The Tigers overcame Benson's Ben Peterson and his 40 points Thursday night. How did we do that? In part it was with 51 points from our Jackson Loge.
Yes, the game at Benson had quite the exhibition of talent on the hardwood. Peterson and Loge were top-notch in long-range shooting. Fans saw Peterson sink half his long-range tries, six of 12, while Loge split the cords on seven of 12.
MACA was the 93-79 victor in this game that was a treat for offense aficionados. We're 13-2 now. Benson was left with a 7-9 mark. We had a seven-point advantage at halftime, 34-27. Our second half advantage was likewise seven.
I would guess that Loge is getting steadily more attention from college recruiters. He made 19 of 34 field goal shots en route to his point harvest of 51. Toby Gonnerman made three of four and posted eleven points. Also scoring were: Brandon Jergenson (8), Riley Reimers (8), Durgin Decker (6), Cole Wente (3), Thomas Tiernan (3) and Sam Kleinwolterink (3). Kleinwolterink got his three points on one-for-one in 3's. Loge was the standout here with his seven makes, then we see Jergenson (2), Decker (1), Wente (1) and Kleinwolterink.
Loge and Gonnerman made six and five freethrows respectively. The Tigers had 33 rebounds with nine coming offensively. Tiernan with his seven assists led there. Decker had two steals of our team total four. Loge blocked three shots while Reimers and Gonnerman each blocked one.
Peterson was dominant for his Braves but teammate Cole Hedman also scored well with 17 points. Other Braves who scored: Juan Espinoza (9), Abe Peterson (8), Matt Laumeyer (4) and Sam Lenarz (1). Ben Peterson was joined in the 3-pointer attack by Espinoza (three of five), Abe Peterson (2/5) and Hedman (2/8).
Espinoza grabbed nine rebounds, complemented in this department by Ben Peterson (5) and Lenarz (4). Ben Peterson led in assists with three and steals with two. Ben Peterson was nearly perfect in freethrows, eight of nine.
Girls: Hancock 47, MACA 39
An outstanding Hancock Owl team came to Motown Thursday and stayed unbeaten. Outstanding yes, no doubt, but one has to wonder why MACA can't fare a little better just based on comparative town sizes. Not only is Morris' population substantially larger - no comparison really - we also take in Chokio-Alberta.
Yours truly spent years covering C-A's stand-alone basketball teams for the Morris newspaper. There was lots of excitement as with Christy Staples of the girls team. I enjoyed working with the late Jill Willis who coached the Spartan girls. I remember Jill was amused when I penned a big headline suggesting C-A might be a "team of destiny" that season. Well it was true even if my writing reflected a little hyperbole. Moi? Well, I did veer toward interpretive reporting sometimes.
In the 1980s the small schools seemed to generate a lot more excitement than Morris. It took a while for Motown to adjust things up a notch. I don't think Morris GBB was ever able to quite catch up with Hancock before the four-class system was instituted.
What is the population of Morris? What is the population of Hancock? Are these numbers meaningful for the purpose of analysis? Many of my fellow Morris residents were enraged that I would ask such questions. These people didn't seem very constructive, just resentful and angry.
I enjoyed working with Paul Daly when he coached the C-A boys, although I wish he had spent less time ice fishing. Just kidding! It's just that ice fishing is not my cup of tea. I could have a hard time reaching Paul sometimes - evidently he had no phone in his fishhouse. I smile as I remember those "old times."
So, this year's Hancock girls showed superiority over the MACA Tigers Thursday at Motown, score of 47-39. So the Owls are 15-0 while the orange and black has 4-11 numbers. I watched the post-game interview with the Morris coach on the public access channel. It was very dry, boilerplate, predictable. OK not interpretive. (Or is it "interpretative?) Coach Dale Henrich talked about how his team "played hard" in a losing cause.
Why is it that a group of athletes representing a town of 5,334 - this doesn't account for C-A - struggles vs. a stand-alone town from down the road, population 795? I ask questions like this. My media brethren do not, would consider it sacrilege. "Nothing to see here," I guess.
Kudos to the Owls who are ranked eighth in Minnesota 'A'. They trailed at halftime by two, then Tony Thielke must have drawn up some superior strategy. Congrats to Tony. I'm sure Randy cheers a lot these days. I always enjoyed working with Randy Thielke of Hancock. Owls hoot!
For MACA, Maddy Grove was our leader with eleven points. Meredith Carrington and Cate Kehoe each scored seven. Emma Bowman put in six, Sydney Dietz and LaRae Kram three each, and Kaylie Raths two. Carrington and Kehoe each made two 3-pointers. Kehoe nailed both her attempts. Grove and Kram made our other 3's. Dietz and Kram each grabbed four rebounds. Carrington stole the ball four times.
The softball fields project
I am sharing here an email I sent to a friend the other day sharing about the pumped-up UMM softball fields improvement project. They may not be called the UMM fields any more, as it's what they call a "cooperative project," meaning that various pockets are going to be picked. Here's the email I sent:
Do you ever have occasion to drive past the UMM sotball fields or "complex" as it's called? You realize of course the big "improvement project" there. My walking routes go past there.
I take no pleasure in being critical but what the heck is going on there? I notice hardly any difference in the place. Only noticeable difference is a little shack-like structure in the middle. Now the City of Morris has announced it is putting a hold on any further contributions to this? Am I naive in asking why the City of Morris is even involved with this? What's the City of Morris interests?
It has been known as the UMM softball fields and it seems to me the U has plenty of money to do big things like this. The city has jacked up our water bills. Oh, the "treatment plant." If the government really wanted us to have this plant, maybe government could cover the cost as an ENTITLEMENT to the people. Oh, like the big gov't subsidies to oil companies. I will not be planting zinnias this summer, I need to reduce water consumption. That's a shame.
Is the City of Morris getting suspicious of the whole thing? When you're in charge of the public purse, you must be highly vigilant about all the pocket-pickers around, the interests who talk big but really just want money. I didn't come into town on a turnip truck. Here's an email from a different friend who seeks to illuminate some. Maybe it's too late to turn back now, just like with the godforsaken water treatment plant.
Relative to the softball field, when Blaine (Hill) was on his weekly radio show recently, he said something about the city having contributed some money to that project, but then whoever is in charge of the project came asking for more money. So, Blaine said no more .
Let's not overlook the "Zonar" controversy at the school. Sounds like a name from a science fiction novel. The supt. had to "apologize" at one point and that's rare among administrative people, the alternative being to spin, rationalize, whatever. Here's some input I got on that:
The supt. apologizing wasn’t really necessary, but apparently some conspiracy-theory people got excited about “passes” that contained computer chips being given to all kids that ride the buses. The purpose was to make sure if a kid missed their stop, or didn’t get on the right bus, or get on when they were supposed to so that the school would know right away. The buses are/will be equipped with a “reader” that can get the card info even if it was in the kid’s backpack (like those readers in financial institutions and airports that can scan people when they walk buy and read what denominations of paper money they have in their wallets or purses). From personal experience, I can see how we would have benefited from that program when son (name withheld) had a bus mix-up once when he was in kindergarten. But, the school isn’t supposed to track kids against their own free will – compromise of freedom, doncha know.
That's earl, brother (apologies to the late Earl Wilson).
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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