For the week:

Five games: 10 new teams, 86 new players, 771.7 miles

For the season: 65 games, 120 teams (6 duplicates), 1216 players 3790.8 miles

Or to Key Largo, FL & back

What was in store for ’24? What was in the Cards? The week opened and closed with the Cardinals hosting a girl/boy double header. Tuesday’s game in Fairmont with Jackson County Central lit up the scoreboard. Fairmont going 17/30 or 56.7% from 3 point range had many asking what was in the Cards? Was it the water? Saturday’s game in Willmar saw repeated comeback attempts that were eventually thwarted. There the Cards were asking “what was in the Lakers? Why won’t they stay dead?” In between another unblemished team tasted defeat. The Central Lakes was successfully charted; and a few more teams came off the 200 list.

REAR VIEW MIRROR

TUESDAY: Fairmont 81, Jackson County Central 70

The new year started with a 3-point fireworks display provided by the host Fairmont Cardinals. The Cards lit up the scoreboard with 17 on the night shooting 17/30 (a sizzling 56.7%. Just when JCC made a run to cut the deficit, Fairmont would create a more comforting spread with a three. JCC narrowed the gap to 61-56 with about seven minutes to go but came up empty on two possessions. The Cardinal 3 made it 64-56. Next Husky possession cut it to six (64-58). Boom—another 3 by Fairmont gave them a cushion.

The 3-point show started right away on Fairmont’s first two possessions and closed with three in their last four possessions. Four different players connected led by Brylee Miller with six (6/10). That also happened to set the week’s made totals. Hope Klanderud (5/7) and Ava Terfehr (4/5) were sparkling too. Oddly enough Fairmont was abysmal at the free throw line shooting a bone chilling 25% (2/8). All that firepower negated the 38 points provided by JCC’s Rylie Cother, who topped all scorers for the week. She had a sweet 16 2-point field goals, two more than the entire Fairmont team. The Huskies were not as potent beyond the arc with only three 3s. They too were not stellar at the line going 5/17.

WEDNESDAY: St. Agnes 61, Nova Classical 30

Nova struck first on their first possession with Ava Winslow’s 3, but after that it was all Aggies. They proceeded to score the next 22 points. After the second Nova time out at the 10:25 mark of the first half, the Knights scored again. At the break St. Agnes was up 28-13. The trajectory of this game did not vary in the second half. St. Agnes and their press forced 34 turnovers or one turnover every 8.47 touches. That ratio was lower than the touches per point for NC which was 9.6. Eventually St. Agnes got to running time, but it was with around five minutes remaining. Winslow led all scorers with 20 points (or two thirds of the NC total). Three Aggies reached double digits led by Ma’Lon McCoy with 18 points.

In case you are wondering where Nova Classical Academy is located, it is along the Mississippi River just east of 35E and south of West 7^th Street. This was a Skyline Conference game. It was the best game available of the potential 13 according to the game matrix with neither team being charted yet (which only yielded an option of three games.)

THURSDAY: Fergus Falls 65, St. Cloud 54

The visiting Otters broke free from a 38 all tie with a 20-8 run. FF knocked down four 3s during their eight scores in ten possessions eruption. That cushion held up the rest of the way. After two free throws by Crush senior Jayna Benson, who led all scorers with 26 points, FF started their 3fest with Brynn Sternberg. St. Cloud was playing a box one on Sternberg, but subbed during the free throw and the assignment was missed. Sternberg drew defensive attention because of her hot hand behind the arc. She ended the night going 5/9. The other Otters then found gaps and were open on reversals and started connecting too with 11/27 or a healthy 40.7%.

This “home” game was at Apollo, part of the dual nature with Tech in combined St. Cloud. How two big schools together equal an AAA school is still a mystery. But the home table did not do the Crush any favors. In the first half a FF 3 that was put on the scoreboard was indicated by the official running by the table as a two. It was not corrected. Another oddity: Benson fouled out with four fouls. She had her first foul with 14.9 seconds left in the first half; picked up her second at 15:54 in the second half. Three came at 10:35 and the “final” at 2:46 much to the puzzlement of the St. Cloud bench. At that point the Crush was down ten. They only scored two more the rest of the way.

