadient, who surpassed 2,000 points in her career yesterday in the semifinals, leads the way out of all players with 20 points. The Wildcats (27-5) shot an insane 7-of-15 from the three-point line. Gadient's final made three-pointer of the half was launched at least 5 feet beyond the arc at the top of the key.

Final: Goodhue 70, Mountain Iron-Buhl 65. This was MI-B's second straight appearance in the state title game and fourth straight trip to the state tournament.

Last night in the Section 6A finals, West Central Area's boys' basketball team defeated Ada-Borup West 60-56 to advance to the Class 1A state tournament for the first time in school history. The Knights are 27-3 overall.

In 2022, the Knights finished as runners-up in Sub-Section 3AA-North to Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta in a 22-5 season. A year earlier in the pandemic season, the Knights went 15-5 and were runners-up in Sub-Section 6A-South behind Hancock; they lost in the finals in overtime, and the Owls went on to take second at the state tournament. Both teams shared the Pheasant Conference title in the regular season.

On March 12, 2020, the WCA Knights played in the Section 6A finals against Henning and lost 57-45. The next day, the world lost its collective mind as governments across the globe took the bait from China and started implementing China-like COVID measures that in some cases lasted two years or more. Here in Jaguar Country, we ditched nearly all COVID measures on May 14, 2021 while holding a mask-free Class of 2021 graduation in the high school gymnasium with a packed house!

On the home front...
Tonight, I encourage everyone to attend the Belgrade Lions chili cook-off! It runs from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Belgrade V.F.W., and chili will be offered until it runs out. I would arrive between 5:30 and 6:30 to make sure you get enough chances to try each chili. It is a do-not-miss event! Tomorrow we've got the Brooten Ambulance pancake breakfast (8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Brooten American Legion) plus the St. Patrick's Day parade in Padua at 1 p.m. Also! This entire weekend, the Padua Pub will be offering two days of St. Patrick's Day fun! Read more about that on page 12 of this week's Voice or by clicking here: https://shorturl.at/ltzDQ.


Tiyana Schwinghammer's team will tip-off at about 2:25 p.m. in the NJCAA national tournament third-place game. After tip-off...Schwinghammer has 6 early points while her squad holds a 9-6 lead in the first quarter. Through 6 minutes in the first quarter...the game is tied 13-13, and Schwinghammer has 8 points. An incredible, tough baseline shot by Schwinghammer tied the game at 15-15 with 1:40 left in the first quarter; she now has 10 points.

In the final seconds of the first quarter, Schwinghammer attempted an off-balance paint shot as time was about to expire and was fouled. She proceeded to knock down both free throws, getting her to 12 points and making the first quarter score as follows: Cedar Valley of Dallas 19, Northland 17.

In the second quarter...Cedar Valley holds a 25-19 lead.

Bang! Bang! Back-to-back three-pointers by Northland's Emma Osborne has lifted the Pioneers on top 27-25 with 4:41 to go in the second quarter.

After trailing 25-19 early in the second quarter, Northland has gone on a tear with a 19-6 run that's put them ahead 38-31 at halftime. Schwinghammer is leading the way with 17 points. The Pioneers took 7 fewer shots than the Suns, but the Pioneers are shooting 50 percent from the floor. The Suns have 13 points off of turnovers compared to just 5 for Northland.

After three quarters of play...Northland now holds a 60-38 lead. Final: Northland Community and Technical College 79, Cedar Valley Dallas 64. Schwinghammer led her team with 21 points. The Pioneers finish the season 24-6 overall in an incredible year after they missed out on nationals a year ago. This was Northland's 13th overall appearance in the NJCAA national tournament.

Back to state tournament news...the Albany Huskies girls' basketball team played a magnificent game against No. 1-ranked Providence Academy in the Class 2A state title game today. The Lions, however, won 81-78 to claim their third straight state championship. The Huskies, who finish 30-2 overall, had defeated two other powerhouse private school programs to get to the state finals (Rochester Lourdes and Minnehaha Academy)...this was a rematch of last year's Class 2A state title game, which Providence Academy won 70-64. In the 2022 state tournament, Providence Academy beat Albany 55-48 in the state semifinals before edging out Fergus Falls 55-53 for the state title. In the 2021 COVID state tournament, Providence Academy lost to Albany 57-43 in the state title game. Back in 2020, Albany lost 54-38 to Sauk Centre in the Section 6AA championship. Sauk Centre then lost twice at the COVID-shortened state tournament before everything was shut down the following day - Friday, March 13, 2020. Do you remember that day? I do.



