For the week:

Nine games, 18 new teams, 184 new players, 1133.6 miles

For the season: 98 games, 152 teams (8 duplicates), 1531 players, 5756.1 miles

Or to Port Angeles, WA to San Diego, CA to Houston, TX to back home.

It was nasty cold this week and even though the games went on with no cancellations, the scoring and pp100s must have been impacted by the chilly weather. This was the lowest week for both the pp100 average, and the lowest top score in the 31 Club. Most of the week was spent watching AA teams moving from west to east across the southern portion of the state. Rochester was the double destination on Friday and Saturday with the HVL/TRC match ups. We are past the halfway mark. There will be five more regular season weeks (or four if you are in AA and A in the southern part of the state). Now is the time for teams to start polishing their skill sets and tightening the screws defensively.

REAR VIEW MIRROR

MONDAY: Windom 64, Redwood Valley 55

This was an insurance game. What I mean by that is the Big South will hold an “event” at Blue Earth on Saturday, February 17. But what if the weather turns nasty? I missed out on Marshall, Austin, Kasson-Mantorville and Albert Lea last Saturday with blowing snow and windchills dropping to dangerous levels. That is why this was an insurance game.

The Eagles saw an eleven-point halftime lead vanish when the visiting Cardinals inched ahead 44-43 on a 3 by xx with nine minutes left. That was a 21-9 run. But just as RV held the lead, the last coming at 46-45, Windom found a defensive answer and slammed the door shut on RV going on a 9-0 run over the course of two and a half minutes and reestablished the trajectory toward victory. In the end, the last seven minutes belonged to the host team 19-9, about just the flip of the start of the half.

TUESDAY: JWP 62, NRHEG 50

The Bulldogs took a bite out of the host Panthers with a one-two punch of sophomore guards. Early on it looked like section 2AA leader (for most of the season so far) NRHEG would be in control leading 21-15 with about six minutes left in the first half after a 3 by #12. The last moments of the first half belonged to visiting JWP with a 16-5 finishing kick to lead 31-26. NRHEG, like in the old Wagner era days, likes to do the 1-3-1 defense with traps. At first it worked. But soon JWP was able to get the ball inside and also reversed. NRHEG adjusted at the start of the second half with #12 posting up. In the first half she ran the point and utilized the drive to the right side frequently. Now she was drawing fouls (on the first two possessions). But they drifted away from that strategy back to her running the show. The Panthers closed the gap to 35-31. But there the offense petered out. Their defense didn’t hold. A key basket came on a 3 by #4 with one second left on the shot clock to make it 41-31. NRHEG didn’t recover from that blow. But what really torpedoed their chances was the fifth foul on #12 with her last two fouls in twenty seconds with 6:35 left. The margin at that time was 50-38. The Panthers then started to full court pressure. JWP maintained their margin.

WEDNESDAY: Hill-Murray 67, North St. Paul 40

Hill-Murray really did not have any problems in rolling to a 27 win over the Polars. But the Pioneers let an opportunity slip away. In the first half the Polars were frigid with their collective pp100 at 23 and change. With about 12 minutes left HM led by 33 points (46-13), two away from running time. The HM offense sputtered after that while NSP turned on the electricity with an 18-4 outburst over the course of six minutes. Now running time was a mocking memory (50-31). The Polar offense was able to find their way to the rim, without too many problems. The Pioneers only scored one field goal in that stretch and that was a putback. HM did reassert themselves at the end of the game closing with a 17-9 run.

THURSDAY: St. Cloud Cathedral 38, Little Falls 37

The Crusaders left Little Falls wiping their brow with a sigh of relief as they held on and escaped with 38-37 Granite Ridge Conference win. No this was not the half time score (that was 18-16 SCC). Both teams had problems finding the bottom of the net as their 55 pp100s indicated. This was the lowest pp100 for a winner this season. The next lowest winner is a dozen points ahead of this mark.