FRIDAY: Pine City 63, Braham 53

Pine City traveled to Braham on Friday and delivered a knockout blow to the unbeaten Bombers in the first half which had the hosts having to scramble the rest of the way. PC utilized the fast break well in the opening stanza and built up a 40-21 lead. For the night the Dragons were breathing fire going 10/13 on transition lay ups whether it was off thefts or off the snappy outlets on defensive boards. Karly Jusczak had a whopping 22 d stops on the night. She also drew plenty of attention from the Braham defenders when they were in the half court offensive series. She scored 21. It was Summer Thieman who led all scorers with 24 which included 6/7 in two-point land (mostly layups). PC scored the first seven points of the game and forced the first Braham time out at 13:58 with the Bombers looking up from a 13-2 deficit. Braham clawed their way back into the contest in the second half holding PC scoreless eight straight possessions and outscoring the Dragons 11-2 over the course of six minutes. The hosts were able to get the deficit down to eight (55-47) with 2:30 left, but PC hung on while the long-distance shots did not drop for Braham.

SATURDAY: Willmar 55, Detroit Lakes 48

Willmar finally could breathe a sigh of relief when the final horn sounded. The Cardinals led by as many as 14 in the first half (22-8) as the visiting Lakers were unable to connect with a sequence of turnovers that left many scratching their heads. The start of their first resurrection attempt started late in the first half outscoring the hosts 8-2 to close the gap to 24-16. That continued into the second half with Willmar forced to call time at 16:39 clinging to a 26-24 lead. That stopped the bleeding for Willmar, and they reignited their lead to a dozen (44-32) with about seven minutes remaining after a 3 by Kenedee Salonek who led both teams in scoring with 16 points. Even with 4:27 left it appeared the Cards could be on cruise control up 46-35. Two straight 3s by DL renewed their second resurrection. They missed a triple on their next possession and that halted the comeback scenario with less than three minutes remaining. With 58.6 seconds Willmar was happily back up by a dozen 53-41. But like a slasher movie, the Lakers were not dead yet. In the space thirty seconds they cut the margin to 54-48, a 7-1 run plus they were shooting an &1. They deliberately missed and got the offensive board out of bounds. A turnover foiled any miracle comeback (like Park Center’s win over Owatonna).

TWO LOOK ATS: 

I have finished three conferences, two are “outstate.” I forgot to examine the Lake Superior after that Saturday event in December. Here they are (with one additional charting). The first metro conference to wrap was the Metro West. Now the Central Lakes can be added to the roster.

LOOK AT: LAKE SUPERIOR (Belatedly)

Oops. I left the Lake Superior Conference examine out after their event on the second Saturday in December. The Lake Superior is primarily a AAA conference in the northeast / Arrowhead region of the state. Proctor and Duluth Marshall are the two AA contestants. The core schools are around Duluth with recent additions of Grand Rapids and Hibbing (and soon to be Rock Ridge) from the old Iron Range Conference. This conference also has a foreign member—Superior, Wisconsin.

All eight teams have made the state tournament. In the last 20 years the only school not to go was Denfeld. Duluth Marshall was a final four contestant in the halted 2020 tournament. That is the closest any of the eight have been to a title in Minnesota. The closest Superior got was second in 2014 in Wisconsin’s biggest class.

Of course, this charting was done with the Lake Superior conference day in Cloquet, so four games mean 4-4. Since that time, I charted Hermantown again. Now the mark is 4-5. The pp100 came in with a 78.39. But for every Centurion (Duluth Marshall at 115.7, Superior at 104.8) there were sub 50s (Hibbing 40.3 and Duluth Denfeld 28.8).

Seven 31 Club members come from the Lake Superior led by 8^th grader Chloe Johnson of Duluth Marshall. She bypassed that mark and is only one of three to make the hyper-exclusive 61 Club. Johnson checks in with 63. Two others in the conference made the 41 Club—Ava Carlson of Cloquet with a 43 and Johnson’s teammate Regan Jueneman right on the nose at 41. Duluth Marshall and Proctor each have two members. Five schools have a member.

LOOK AT: CENTRAL LAKES

With Minnesota you can expect Lakes in the name of either the school, the mascot, or in this case the conference. This is another AAA level conference with the core group coming from around St. Cloud and then to the North Central and Northwest part of the state. There are a total of nine schools in this league, but two have paired. Apollo & Tech in St. Cloud have been together for three years now as the “Crush.” Combining the colors of each school—blue for Apollo, orange for Tech. For some reason two big schools together do not equal a AAAA school. They are now in AAA. The AAAA members are satellite towns around St. Cloud—Sartell and Sauk Rapids. Fergus Falls is safely back in AAA after their unexplained drop into AA.

All eight (actually all nine) schools have made the state tournament. The newly concocted Crush has not made it yet. Apollo and Tech have in the past. Apollo and Alexandria have won titles; Apollo in the two-class era, Alex in the first year of the four class era in AAA. In the past twenty years Brainerd has not advanced (same with Apollo).

The CLC tops the three conferences completed with a 79.55 pp100, or 1.4 better (roughly) than the Lake Superior and Metro West which oddly share the same score. The weird thing about the CLC is they got the high score but failed to garner a Centurion. The CLC and Metro West share the best W-L mark at 5-3.