Labels: , , ,

Friday, March 15, 2024

Sub-Section 6A-South finals, NJCAA Final Four updates (VIDEOS)


The B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team battle their way to the Sub-Section 6A-South championship game for the third straight season. Overall, they have played in a sub-section championship game every season since 2018. Under Coach Chris Anderson, the Jaguars have missed out on the subsection finals just one time (2017). Unfortunately, an untimely injury to junior Hayden Sobiech put a huge damper on the game, even though the Jaguars fought with it the whole way and were right there until the end.

Here's the starter introductions, tip-off and the opening minutes:


The Jaguars led 8-2 out of the gates with a fast start. The Knights took over towards the end of the first half, however, as their pressure got to the Jaguars in the last few minutes.

Here's a video featuring the final minute of the first half:


More to follow.

For those who want to watch Tiyana Schwinghammer's NJCAA Final Four game tonight in the national tournament, you can find the stream here: https://www.njcaa.org/network/live.

NJCAA National Tournament Final Four updates...
In the first half of the NJCAA semifinals at Rochester's Regional Sports Center...the Minnesota West Bluejays have gone on tear and hold a 33-14 lead over Northland Community and Technical College with just over 6 minutes to go before halftime. At halftime: MN West 38, Northland 27. The Pioneers scored 6 unanswered points in the final 90 seconds to draw within 11 before the break. Tiyana Schwinghammer drained a driving layup just at the buzzer to get her team to 27.

After initially playing even, the Pioneers have fallen behind 46-29 with 7 minutes left in the third quarter. With 1:19 left in the third...MN West has a 52-39 lead.

Fourth quarter update...with 4:32 left in the game, the Bluejays are ahead of the Pioneers 57-48. They are in a media timeout. Final score: Minnesota West 68, Northland 55; the Pioneers were unable to shoot well enough to overtake the Bluejays. They spent a great deal of energy and emotion to claim the quarterfinal win yesterday over Anoka Ramsey, and that was evident in their shooting woes today. Tiyana Schwinghammer played 32 minutes and scored a team-high 19 points to go with 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 steals and 3 blocked shots. The Northland team looks to regroup tomorrow to end the season with a win in the NJCAA third-place game. Tip-off in Rochester is at 2 p.m.

Girls' basketball state tournament updates...Walker-Hackensack-Akeley defeated Fosston 58-52 in overtime in the Class 1A consolation semifinals today. In the championship semis, Goodhue defeated Underwood 63-53, and Mountain Iron-Buhl won 69-50 against Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart. In the Class 2A consolation championship this afternoon, New London-Spicer lost 45-38 to Rochester Lourdes.

The W-A-H Wolves, champions of Section 5A, will play in the Class 1A consolation (fifth place) championship tomorrow at 8 a.m. against Mayer Lutheran. That game will be held at Concordia College in St. Paul.



Labels:

Thursday, March 14, 2024

National quarterfinals! Goes down to the wire (VIDEO)


At halftime, the Northland Technical and Community College Pioneers women's basketball team is in a 26-26 tie with the Anoka Ramsey Rams. This game is one of the NJCAA Division III national tournament quarterfinals. It has been an outstanding game mostly with halfcourt offensive sets. The Pioneers led 11-8 midway into the first quarter, but the Rams charged in front 16-11. The Pioneers then fought back, and a step back buzzer-beating three-pointer by Northland's Josie Iverson lifted her team on top 18-16 at the quarter break. Tiyana Schwinghammer scored the first bucket for her team, and she's had some great defensive plays to frustrate the Anoka Ramsey offense in the paint.

In the third quarter...with 4:08 to go during a media timeout, the Rams are holding a 38-28 lead. They have come alive with a 7-0 run in a span of just 2 minutes of the game. Overall, going back into the second quarter, Anoka-Ramsey is on a 15-2 run as they have at least for now taken over the game. Update: with 70 seconds left in the third, Anoka-Ramsey holds a 40-33 lead. At the end of three quarters: Anoka-Ramsey 42, Northland 37.

In the fourth quarter...the Rams hold a 47-43 lead with just over 5 minutes to go. At stake is a berth in the Final Four round of the NJCAA Division III tournament.

