The Heart O’Lakes hosted their conference vs assorted others from section 8AA (and a few from larger and smaller classes) and came out with a 6-1 mark. Looking at it through the prism of 8AA South v 8AA North the southerners won 2-0 in direct conflict. The South, overall, was 5-2; the north 2-2. Non 8AA assorted guests went 1-4.
As for the games themselves there was one overtime game, one game decided by a possession, a classic “grinder,” and capped off with a David slaying Goliath. In the mix included team sharpshooting that would make Annie Oakely proud. Five teams had pp100s over 90 led by the 14 3s from Perham propelling the Yellowjackets to a high of 129.9. Technically the “Best” game of the day was the overtime game if you measure “best” with the losing team’s pp100 which in this case was Lake Park-Audubon with an 81.2 in their loss to Wadena-Deer Creek. LPA, Park Christian, and Henning all are in Class A.
Tent pole players were in abundance. The top individual performance of the day had to be Karley Motschenbacher of Park Christian who rang up a 31 Club score of 55—-34 points (already a 31 Club member on that alone) plus 17 d stops and 4 distributions. That last score would have been higher if her teammates scored—she set them up 16 times. One player joined the 41 Club, five others joined the 31 Club. Two just missed out of the exclusive club with scores of 30.
It was a good day to knock off top 100 teams with five charted: Moorhead (#38); Pelican Rapids (#71), Hawley (#77), Crookston (#90), Perham (#94). Those bubbling under out to 200 increased that total to seven with Breckenridge (#187), Barnesville (#197).
This year the site was on Minnesota soil—–Moorhead High School. The first two editions of this festival the games were held at the Fargo Civic Center.
This was an extremely long day—up around 4:55 am to travel the 3:03 to get to Moorhead. I did not return home until 1:40 am. My sleep deficit was apparent on Sunday.
So, here is a quick glimpse of each game:
GAME 1: The battle of the green goes to the Cowgirls. Breckenridge might want to schedule all their games at 9:30 in the morning. All five starters were at or over 100 pp100—the only group all day to achieve that. Three others off the bench joined them in the centurion club.
| BRECKENRIDGE | EAST GRAND FORKS | |
| POINTS | 66 | 47 |
| REBOUNDS/OFF | 40/12 | 34/14 |
| TURNOVERS | 24 | 15 |
| 2FGA/% | 22/45.45 | 50/26.00 |
| 3FGA/% | 18/50.00 | 98/22.22 |
| FTA/% | 29/65.51 | 21/71.42 |
| PP100 | 94.3 | 68.1 |
| TOP SCORER | Two with 16 | Haley Burger 14 |
TRENCH PLAYER: Jude Held with 16 points, 100.0 pp100 and a 29 score in the 31 Club
GAME 2: Barnesville came up with a late rally to prevail. This was tight throughout. With 3 minutes to go Park Christian held a 49-45 lead. Their last five possessions ended on turnovers as their delay game frayed. A steal followed by a foul sent #32 to the line and she made both free throws with 15.8 seconds left for a 51-49 Trojan lead. Sydney Strand came off the bench for 23 points for the Trojans.
| BARNESVILLE | PARK CHRISTIAN | |
| POINTS | 52 | 49 |
| REBOUNDS/OFF | 30/23 | 14/5 |
| TURNOVERS | 30 | 15 |
| 2FGA/% | 20/75.00 | 22/40.90 |
| 3FGA/% | 14/35.71 | 22/27.27 |
| FTA/% | 8/7 87.50 | 16/81.25 |
| PP100 | 83.9 | 79.0 |
| TOP SCORER | Sydney Strand 23 | Karley Motschenbacher 34 |
TRENCH PLAYER: despite not winning Karley Motschenbacher of PC had a strong performance with 34 points, 147.8 pp100, 8/12 shooting on 2s, 4/9 on 3s, a perfect 6/6 at the line, 108 touches per turnover, and a member of the 31 Club 51 Club with a score of 55.
GAME 3: A big lead whittled away. DGF led 35-17 at the break. The Rebels had nine players with more than ten minutes of action. Only one of those players made it to double digits—Maria Watt. WM, despite using four players with over 30 minutes of action, actually cut the deficit to three (50-47) with over five minutes to go. The Rebels regrouped to close out 12-5. This was the most possessions used in the day with 81.
| DILWORTH-GLYNDON-FELTON | MAHNOMEN-WAUBUN | |
| POINTS | 62 | 52 |
| REBOUNDS/OFF | 45/20 | 41/9 |
| TURNOVERS | 23 | 28 |
| 2FGA/% | 36/38.89 | 46/36.95 |
| 3FGA/% | 35/25.71 | 7/28.57 |
| FTA/% | 12/58.33 | 19/63.15 |
| PP100 | 76.5 | 64.2 |
| TOP SCORER | Maria Watt 19 | Nicole Swedberg 20 |
TRENCH PLAYER: Megan Thune of DGF with 15 points 150 pp100 and a 20 in the 31 Club
GAME 4: OT. Lake Park-Audubon had things roll their way in the first half 29-19. Wadena-Deer Creek used the long ball to come up with the first rally taking their first lead in the second half at 38-36 after a Kennedy Gravelle 3 with eight minutes to go. WDC led 46-40 with 3:30 left in regulation. Now it was LPA’s turn with a 3 ball rally. Beth Schauer off the bench tied it with a 3 at 46. Down the stretch of regulation neither team connected with five empty possessions between them. LPA scored on their first in overtime. WDC scored on back to back 3s to provide the winning margin in OT with 1:20 left. LPA had two straight possessions at the end that ended in turnovers, and this with the game at two possessions.
