Now we're into a new sports season. The winter season began for the MACA girls with a 50-39 win over the Falcons of ACGC. The action was at Grove City.
The Tigers broke open a close game in the second half. We cruised with a ten-point scoring advantage in the second half, 26-16. Maddie Carrington was very sharp with her three-point shooting eye. She connected on four such shots. But it was Malory Anderson leading the team in scoring with her 22 points while Carrington finished with 18. Just five Tigers scored points. Riley Decker scored five points, Jordann Baier had four and Liz Dietz one.
Anderson snared eight rebounds and Jenna Howden collected five. Decker dished out five assists followed by Howden with four. In steals it was Anderson setting the pace with nine while Decker had five.
For the Falcons, three players each made one 3-pointer: Jeana Denton, Addison Bernstein and Madison Denton. Madison Denton was ACGC's top scorer with 13 points. The list continues with Bernstein (7), Jeana Denton (5), Anna Grimsgard (4), Lindsay Minnick (4), Molly Youngblom (4) and Gabby Lawver (2). Three Falcons each grabbed five rebounds: Grimsgard, Lawver and Minnick. Bernstein topped the Falcons in assists with five, and Jeana Denton was the top steal producer with three.
Last season's Tigers made the Section 3AA semi-finals. How high could they climb this year? A long season lies ahead. Carrington and Anderson scored all but ten of the orange and black points in the Tuesday contest. We have two returning starters from last year's high-achieving team. Those two were fairly quiet offensively against the Falcons: just five points scored. This pair: Howden and Decker. Those names were pretty prominent in the fall volleyball season.
Anderson is a sophomore forward who operates at post. She flirted with a triple-double, most certainly putting a smile on coach Dale Henrich's face. The coach had to smile about his team's overall defensive performance.
We won by eleven but the margin was closer for much of the second half. Our defense forced turnovers through a stretch of that half, but there was difficulty getting those turnovers translated into points. A Decker basket put us up 43-37 with 4:30 left. Then Carrington made one of her four 3's to provide some breathing room.
Tigers 50, Benson 43
Morris Area Chokio Alberta upped its record to 2-0 with a 50-43 triumph over Benson. The success came on the first day of December at Benson. It looks as though Benson is becoming more competitive than they've been over the recent past. Benson led the Tigers at halftime, 23-20. But MACA surged to outscore the Braves 30-20 in the second half.
As in the season opener, Maddie Carrington made four 3-pointers for the Tigers. Liz Dietz made one "3." It was Malory Anderson leading the Tigers in scoring with 17 points. Carrington followed with 12. The list continues with Jenna Howden (6), Riley Decker (5), Jordann Baier (4), Dietz (4) and Carly Wohlers (2).
Anderson at post led the orange and black in rebounds with eleven. Howden snared nine rebounds and Dietz had seven. Three Tigers each had two assists: Jennifer Solvie, Dietz and Decker. The steals list has three Tigers each with three: Anderson, Howden and Carrington.
Benson came at the Tigers with a 1-2 scoring punch of Kaitlyn Berreau and Claire Ricard, each with 15 points. Grace Lee put in nine points for the Braves, while Abbie Mitteness and Courtney McNeill each scored two. Berreau made Benson's only three-pointer. Lee was tops in rebounds with 13 while Ricard had eight. Ricard and McNeill each had three assists. Three Braves each had two steals: Berreau, Mitteness and Hannah Andrews.
Get out your reading glasses
Have you seen the MACA sports schedules on that flyer that was recently distributed with the Morris paper? The type size for the schedule info seems unreasonably small. I'm 62 years old and use reading glasses. But newspaper readership on the whole is "up there" in years. Why couldn't the paper use slightly larger type size? Oh, we all ought to know the answer: the paper is trying to squeeze in as many of those box ads for businesses as they can. The newspaper vacuums in some revenue. Obviously that's a higher priority than the schedule information which is just a lure for getting those ads which are "sig ads" (also known as "sucker ads"). Money shouldn't have to change hands for MACA sports fans to get easily-accessible schedule information. Doesn't Pheasant Country Sports provide this in a user-friendly way?
Also, I was shocked to see that the Morris paper fell all the way down to 14 pages. My goodness, 14 pages! The paper had been hovering between 16 and 18 pages. It's strange and a little alarming that this shrinkage is happening between Thanksgiving and Christmas, normally the most robust time of year for newspapers. If it's this bad now, how will it be after the holidays?
Should there even be a charge?
If the Morris paper is going to shrink this much, this fast, it should knock down the newsstand price from $1.25 to a dollar. Then again, if a superior publication like Senior Perspective is offered for free, along with the campus University Register, then you can argue that the minimalist Morris paper should be free too. Is Forum Communications getting ready to just start mailing out the Alexandria paper to everyone on the Morris/Hancock subscriber list?
It is fraudulent that the Morris paper continues to claim that it has now combined with the Hancock paper. The paper does appear to be going out of its way to appease Hancock, subsequent to the cancelling of Hancock's own paper, by presenting lots of Hancock material. I heard a complaint about this at church Sunday.
I spent 15 years generating two pages of sports for the Hancock Record every week. Randy Thielke told me recently he appreciated that. I do hope it is remembered.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
well the first paper of the new yr was one section no editorial page . the wk before they published a letter to the editor by a friend of mine it was an old one not the most recent she had submitted it was supposed to be in yesterday's paper it was not. and the paper has shrunk some more pretty soon we will not have a Morris paper we will all get the Alex paper with a page or two of Morris news in it BTW Katie e from Hancock is now covering events in the Herman area for the grant co Hearld
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