FINAL: Northland 54, Anoka-Ramsey 53. Tiyana Schwinghammer's three-point play in the final 3 seconds of the game won it for the Pioneers! It was absolutely crazy. One of the wildest finishes to a basketball game I've ever seen. 

Northland had to overcome a 50-43 deficit with 4:46 left in the fourth quarter. Up next for Northland: a national tournament semifinal game against Minnesota West of Worthington tomorrow back in Rochester, Minnesota. Tip-off for the Final Four game is 5 p.m.!

*Here's a not-so-hot video recorded of a replay of the buzzer-beating game-tying field goal by Schwinghammer:


More to come.

In Section 3AA...the championship game is being played tonight in Marshall. At halftime, the Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta Tigers boys' basketball team holds a 29-27 lead against Jackson County Central. Out of the 10 starters between both teams, just one is a senior. JCC features an all-underclassmen starting lineup.

Final score: Jackson County Central 67, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 52. The Tigers finish 20-10 overall.

Class 1A state girls' basketball quarterfinal scores on March 14:
Goodhue 63, Mayer Lutheran 37 (Goodhue is the top seed)
Underwood 64, Southwest MN Christian 52
Mountain Iron-Buhl 71, Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 36
Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart 72, Fosston 35

In the Class 2A state tournament consolation bracket, New London-Spicer defeated Perham 54-41.




Labels:

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Step III: Jaguars go all out, wire-to-wire, in one-bucket championship loss (VIDEO)


It is cliche, but it rings true tonight: this game was not for the faint of heart.

Against a team that boasts some of Class 1A's best guard play and passing game, the underdog B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team faced every possible punch that No. 3-ranked (Minnesota Basketball News) West Central Area had for them. For 36 minutes, the Jaguars did not budge one inch as warriors through a neck-and-neck contest. After the Knights led by as many as 9 points and the Jaguars as many as 4 points, top-seeded WCA prevailed by a 71-68 score to move within one win of the state tournament.

**Here's a video from before the game and ending after tip-off:


The Jaguars started out red hot as Luke Illies hit a shot near the rim on an inbounds pass just 14 seconds after tip-off. Luke Dingmann then hit a cleanup shot with just under 1 minute played, and Illies scored on a coast-to-coast layup for a 6-0 lead with 16:50 left. The Knights got on the scoreboard with a layup 14 seconds later, but a cleanup shot 16 seconds after that bucket by Kaden DeRoo put the Jaguars in front 8-2.

Across the next 4 1/2 minutes of play, the Knights went on a 7-0 run. They took their first lead of the game with 11:43 left on a three-pointer by Cam Anderson. Just before that shot, the Jaguars were dealt a huge blow when junior guard Hayden Sobiech went down with a knee injury. He was taken from the gym by two trainers to receive medical care and only able to return to the gym with the use of crutches.

Multiple lead changes and ties followed, and DeRoo's 12-footer with 4:48 left gave the Jaguars a 20-19 lead. WCA scored 5 straight points before Illies scored with 2:46 left. The Knights then expanded a 24-22 lead to 29-22 with 91 seconds to go.

At halftime, WCA held a 33-25 lead. B-B-E was led by 10 points from Luke Illies and seven from Kaden DeRoo.

WCA got to the foul line just 15 seconds into the second half and made one of two shots to make it a 34-25 lead. Josh Walstrom knocked down two huge three-pointers across a two-minute span, and with 15:33 left his triple brought the Jaguars to a 37-33 deficit. Later, with 11:42 left, Illies scored on a coast-to-coast layup to bring them within one, down 44-43. Dingmann's pullup three-pointer with 11:11 to go gave the Jaguars their first lead of the second half at 46-44. Five lead changes followed across the next four minutes, with WCA taking a 54-53 lead on a paint shot with 7:55 left. Dingmann tied the game at 59-59 with a five-footer in the lane, and he put the Jaguars in front 62-59 with a three-pointer with 4:52 left.

With 4:05 to go in the game, sophomore reserve Taylor Pieper knocked down a left corner three-pointer for a 65-61 lead. Scoring was difficult from that point on. Out of a timeout, the Knights scored on an alley-oop pass to the rim with 3:57 left. A three-pointer with 3 minutes to go lifted the Knights on top 66-65.