At one point in the second half Cathedral was coasting along with a 37-25 lead with six minutes to go. SCC at first trailed in the first half 14-8, so during the mid portion of the game they grounded the Flyers 29-11. But their offense struggled even more at that point going on a seven-possession drought. Possessions in this game went down to the wire with the shot clock. That is another reason why the score and possession count was so abnormally low. Host LF awoke from their offensive slumber and scored a dozen unanswered points. By now the score was 37-35 and the game was starting to generate fans standing (and me moving my seat to better see the action). Spearheading the Flyer comeback was 6-0 eighth grade guard Malin Youngberg. She capped the resurgence with two consecutive 3s. Youngberg was the games leading scorer with 19 points and was the only 31 Club member. With 35.9 seconds left she scored off an inbounds play and it was a one possession game. SCC, on their next crack were finally put at the line for a one and one. Neither team shined at the line in this game (both teams sub 50%–SCC missed eight, LF 14) and Cathedral missed their front end with 25.4 seconds left. LF had an opportunity to seize the game. With 5.7 seconds left they had an out of bounds situation again, but Youngberg’ shot did not drop from the left block. The Crusaders got the board but coughed it up. There just wasn’t enough time to get a great shot with 0.3 seconds left for the Flyers.

Besides the struggles at the free throw line, both teams were frosty from the 2s going 21.7 for the victorious Crusaders and 17.9 for the hometown Flyers. Brrrr!

FRIDAY: HVL/TRC event

The Hiawatha Valley League and Three Rivers Conferences have put together an event in the past few years at Rochester. This gives there schools the chance to play on the Mayo Civic Center Arena and Auditorium courts, and advantage in the upcoming sections. At first this event was head-to-head across the teams and it was held on one day. It has morphed into a two-day event. The cross-conference match ups are not always on the schedule. The two Friday games I charted both were TRC conference games. Saturday was the traditional cross conference matchups. But for the first time a non-HVL or TRC conference team appeared on the girls side….Esko. That large Polar League team faced Winona Cotter Saturday while I was charting the Arena games.

GAME 1: Fillmore Central 63, Chatfield 51

Fillmore Central overcame a slow start to top the Gophers in a TRC matchup. The Falcons finished the first half with a 13-4 run breaking free from a twenty all tie and maintained that margin in the second half. FC ruled the boards 52-34. Chatfield’s starters only scored 25 points, to FC’s 44.

GAME 2: Dover-Eyota 56, Plainview-Elgin-Millville 52

The Eagles halted a three-game skid as they topped the Bulldogs in a tight contest throughout. The first time the two teams played DE won by 14 in December. The Eagles one-two punch of six footers Miranda Palmby and Madelin Mullikin provided 36 of the DE points, while the balanced Bulldogs only had one double digit scorer. The game was tied at 46 with seven minutes remaining after a three by PEM’s Macy Wozney. DE failed to score in eight possessions down the stretch, but PEM only managed to score four points and still trailed 54-50. DE awoke from their slumber with a pair of free throws after missing a front end on the same possession with 51.9 seconds left and helping improve their insurance case 56-50.

SATURDAY

This was the traditional game matchups and the HVL showed they were better with a three-game sweep in the wins. Add in the games I didn’t see and the HVL was 4-0. Cotter did beat Esko outside of both conferences, and Byron stopped Kasson-Mantorville in a HVL conference tilt.

GAME 1: Pine Island 52, Lewiston-Altura 23

It was the Panthers turn to stop a losing streak, this time five games in their win over the Cardinals. A dominant second half left no doubt. PI led 19-16 at the break and held LA to only seven second half points. PI delivered better shooting percentages and took advantage of 30 LA turnovers.

GAME 2: Rochester Lourdes 57, Caledonia 41

This was the marquee matchup of the day considering the vaunted qrf. For most of the game it was. Lourdes broke free from a 33 all tie with 17 unanswered points over the course of six minutes. The Eagles started soaring when Aaliyah Williams delivered back-to-back 3s breaking the tie. The Warriors struggled for eight empty possessions before finding the basket again. Four Lourdes starters were in double digits. One big difference came in touches per turnover. Lourdes had 35 touches per turnover, Caledonia 12.95.