| WADENA-
DEER CREEK |
LAKE PARK-AUDUBON | |
| POINTS | 57 | 52 |
| REBOUNDS/OFF | 34/16 | 37/14 |
| TURNOVERS | 13 | 25 |
| 2FGA/% | 37/40.54 | 44/40.90 |
| 3FGA/% | 23/30.43 | 8/50.00 |
| FTA/% | 9/66.67 | 8/50.00 |
| PP100 | 90.5 | 81.2 |
| TOP SCORER | Madison Carsten 18 | Etta Miosek 20 |
TRENCH PLAYER: Madison Carsten of WDC with 18 points, 112.5 pp100 and a 29 score in the 31 Club.
GAME 5: The battle of the Hornets go to Henning with their tent pole Ellie Dague scoring 28. Henning broke open the game in the second half after leading by one at the break 22-21. Foul problems plagued Frazee. Henning may not have exploited it fully, but it sent key personnel to sit for Frazee.
| HENNING | FRAZEE | |
| POINTS | 56 | 41 |
| REBOUNDS/OFF | 34/14 | 29/10 |
| TURNOVERS | 15 | 23 |
| 2FGA/% | 35/51.42 | 27/44.44 |
| 3FGA/% | 16/18.75 | 17/23.52 |
| FTA/% | 19/57.89 | 10/50.00 |
| PP100 | 91.8 | 65.1 |
| TOP SCORER | Ellie Dague 28 | Paige Ziegler 18 |
TRENCH PLAYER: Ellie Dague with 28 points, 112.0 pp100 and a member of the 31 Club with a score of 41.
GAME 6 The Yellowjackets 14 3s (on 51.85% shooting) sting Staples-Motley. Sydney Anderson was scorching at 6/9 behind the arc. The Perham bench scored one point less than SM. Mya Morris, one of those off the bench, had a pp100 of 225.0 with all nine points behind the arc.
| PERHAM | STAPLES-MOTLEY | |
| POINTS | 87 | 36 |
| REBOUNDS/OFF | 48/14 | 28/12 |
| TURNOVERS | 12 | 18 |
| 2FGA/% | 31/51.61 | 36/25.00 |
| 3FGA/% | 27/51.85 | 23/21.73 |
| FTA/% | 18/72.22 | 7/42.85 |
| PP100 | 129.9 | 53.7 |
| TOP SCORER | Sydney Anderson 22 | Bella Martin 7 |
TRENCH PLAYER: Sydney Anderson with 22 points 183.3 pp100 and a 32 score in the 31 Club.
GAME 7 The Vikings remain the only AA undefeated team. Grind, grind, grind. Contested, contested, contested. Defensive mavens would have approved this masterpiece. The score was 11-4 at half. E-L-E-V-E-N 2 F-O-U-R. There was a healthy amount of possessions at 61. The Vikings were 3/7 on lay ups, the Pirates 1/7. Crookston was without Emma Borowicz who was out with knee issues.
| PELICAN RAPIDS | CROOKSTON | |
| POINTS | 32 | 27 |
| REBOUNDS/OFF | 38/9 | 27/8 |
| TURNOVERS | 23 | 15 |
| 2FGA/% | 25/44.00 | 29/20.68 |
| 3FGA/% | 15/13.33 | 17/11.76 |
| FTA/% | 10/40.00 | 15/60.00 |
| PP100 | 53.3 | 44.3 |
| TOP SCORER | Greta Tollefson 10 | Hayden Winjum 10 |
TRENCH PLAYER: Anna Stephenson of PR with 9 points, 90.0 pp100 and a 16 score in the 31 Club.
GAME 8 Upset special. Hawley rebounded from a 58-28 beating by Pelican Rapids on Thursday by surprising the Spuds on their own court. 6-2 Paige Thompson did a bit of it all for the Nuggets all with staying away from her fourth foul. She never came off the floor. The difference can be summed up in the shooting stats (as it usually is) 56 to 29.
| HAWLEY | MOORHEAD | |
| POINTS | 58 | 49 |
| REBOUNDS/OFF | 41/10 | 34/20 |
| TURNOVERS | 24 | 9 |
| 2FGA/% | 25/56.00 | 41/29.26 |
| 3FGA/% | 17/41.17 | 29/20.68 |
| FTA/% | 13/69.23 | 9/77.78 |
| PP100 | 90.6 | 76.6 |
| TOP SCORER | Paige Thompson 26 | Rylie Polomny 23 |
TRENCH PLAYER: Paige Thompson with 26 points, 130.0 pp100, and a 40 score in the 31 Club.