WCA (26-3) has now won 16 straight contests. To say that WCA is stacked goes without saying: they returned four starters from last year's team. Senior sharpshooter Cam Anderson missed most of his junior season with an injury after he was an All-Pheasant Conference player during his sophomore season. Just how good is their guard play? It was good enough that they were able to win the rugged West Central Conference despite being outsized on most nights in the league. Overall, WCA's lineup features six seniors.

Both teams drained nine three-pointers, but ultimately, a 5-for-11 performance at the free throw line led to B-B-E's demise. Both teams had three players in double figures. Scoring for the Jaguars: Luke Dingmann 19, Kaden DeRoo 18, Luke Illies 15, Josh Walstrom 8, Taylor Pieper 6, Lance Radermacher 2.

A big factor in how the game stayed close was B-B-E's large advantage on the boards: 32 rebounds compared to 23 by the Knights. For WCA's semifinal win against Border West, they out-rebounded the Buccaneers 39-25.

B-B-E finishes 20-9 in their seventh straight appearance in a sub-section championship game. I'm back home now in the living room easy chair, taking a breather! We have had another outstanding winter sports season in Jaguar Country. I could not be prouder!!! In B-B-E boys' basketball history, the Jaguars have played in 20 sub-section championship games starting in 1992. The very first season of Jaguar basketball was 1988-1989.

In the Sub-Section 6A-North championship, No. 12-ranked Ada-Borup West stopped No. 4-ranked Henning 69-55 to advance to the section finals.

Area boys' basketball playoff scores on March 13:
Mountain Iron-Buhl 79, Carlton/Wrenshall 70
Albany 87, Spectrum 64
East Central 64, Upsala 56
Nevis 79, Browerville 55
Annandale 61, Osakia 50





Labels: , , ,

Wednesday: two big basketball games! (VIDEO)


I'm not there physically, but I've got a great source of information helping me stay in touch with how the Northland Community and Technical College Pioneers women's basketball team is faring in their first round of the NJCAA National Tournament. The games are being played in Rochester, Minnesota at the Regional Sports Center.

At halftime: the Northland Pioneers hold a 44-22 lead against No. 12-seeded Nassau Community College.

In the third quarter...
The Pioneers are absolutely taking the Lions apart in the third quarter and have expanded the lead to 58-26 with about 4 1/2 minutes to go before the final quarter. Later, with under 3 minutes left in the third, the Pioneers are ahead 62-26. At the end of three: Pioneers 66, Lions 30. UPDATE: the Northland Pioneers (23-5) won 84-49 with Tiyana Schwinghammer pouring in 18 points and at least 18 rebounds! (I didn't catch final stats)  They advance to the Elite 8 of nationals and face No. 4-ranked Anoka-Ramsey tomorrow at 4 p.m. in the quarterfinals.

**Here's a video from pregame and the start of the game in the playoff opener last Thursday:


More to come. Tonight, this blog post will feature updates from the sub-section boys' basketball game at Minnewaska Area. Tip-off is at 7 p.m., and it will be broadcast on both local radio stations. **Here's the link for Smooth Magic 107 FM: http://www.smoothmagic107.com. And here's 106.5 FM The Train of Norway Lake/Sunburg: https://www.willmarradio.com/the_Train.

**Halftime: WCA 33, B-B-E 25. It's been an outstanding game so far!

This blog post is a wrap. Update the blog for the "Step III" blog post to see how this game turned out.


Labels: ,

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Jaguar fastpitch, sad news, junior college basketball nationals and more (VIDEOS)


I'm going to lead off with the sad news here...
Mr. Keith Clementson has passed away. He was a genuinely warm-hearted person and one of my favorite teachers at B-B-E. You can see his obituary here: https://shorturl.at/bknR5. This news has weighed on me all day as I battle to get the newspaper ready for press. He was a great man who cared deeply for his students. His daughters Susanne and Dawn were Belgrade-Elrosa high school graduates, while his daughter Amy graduated from B-B-E high school in 1991.

In sports news...
For the first time in school history, the B-B-E Jaguars fastpitch team started their first week of preseason drills in the outdoors. The weather has been terrific today and yesterday! It reached a high of about 68 degrees on Monday. Today it climbed to about 63 degrees.

Here's a video from the tail end of practice tonight:


This year's Jaguars fastpitch team will have, for the first time since 2012, a C-squad/JV counterpart. Altogether, the Jaguars have 26 players in grades 8-12 that allows them to field two squads. This is exciting!

