WACONIA 69, ORONO 27

Finally!!! After two days of being frozen out, high school action

returned to the hard courts. When I decide on games to see it must fit my window. Waconia was on the to do list. The only time to see them with my other obligations was tonight. The Wildcats had no issues and no rust in their return to action.

A few years ago, the Wright County Conference was one of the toughest, if not the toughest AAA conferences around. Orono won the AAA title two short years ago with a 24-4 mark. The Spartans have had three coaches the last four years. Waconia has had stability in the coaching ranks. That might help explain why the Wildcats put running time on the Spartans.

The five Wildcat starters showcased their balance with scoring between 9 and 14 points with a 127 pp100.  With 6 minutes left in the first half Waconia had enough to win 28-10. The hosts led 37-15 and running time kicked in at 9 minutes at 63-23.

This was my first time in Waconia’s new high school. They moved in last year. Orono is adding to their athletic facilities with a five court fieldhouse.

This completes my Wright County East checklist of teams. They join the South Suburban, Lake, Suburban East, Big South East & West conferences in the done file.

Waconia is now 13-5 on the year. Orono is 4-15.

	WACONIA	ORONO
POINTS	69	27
REBOUNDS/OFF	57/28	29/12
TURNOVERS	18	21
FTA/%	21/47.61	7/57.14
2FG%/3FG%	42.22/41.17	26.92/11.53
PP100	106.2	41.5
TOP SCORER	Natalie Meath 14	Julia Knudson 9

TRENCH PLAYER: Tess Johnson of Waconia with 9 points, 150 pp100 and a 22 in the 31 Club. Actually it could have been a number of Wildcats. Three players topped out at 22 in the 31 Club. Johnson was 9/12 on set up passes and had the best value added (31 Club score minus points). Johnson was the only Waconia player without a turnover with 39 touches.