Last Saturday the icy roads prevented my journey to the Mayo Civic Center for the Rotary Tournament. This Saturday the roads were in wonderful winter driving condition which allowed me to see a quartet of contests in the Med City. Three games featured teams ranked in the top 20. The Breakdown hosted two events today, one in Rochester and one in Perham. The Rochester venue showcased both boys and girls (as did Perham). Rochester had two courts in action with seven girls, and nine guys games. I opted for the girls teams that were higher in the QRF food chain. In the middle of the Rochester Hoops Challenge I traveled 3.3 miles northwest to Lourdes to see the battle of southeastern Catholic powers at 4 pm, part of a boy/girl double header. After that it was back to the Mayo Civic.
In the only cross class clashes the larger school prevailed (AAAA Mayo over AAA KM). In the three ranked games the higher ranked team was victorious only once. #2AA Rochester Lourdes had the best pp100 of the day in their win over #9AA Winona Cotter, in a potential section 1 final preview. Lake City, who has been ranked in the top 10 in AA, upset #6AA Waseca by 20 and has a victory over Lourdes. They Tigers will be in contention for the 1AA crown as well. The closest contest of the day found #6AAA Simley edging #4AAA Austin by four. Simley enjoyed a 34-24 half time lead. The Spartans only scored a dozen points in the second half. The undersized Packers struggled all day against the longer Simley squad. Still Austin got the margin down to 44-42 with 15 seconds left after two free throws by Colie Justice. Austin had a crack with 9 seconds left and down 45-42 to tie it. A turnover negated that opportunity.
The first game this morning broke a personal charting string of three straight games where the contest came down to the last possession.
The better rebounding team won three of the four games: the exception was Waseca who outrebounded LC by four. The turnover differential margin was a wash at 2-2. Lourdes and Simley both had more turnovers than their opponents.
The one constant for the four winners was a better shooting percentage. Adding the 2FG% and 3FG% Mayo won 90.47-65.13; Simley 64.26-48.33; Lourdes 105.35-52.02; Lake City 75.00-44.55. When you shoot good, you look good.
Fouls were an issue for certain teams. Both Cotter and Waseca had their prime offensive movers shackled with fouls in the first half hampering and tamping down their natural aggressiveness. Megan Morgan of Cotter picked up two fouls four minutes into the game. Lourdes took advantage of her absence to tack on seven quick points (14-4). She returned three minutes later, but the Ramblers were forced to play catch up by then. Waseca’s Gus Boyer almost didn’t make the second half. She picked up foul #3 at 1:15 but stayed in the game. #4 was a blocking foul with 44.8 left in the half. She still stayed in. With 7.6 ticks left, and Waseca on defense, she sat down.
31 Clubbers numbered four. North Carolina bound Alyssa Ustby of Lourdes cracked the 41 Club thanks to a day high 25 points, 10 d stops and 9 distributions. She was joined in the select circle with Anna Miller of Mayo, Tiwaah Danso of Simley and Natalie Bremer of Lake City. Danso made the exclusive club thanks to a dominating presence on the defensive side of the ledger with a whopping 24 d stops.
I have now checked off 54% of the AAA teams. I have seen all top 10 AAAA, and AAA teams. I am still missing three AA teams. Only one top ten A team has been charted.
| ROCHESTER MAYO | KASSON-MANTORVILLE | |
| POINTS | 65 | 49 |
| REBOUNDS/OFF | 38/14 | 34/14 |
| TURNOVERS | 10 | 12 |
| 2FGA/% | 42/40.47 | 26/38.46 |
| 3FGA/% | 12/50.00 | 30/26.67 |
| FTA/% | 19/68.42 | 10/50.00 |
| PP100 | 108.3 | 81.7 |
| TOP SCORER | Anna Miller 23 | Aby Shubert 15 |
TRENCH PLAYER: Anna Miller with 23 points, 135.3 pp100, 35 score in the 31 Club
| SIMLEY | AUSTIN | |
| POINTS | 46 | 42 |
| REBOUNDS/OFF | 43/11 | 26/7 |
| TURNOVERS | 24 | 10 |
| 2FGA/% | 29/55.17 | 33/33.33 |
| 3FGA/% | 11/9.09 | 20/15.00 |
| FTA/% | 16/68.75 | 16/68.75 |
| PP100 | 69.7 | 65.6 |
| TOP SCORER | Sydney Stensgard 19 | Kyra Walters 13 |
TRENCH PLAYER: Sydney Stensgard with 19 points, 95.0 pp100 and a 26 score in the 31 Club.
| ROCHESTER LOURDES | WINONA COTTER | |
| POINTS | 61 | 39 |
| REBOUNDS/OFF | 43/15 | 24/11 |
| TURNOVERS | 13 | 8 |
| 2FGA/% | 42/42.85 | 30/43.33 |
| 3FGA/% | 8/62.50 | 23/8.69 |
| FTA/% | 13/76.92 | 11/63.63 |
| PP100 | 110.9 | 69.6 |
| TOP SCORER | Alyssa Ustby 25 | Megan Morgan 11 |
TRENCH PLAYER: Alyssa Ustby with 25 points, 119.0 pp100, and a 44 score in the 31 Club.
| LAKE CITY | WASECA | |
| POINTS | 54 | 34 |
| REBOUNDS/OFF | 31/6 | 35/11 |
| TURNOVERS | 9 | 17 |
| 2FGA/% | 40/45.00 | 31/25.80 |
| 3FGA/% | 10/30.00 | 16/18.75 |
| FTA/% | 10/90.00 | 12/75.00 |
| PP100 | 91.5 | 57.6 |
| TOP SCORER | Natalie Bremer 20 | Rachel Breck 13 |
TRENCH PLAYER: Natalie Bremer with 20 points, 105.3 pp100 and a 35 score in the 31 Club