The CLC also comes up on the short end with 31 Club members. Only four were able to gain entrance to the exclusive club. The player with the highest score also came this week—Junior guard, Brynn Sternberg of Fergus Falls tops the foursome with 37.

CONFERENCE	w-l	Pp100	Centurians	31Club
Central Lakes	5-3	79.55	0	4
Lake Superior	4-5	78.39	2	7
Metro West	5-3	78.39	2	5

PP100S

Have we turned a corner? For the first time in five weeks the pp100 is over 80, in fact this was the best week of the year beating week one (Thanksgiving) by 1.08. For the week the pp100 reached the stratospheric heights of 81.26. Four of the ten teams were above 89. A rising tide lifts all boats. Still three teams were mired in the muck with sub 70 scores. Winners ramped up things with a 91.12, back above 90. Losers raised their profile to 71.4. The competitive gap was slightly under 20 at 19.72. The class race was extremely tight with AA eeking and squeaking out the W over AAA by a mere 0.06 point. AA came in at 82.86, AAA just 82.8 and A was far, far behind (only sample size of one) at 67.1

Fairmont’s new year resolution was probably to make more 3s. That explains the explosion in the pp100s with a 108, the best of the week. The Cards were aces in 3s making 17. St. Agnes had the best margin differential with a gap of 44.9 over Nova Classical. The Aggies did get to running time (with less than four minutes left).

If you wanted the best game with pp100s you did not need to look past the first game of the week when Jackson County Central lost to Fairmont despite putting up a 92.1, the third best total of the week meaning they would have won in three of the other games. The best gap (or closest) came in the final game of the week when Willmar held off visiting Detroit Lakes several times in the second half including right down to the wire. There the margin was 11.1.

THE BEST THIS SEASON

Week	Leader	Pp100	All pp100
1	Minnetonka	122.2	80.18
2	Rosemount	138.1	76.78
3	Duluth Marshall	115.7	78.23
4	Lakeville North	127.5	75.65
5	Burnsville	88.2	73.14
6	Mankato East	105.3	75.73
7	Fairmont	108.0	81.26

This is the first time the AA class came up with the best performance this year.  For the second straight week despite coming up big with pp100s early in the week both Mankato East and Fairmont fell later in the week.

31 CLUB

Five games were played and nine players joined the 31 Club (or better). Four of the members joined in the very first game of 2024—the fireworks display at Fairmont with Jackson County Central. Both teams provided a pair. Three players made the 41 Club with Rylie Cother of Jackson County Central the top performer with a 54. The junior lefty  had 38 points guaranteeing a spot in the 31 club on that metric alone. 31 Clubbers were 6-3 on the week. Seniors led the way with four members; juniors had three and sophs and frosh provided one each. AA ruled with seven additional members, AAA chipped in two. Besides Fairmont and JCC, Pine City also had two members.

THE BEST THIS SEASON

Week	Player	School	Grad	Score
1	Maddyn Greenway	Providence	2026	56
2	Tori Oehrlein	Crosby-Ironton	2026	68
3	Chloe Johnson	Duluth Marshall	2028	63
4	Jocelyn Land	Holy Family	2024	49
5	Livi Downs	Mankato West	2026	44
6	Lauren Bengston	Cretin-Derham Hall	2024	42
7	Rylie Cother	Jackson County Central	2025	54

After a two-week hiatus, a AA player returns to the top of the list giving them five out of seven weeks. Not only that she gets the scores back to the 51 Club range. Cother is the second player to make the top of the weekly list despite her team losing the game.

MILESTONES

Olivia Olson of Benilde-St. Margaret’s has returned from her early season hand injury and she celebrated by getting #2000 on Thursday in a win over Jordan.

Here is a matrix of milestoners so far.

class	3000	2000	1000	Tot
4	0	0	6	6
3	0	1	8	9
2	1	0	12	13
1	0	2	8	10
Total	1	3	34	38
grad	3000	2000	1000	Tot
2024	0	3	23	26
2025	1	0	6	7
2026	0	0	5	5

Notice that AA has the most milestone residents with 13. A is the only other class at double digits. Players from smaller schools have an advantage over larger schools in that they probably get an earlier taste of the game, being rostered, and starting at earlier ages than the bigger schools. That means more opportunities to score. If we measured points only scored starting with an even starting line the list would look dramatically different.

So how am I doing on this list? I have seen all the 3000-point scorers (Addie Mack of Minnehaha). I have been shut out on the 2000s. I am at 39% of the 2024 1000s, 67% of the 2025 1000s, and only 20% of the 2026 1000s. The grand total is 15 seen, 38 potential or 39.5%.

