After staking a double-digit lead over the Rockets in the first half, the Jaguars girls basketball team (8-3 CMC, 13-7) smoked Rockford on the road by a 74-49 margin. They led 21-12 after 10 minutes of play and 36-22 at halftime.
The win marks the first season that they will go above .500 in the Central Minnesota Conference, as they can do no worse than an 8-6 record if they lost their final three games of the league season. They have Kimball, Eden Valley-Watkins, and Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted left on the schedule for CMC opponents. They should beat Kimball, they have a strong chance of beating HL-W-W, and an outside shot at beating EV-W.
By the way, last night in this same gymnasium in boys basketball, usual CMC doormat Kimball beat the undefeated (16-0 going into the game) Rockford Rockets by a 58-55 margin. I still can't believe it. The Cubs are 8-9 overall. Rockford is 16-1 and was the 2nd-ranked team in Class AA going into this week of play.
I just talked to Coach Mike Tauber (head coach) of the Rockets' boys basketball team. He said the following about last night's loss, "I sat two of my starters for disciplinary reasons, and Kimball played well. They are much tougher than they were 2 or 3 years ago. We had a hard time adjusting to a new lineup.
We have a tough playoff road with Mayer Lutheran, Foley, and Glencoe, but we hope to survive the section and do some damage at state. We also have a very strong Hawley team on our schedule before playoffs." (The Hawley Nuggets are 14-2)\
Scores from around the area, including CMC girls basketball games:
Holdingford 37, Pierz 35
Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 77, Kimball Area 39
Boys basketball scores:
New London-Spicer 63, Sauk Centre 47
The Jaguars wrestling team fell in a close dual with Eden Valley-Watkins, and then lost to Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City in the final match of the Triangular on Friday night. Here are the scores I have:
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 62, Eden Valley-Watkins 6
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City 57, Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa 11
Eden Valley-Watkins 34, Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa 30
EV-W is 10-9 overall, with two of their dual meet wins coming in close battles with our Jaguars. The Section 5A playoffs open up next Tuesday night. The Jaguars were seeded #10 in a 13-team section, even though they had a winning record as of the seeding meeting (9-8). It shows how ultra-tough the section is. I'll post more information on that later tonight.