The Friday (1/4) story was upbeat for MACA girls basketball: a 62-48 win over Melrose at home. The orange and black pulled up to .500 at 5-5 with this success. Melrose too is having a .500 type season to date (3-4).
We assumed a 31-24 lead at halftime. Would you believe, the second half had identical 31-24 numbers with MACA improving on its advantage?
Maddie Carrington and Riley Decker each made two three-pointers. Malory Anderson was a force all over the court and this Tiger snared eleven rebounds to lead. She and Decker co-led in assists with four each. Anderson led the way in steals with three, and in scoring her impact was with eleven points. But it was Carrington, buoyed by her 3's (always a strong suit for this Tiger), who led in scoring with 13 points.
Anderson's output of eleven was equaled by Decker and Kylie Swanson. So overall it was quite the balanced attack for coach Dale Henrich's crew. Emma Bowman put in five points, and here's the rest of the list: Jordann Baier (4), Sophia Carlsen (3), Kendra Wevley (2) and Liz Dietz (2).
Makiya Luetmer's 20 points for the visitor wasn't enough to help the Dutchmen keep pace. She was truly an impact player. Audrey Welle put in nine points. Other Dutchmen who scored: Kinsey Wensmann (5), Maddie Rosenberger (5), Ashley Revering (3), Ashley Rademacher (3), Molly Kraemer (2) and Madison Dufner (1). Welle made two 3-pointers and Luetmer made one.
Boys: Melrose 61, Tigers 58
MACA basketball was upended by Melrose in January 8 home hoops action. This hard-fought boys contest ended with a score of 61-58. The quality Melrose opponent came out of the night at 7-3. Meanwhile our Tigers were languishing at 3-6, hoping for a renewed spurt of momentum as we get into the new year.
Melrose led 27-23 halfway through. We outscored the Dutchmen in the second half 35-34. The loss was not for lack of 3-point scoring. Indeed our long-range shooting eye was pretty sharp. We had Jaret Johnson connecting three times from 3-point range. Camden Arndt got the 3-point signal from refs on two occasions. Joseph Kleinwolterink and Jackson Loge each made one '3', and it was Loge topping our scoring list with 18 points.
Arndt pushed his total up to 15. Johnson climbed up to eleven points with his three 3's. Here's the rest of our list: Eli Grove (5), Kleinwolterink (3), Jaden Maanum (2), Zach Hughes (2) and Durgin Decker (2). Loge led in rebounds with seven. Arndt and Loge were tops in assists with four and three respectively. Arndt and Johnson each had a steal.
Boys: Breckenridge 78, Tigers 58
The Tigers/Cowboys rivalry was quite intense when your blog host was in high school, many moons ago. It was the orange and black against that doggone green. I seem to recall the Cowboys getting the upper hand too often for my taste. Those were the days when much of the post-season hoops action was held locally like at the P.E. Center at UMM. The P.E. Center got rocking on many occasions. These days it seems everyone heads south like to Granite Falls and Marshall. The number of fans on behalf of the Tigers is probably quite diminished, restricted in large part to parents and other "hardcores."
Well, those Cowboys got the upper hand over our Tigers in a 2018 matchup of these colors, on Thursday, January 3. The Cowboys were host and came away with a 78-58 victory. It was Breckenridge's fifth win.
Jackson Loge was a force for the Tigers but it wasn't enough. Oh, a great many Tigers scored which was nice consolation for the Tigers and their parents who enjoyed seeing their sons get in the scoring column. Loge poured in 19 points to lead. Camden Arndt with his ten points was our other double figures scorer. Also contributing offense were: Joseph Kleinwolterink (2), Zach Hughes (2), Cameron Koebernick (2), Eli Grove (4), Kevin Asfeld (3), Noah Wulff (1), Durgin Decker (5), Jaret Johnson (8) and Thomas Tiernan (2).
It was an unusual evening where MACA made no three-point shots. Loge made his presence felt on the boards with 14 rebounds. Arndt had three assists.
Girls: Breckenridge 69, Tigers 66
The January 3 story for the GBB Tigers was a narrow loss at Breckenridge, 69-66. The Thursday affair saw MACA battle hard employing, among other things, the double-double by Malory Anderson, junior post. Johnson scored 20 points and collected 14 rebounds. Senior Riley Decker made a statement with her 19 points and she was dead-on from 3-point range, making five such crowd-pleasing shots. Maddie Carrington, Tiger junior, accumulated 12 points and five assists.
We were down four points at halftime, 39-35. Breck carved out its seventh win. Emma Bowman scored six points for the Tigers, Liz Dietz five and Kylie Swanson four.
It was "bombs away" for Carrington as she made two 3-pointers, and Bowman made one from beyond the stripe. Carrington dished out five assists. Anderson had two steals.
Scandal touches area hockey
Well, this is rather unusual: a person with connections to Morris hockey through Benson has gotten the book thrown at him, for the kind of wrongdoing that is usually associated with Catholic priests. The guy's name is Brad Alsaker. He's a former rink manager and hockey coach in Benson. He was on the board of the Benson Hockey Association at the time of his arrest. The Benson paper reported last summer that the Benson Hockey Association, Morris Hockey Association and Morris-Benson Hockey Association had terminated his employment.
A district court judge laid down the sentence: 120 days in jail and five years probation. The judge stayed prison sentences of up to five years. Alsaker is age 34. He was sentenced in Swift County District Court for a felony charge of soliciting a child through electronic media, three felony charges of possessing pornographic materials, and a felony charge of possessing a firearm.
Judge David Mennis announced the sentencing. (Just think if the judge's first name was Dennis!)
The hockey guy must report to the Swift County jail no later than February 4. Fines and fees are involved too. He must undergo a psychosexual evaluation by an independent forensic psychologist. He was arrested in June 2017 after an undercover operation involving a Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension special agent posing as an underage girl.
Turns out, the guy had a stash of videos depicting child pornography. I don't know how much contact the guy had with Morris hockey kids. I guess this is the first big sexual misbehavior in area sports since Dennis Courneya.
Gophers football progress: who cares?
A headline blares from today's (1/10) West Central Tribune sports section, re. whether P.J. Fleck's Gopher football team can progress into the top 25 next season. As if we should focus on such a superficial question. It's superficial because it overlooks or neglects the welfare of the young men who choose to participate in the sport.
We're attracted to such headlines because sports helps us avoid the boredom in life, the ennui. We know nothing of the true hazards those young men are subjecting their bodies and brains to. Oh, we'll see an occasional movie like "Concussion" (Will Smith) and catch occasional news articles, but there seems little effect on our actual behavior. We're still attracted to headlines about whether the Gophers can "row the boat" into the top 25, as if that would be good for our ego as Minnesotans, or something.
I used to care in the standard way. Now I'm ashamed of that, or rather enlightened and moving forward.
A Thursday Star Tribune headline is more helpful: "NFL drops plan to fight payouts." "The NFL abruptly dropped its plan Wednesday to challenge approved dementia diagnoses in a landmark concussion case as players' lawyers accuse it of trying to delay payments and rewrite the $1 billion settlement."
Here's the problem: no matter the onslaught of lawsuits and the like, the new media landscape with so many revenue streams ensures that football will continue as a cash cow. The only hope is if us knave fans will really get smart. We need to fight the boredom in our lives in other ways than to watch young gladiators take unreasonable risks all over the place. Then again, we're a nation that elected Donald Trump.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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