Here is overtime from the Region 13B junior college women's basketball championship game at Anoka Ramsey Community College on March 3:


B-B-E Class of 2023 graduate Tiyana Schwinghammer is averaging 14.6 points per game and 10.3 rebounds per game for the No. 2-ranked Pioneers, who are 22-5 going into the national tournament. You can read more on the Northland Community and Technical College's upcoming trip to the NJCAA national tournament by clicking here: https://rb.gy/fm25e4.

More to come...probably on Wednesday morning. I have a newspaper to get ready for the printing press tonight!

UPDATE late Tuesday night: I just returned from the site of a serious accident on County Road 8 west of Brooten. It appears that a truck was overturned along the shoulder of the inside of the first curve on CR8 west of town. Multiple Brooten fire trucks and first responders were on the scene. I'll learn more about this tomorrow morning. UPDATE on Wednesday: it was a pickup roller accident, and Pope County Sheriff's was the responding law enforcement agency handling it. Brooten Fire Department was also on scene.



Labels:

Sunday, March 10, 2024

St. Patrick's Day celebration coming to Padua: a TWO day affair!


You can read all the details by clicking over to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website: https://shorturl.at/ltzDQ.

The web article posted there also features a video from the March 2021 St. Patrick's Day parade.

In the "remarkable news" category...today, Sunday, the B-B-E Class of 2032 girls' basketball fourth grade team competed in the Region 3 Pacesetter tournament in Redwood Falls. With 11 players, they competed against five teams for a berth in the state tournament. They played incredible, incredible defense all day long. It was something you really had to see for yourself. In pool play against the eventual region champion, Hutchinson, the Jaguars lost 4-0. Hutchinson went on to defeat Yellow Medicine East by a score of 24-2 in the Region 3 championship game. Needless to say, the future is bright for this team!

Also coming this weekend...
The Belgrade Lions will host their annual Chili Cook-off fundraiser on Saturday, March 16 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Belgrade VFW. Details have been published in the past two issues of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper.

On Tuesday...sad news! Mr. Keith Clementson passed away. He was one of my favorite teachers at B-B-E. You can see his obituary here: https://shorturl.at/bknR5. This news has weighed on me all day. He was a great man who cared deeply for his students. His daughters Susanne and Dawn were Belgrade-Elrosa high school graduates, while his daughter Amy graduated from B-B-E high school in 1991.



Labels: ,

Saturday, March 09, 2024

Step II: Jaguars advance to the 'Ship! (VIDEO added)


The B-B-E Jaguars boys' basketball team improved to 2-0 in the postseason with another double-digit win to continue on in the Sub-Section 6A-South tournament. The Jaguars expanded on a 35-24 halftime lead against No. 3-seeded Brandon-Evansville only to see it shrink down to seven points in the closing minutes. A clutch three-pointer by Kaden DeRoo with just 90 seconds to go helped stave off a potential Chargers comeback in the final minutes. His late triple gave the Jaguars a 74-63 lead.

Final: B-B-E 80, Brandon-Evansville 68. The Chargers finish 13-15 overall. Their leading scorer, a junior, had 26 points.

B-B-E jumped out to a 7-0 lead, and a three-pointer by Josh Walstrom gave them a 12-4 lead. The Chargers cut it to 15-12 and later 18-17, but a rebound shot by Luke Illies made it 20-17 with 5:40 left. Luke Dingmann's bucket on an inbounds play capped a 6-0 run, and Walstrom's layup pushed the lead to 26-19 with 4 minutes to go. A three-for-three trip to the free throw line by Hayden Sobiech with 2 minutes left gave the Jaguars a 31-19 lead. His three-point play capped an 11-0 run with 80 seconds left, but the Chargers got 5 late points in the closing minute to make it 35-24 at the break.

A steal and layup by Kaden DeRoo pushed the Jaguars ahead 42-27. Walstrom later hit a rebound shot to give the Jaguars a 52-35 lead with just over 13 minutes left in the game. Brandon-Evansville cut it down to 65-58 with just over 4 minutes to go as their man-to-man defense put pressure on the Jaguars. Clutch shooting down the stretch pushed the lead back to double digits, including a fastbreak layup by Walstrom that put the Jaguars ahead 78-63.

B-B-E finished with no fewer than five players in double figures as they shot 46 percent from the field and made 7 of 19 three-point attempts. The Chargers made it a game by draining 12 three-pointers.