Obviously more names will be added to the list as the season progresses and I will get to more players as the weeks roll on. This week I think all 2000s will be checked. Only one 1000 is slated to be charted this week.

TOP OF THE LIST

Only one class is above 50%—and then only at 62.5 (AAA). Five more could be checklisted by next Sunday.  No class will be completed for a few more weeks.

AAAA: .500 4/8
AAA: .625 5/8
AA: .500 4/8
A: .308 4/13

Looking at the top 10s: slightly better, but still miles to go.

AAAA 7/10 70%
AAA 7/10 70%
AA 6/10 60%
A 5/10 50%

QRF

99 off the list, 101 to go. This upcoming week should be beneficial with a sweet 16 due to be checked off. Again I trail 2023 at the top, and surpass it if you are looking at the 100 to 200 category. I was at 65 at the 100 mark in 2023, I am five ahead this year. A sweet 16 are due to come off the list this week. And that is in the top 150 ranges.

Rank	Seen	%
1-10	7	70
1-25	20	80
1-50	39	78
1-75	54	72
1-100	70	70
1-125	76	60.8
1-150	85	56.7
1-175	93	53.1
1-200	99	49.5

The biggest fish left to fry? Maple Grove at #3.

AAAA: 81.4%—11 to go
AAA: 54.7%—29 to go
AA: 20.5%—101 to go
A: 4.8%—140 to go

My expectations are to see all AAAA teams. I thought a complete AAA was possible. I no longer think so. I am thinking about 45 of the 64 potentials. The target range for AA is 63, and A is 34. It will be hard to thread the needle. There are seven weeks left of the regular season with two weeks of sections. That is a potential of 54 dates. If I just use a one a day model that puts me at at the range of 140 for the year. If I optimistically doubled that (hard to do) that would clear the bar for 200. The problem is the 200 is a moving target and the missing teams do not live in the same neighborhoods. When sections come hard choices will await.

UNBEATEN

Last week the ominous day of the week was Saturday. This past week we had the “Friday Night Massacre” where two went down. I might be a harbinger of doom, the “angel of death” so to speak, for unblemished teams. I had originally planned to head to East Grand Forks to catch Pelican Rapids on Friday, but the unsettled weather made me change my mind. Instead, I made it to Braham to watch the Dragons slay (or is it ground) the Bombers. Both succumbed on Friday. Next on my list? Fosston. Bring the garlic.

Danger ahead: STMA faces a bookend of stiff tests: first Maple Grove comes to town on a rare (for AAAA) heavyweight battle. Then Friday heads to Minnetonka for a potential unbeaten-fest. In the smaller classes Fosston travels to East Grand Forks Sacred Heart on Thursday in a battle of 8A East & West leaders. New London-Spicer hosts Crosby-Ironton on Saturday afternoon.

Was 9….now 6

AAAA: 2 Minnetonka, St. Michael-Albertville

AAA: 1 Delano

AA: 2 New London-Spicer, Metro Schools College Prep

A: 1 Fosston

STREAKING

Two new streakers are added, both in the smaller classes replacing the Viking mascots. The Crow River twins stay on top in the bigger classes….for now. We could see three new leaders next Sunday.

AAAA: 19 St. Michael-Albertville (7+ this year)
AAA: 13 Delano
AA: 10 New London-Spicer
A: 10 Fosston

ROAD AHEAD

We are now back to the standard six-day game week. The MN Hall of Fame holds an three game event Saturday at Anoka-Ramsey Community College. Also Saturday there is a five game? event at Kasson-Mantorville. It could be four because of a back out.

SEEDING THE STATE

Some races were frozen last week, some saw alterations. No changes at the top of any list.

AAAA

1. Minnetonka (2)
2. Michael-Albertville (8)
3. Hopkins (6)
4. Lakeville North (1)
5. Maple Grove (5)
6. Rosemount (3)
7. Andover (7)
8. Stillwater (4)

AAA

1. DeLaSalle (4)
2. Delano (6)
3. Alexandria (8)
4. Marshall (2)
5. Monticello (5)
6. Rock Ridge (7)
7. Winona (1)
8. Minneapolis Roosevelt (3)

AA

1. Providence (5)
2. Minnehaha (4)
3. Albany (6)
4. New London-Spicer (3)
5. Crosby-Ironton (7)
6. Dover-Eyota (1)
7. Perham (8)
8. NRHEG (2)

A

1. Goodhue (1)
2. Mountain Iron-Buhl (7)
3. Hancock (6)
4. Minneota (3)
5. Sleepy Eye (2)
6. Fosston (8)
7. Mayer Lutheran (4)
8. Walker-Hackensack-Akeley (5)