Lakers crush another opponent: Rocori

Minnewaska Area continued a pattern of fairly destroying opponents on Monday. A string of games has developed like this. A high compliment to the Lakers and their coaches for molding such quality. Maybe as time goes on, they might want to play their reserves a little more! Because, look how things went on Monday: a 79-22 score. 

So much for private schools having an advantage. We always hear that comment around tournament-time. Look how Mayer Lutheran handled MACA recently. "Manhandled" would better describe. But on Monday the private school Rocori could not hold a candle to the vaunted Lakers. 'Waska pummeled Rocori to keep their streak of overwhelming success going. 

Rocori even had the home floor in Cold Spring. There, Addy Kath led the Laker charge. This she did by making four 3-pointers and finishing with the team-best 25 points. Sydney Dahl continued her positive play by putting in 22 points. Dahl also had five rebounds and three shot blocks. Lauryn Ankeny joined these two in double figures with ten points. 

Oh, and Ankeny was at it with her specialty of gaining steals! A thrill for the fans to see. With cat-like quickness Ankeny had eight steals, plus she contributed four assists. 

Defense? Well what about this: Rocori scored a mere four points in the second half! The Lakers outscored Rocori 40-18 in the first half and 39-4 in the second. Again, maybe have reserves take over sooner (wink)? 

The top three Laker scorers were followed by these teammates: Alia Randt 5, Berlynn Green 4, Olivia Danielson 4, Carly Jergenson 3, Kendall Danielson 3 and Jayda Koilstoe 3. I have had to keep track of several 'Waska "Danielsons" over the recent past. A real active family. Many towns have certain names that you can associate with them. Benson: "Staton." 

Kath with her four 3's was followed by a parade of mates each of whom had one: Randt, Green, Dahl, Jergenson, Danielson and Kolstoe. Uh-oh! the West Central Tribune does not specify which "Danielson" had the '3'. Olivia scored four points and Kendall three so it could be either. Hey, I know as a former newspaper writer how easy it is to be caught in a situation like this. You have to try to make a mental note of the teams with more than one of the same last name. And it is common! 

Three Lakers each snared five rebounds: Randt, Dahl and Megan Thorfinnson. Ankeny and Thorfinnson co-led in assists: four each. Ankeny and Danielson (first name not available) had eight and six steals respectively. Dahl blocked three shots. 

'Waska is 9-2 now.

I remember when MACA girls basketball had the two "Holland" sisters and both had the same first initial: "B." Normally in newspaper work you separate the siblings with the first initials. In the case of the Hollands it was best to just type out their full names all the time. 

 

I'll bet on 'Waska tonight (Tues.)

The Lakers are not only successful, they are busy! Action resumes tonight (Tuesday) at home against Benson. I'm sure betting on the Lakers. Is Benson sticking with their "Braves" nickname? Well, they are holding out for state money, I guess. Human nature. Ethics of the nickname be damned I guess. 

A member of my church, Bryanna Wiebe, has been student teaching with Brock Duncan in the Benson band program. Wiebe is a UMM student and I think she's "going places." 

I once wrote about Mr. Duncan that it was super how he prepared his pep band for playing the opposing schools' fight songs. I wrote that in the Morris paper. Not surprisingly it got Duncan's attention and he made a copy for the supt. to appreciate! I wrote in Morris paper that Benson's band performed our school song just as well as our own Morris band! And I was subsequently advised that our Morris band director would probably not appreciate the comment! 

Hey, everything about high school activities is fun!

 

Girls basketball: MACA 65, Wheaton 64

This was one of those games you could appreciate on YouTube. I'm age 70 and we could not have imagined anything like this service for much of my life! How transformative. I have to confess I was rooting for Wheaton because guard Addison Blume is a weekend server of mine at DeToy's Restaurant. 

Wheaton had a slow start, seemed futile for a time. I went to bed. I noticed next morning that Wheaton really made a game of it, nearly won. So there was a one-point difference at the end. MACA survived. But I would bet on Wheaton for the re-match. Go Addison! 

I am very impressed with the YouTube production for Morris Area High School! I shared with a friend this morning via email:

 

I was watching girls basketball on YouTube last night and the quality of these broadcasts has come so far!!! I'm amazed. They even had a real entertaining game announcer, just as good as the big-timers. She knew all the cute expressions like "splash." And there are graphics at bottom of screen to follow the game, just like the big time. People must be getting paid for all this. Different camera angles.

When Sue Dieter was at the paper, she thought the paper was going to get in on shooting video at games. And the paper did that for a while after I left, just little snippets. I was afraid of a staggering workload. I already had one. Once I got committed to the Hancock Record, I think that spelled doom for me. There is a saying "don't volunteer to do anything at work." Now I realize it's true.

 

Addendum: I have become very cautious using images from Twitter (X) pages. I'd have to be totally certain of the subject matter - sometimes this is ambiguous. I have seen a couple that I would like to use. You have to make sure these photos are timely too, not dated!

 

- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwillh73@yahoo.com