Now 20-8 overall, the Jaguars have a tall task in front of them as they prepare for No. 3-ranked (Minnesota Basketball News) West Central Area. The Knights (25-3) defeated defending Section 6A champion Border West today 71-45. In the regular season, they went 12-2 in the West Central Conference to claim the title alone. Across the past two seasons, WCA has a 22-6 record in the WCC. The Knights also had a tremendous season in 2021-2022, when they finished 22-5 overall as runners-up in Sub-Section 3AA-North. The Knights won the Pheasant Conference that season with a 7-1 record.

The next round of playoffs, the Sub-Section 6A-South finals, will be on Wednesday, March 13 at Minnewaska Area high school with tip-off at 7 p.m. against the WCA Knights.

**Here's a video from the final minute of the subsection playoff opener last Thursday against Benson:


In Sub-Section 6A-North, Henning defeated Park Christian 49-45. In their other semifinal game, Ada-Borup defeated a very good No. 6-ranked (Minnesota Basketball News)Hillcrest Lutheran Academy team 82-62. The HLA Comets were Little Eight Conference champions with a 15-1 record. Needless to say, the north half of Section 6A is stacked!

In their second straight upset win of the playoffs, Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta defeated No. 6-ranked (Minnesota Basketball News) Eden Valley-Watkins 57-53 in the Sub-Section 3AA-North championship today in Marshall. The No. 4-seeded MA/CA Tigers take a 20-9 record into the Section 3AA championship, where they will take on Jackson County Central. The JCC Huskies are 20-7 overall and were the No. 2 seed in Sub-Section 3AA-South. They earned a 59-45 upset win against No. 17-ranked (MBB) Redwood Valley in their subsection finals. On paper, that game was billed to be close as JCC was rated No. 12 in Class 2A by QRF and JCC No. 15. MA/CA is rated No. 26 by QRF, and EV-W was rated No. 18.

In Section 6AA, Coach Kevin Kuefler's Sauk Centre squad went down in a narrow defeat by a 57-53 score to Osakis at St. John's University tonight. The Mainstreeters finish another strong season with a 21-7 overall record. They went 10-4 in the rugged West Central Conference, which was good for a tie for second place with Montevideo. Sauk Centre was solo champions in the WCC in 2022-2023, and they were runners-up in 2021-2022. Across the past three seasons, Coach Kuefler's Maintreeters have gone 62-23.

Area boys' basketball playoff scores on March 9:
Nevis 82, Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 50
Albany 57, Melrose Area 50
Upsala 74, Braham 54
Annandale 89, Foley 58



Labels: , ,

Great Northern robotics regional: a day for redemption! (VIDEO)


This is a day for a comeback for the B-B-E Resistance Robotics team in Grand Forks. They have their eyes set on running the table to finish out the Great Northern Regional competition at the spacious Alerus Center! Their robot finished strong in Friday's matches while performing all of its functions in the sixth qualification match of the tournament.

The opening ceremonies and performances of the U.S. National Anthem and Canada's national anthem take place at 8:30 a.m., and the second day of competition starts at about 9 a.m.

Also taking place today: the boys' basketball team faces Brandon-Evansville in the subsection semifinals at Minnewaska Area this afternoon.

Here's video from the last match of yesterday!


Here's how Saturday is playing out in Grand Forks...
In their first match of today, B-B-E's Red Alliance earned an exciting 49-35 win after the autonomous period ended in a 14-14 tie. This moved them up from 55th place to 52nd place in the field of 56 teams.

Update at lunch time: B-B-E's Blue Alliance won their second match of Saturday 58-48 in a Blue Alliance with Willmar and Loretto. This moved them up to 51st place overall. In B-B-E's final qualification match, their Red Alliance with New London-Spicer and Delano lost a tough, close battle by a 44-39 score. They were confident of being in the running for getting selected to a playoff alliance, but that last loss took them out of the running. The region competition for the 2024 season has officially concluded. Five hugely valuable seniors graduate off the team: Davin Preble, Owen Paulson, Odin Jensen, Aiden Johnson and Jeffrey Cihlar.

Officially, the season record was 2-7, and they ended in 53rd place out of 56 teams.

**********
Halftime: the boys' basketball team is ahead 35 to 24 at halftime against the Chargers in their playoff game this afternoon.

I am still making my way back to Fargo. The game is on both local radio stations.

**With 3:23 to go, the Jaguars are ahead 66-58.





Labels: , , ,