GAME 3: Zumbrota-Mazeppa 63, LaCrescent-Hokah 37

The Cougars gave the HVL a clean sweep in the games I charted Saturday and were in control, with the exception of a 5-0 Lancer start. By half ZM was up 34-11 and had enough in the bank two minutes into the second half to win the game. ZM stole the ball 21 times. That number, plus the other turnovers, drove LaCrescent’s touches per turnover count down to 8.75. Megan Jasperson led the Cougars with 16 points. ZM has now won three in a row.

A LOOK AT: SECTION 8AAA

School	Pp100
Fergus Falls	98.5
Alexandria	85.3
St. Cloud	84.4
Willmar	79.7
Detroit Lakes	68.6
Rocori	59.1
Little Falls	53.6

 The first AAA section is complete, and it is the second overall in the state (that I have charted). That is a surprise. The core schools in 8AAA belong to the recently completed Central Lakes Conference. Add in Little Falls which was a former member (and the last piece to this evaluation), and the outlier is Detroit Lakes. 8AAA covers a Northwest swath of the state. All seven of these teams have been to state (if you count Apollo and Tech for St. Cloud—the Crush have not been). Alex and Apollo have been state champs; Willmar and Fergus have been runners up (the Otters in AA).

The record for 8AAA when being charted is 3-4. Alexandria has been the mosty reliable ranked team and spent a week at #1. The pp100 for the section is only 75.6. Three teams failed to crack 70. No team made the Centurian level although Fergus Falls came close in their win over St. Cloud.

31 Club: Only three players have made the 31 Club, still that passes 1AAAA’s two. In 8AAA Fergus’ Brynn Sternberg is the leader with 37. Allie Haabala of Alex and Jayna Benson of St. Cloud are the other two members.

SECTION	PP100	100+	31C
1AAAA	83.875	2	2
8AAA	75.6	0	3

I am not sure if another AAA section will be completed, there are slim chances for it to happen. All AAAA sections are due soon. My doubts are high for any AA or A section to be completed. There simply is not enough calendar days.

PP100S

There was a massive drop off this week in the pp100, down nine to 71.82. This was the lowest score of the season, 1.32 lower than week five which was right before the Christmas / New Year’s break. It did not help matters when one of the winners posted a 55.1 pp100. Five teams that lost had better scores. With such low pp100s it should come to no shock that Centurions were absent from the list. The best score belonged to Rochester Lourdes with a 96.6. Seven schools did not get to 70. Lewiston-Altura was the lowest at 32.4.

Winners dropped a dozen to 82.49, losers fell about six points to 61.16. The gap for the week was more competitive with 21.33, six points closer than last week. The largest gap involved LA in their loss to Pine Island (39.8). But there were much more competitive games. Two were in the double digits with St. Cloud Cathedral’s 1.5 margin over Little Falls the “best” in that measurement. Even though the pp100s didn’t get above 60 in that game it still had everyone’s attention down to the last touch. The “best” game using the losing team’s pp100 was Tuesday’s game at NRHEG won by JWP. The host Panthers had a 76.9 in their loss.

Fillmore Central, the only A team charted, helped that class to the top of the chart with 82.1. The 14 AA schools came in almost ten points under with 72.73, and the three AAA teams brought the rear at 64.17, eight points further down the road.

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
8	Ogilvie	115.8	80.83
9	Rochester Lourdes	96.6	71.82

This is only the second sub 100 mark. Lourdes is the third AA team to make the list. Since the start of January the smaller classes have ruled.

31 CLUB

Despite charting nine games this week, only eight entries, three less than last week and they only had eight games. No player made it out of the 30s. Sophomore guard Katelyn Olson of Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton was the leader at 38 in the win over NRHEG. There were no 31 Clubbers in three of the contests. Two schools contributed two members: Windom on Monday, and JWP on Tuesday. 31 Clubbers were 7-1 on the week. Seniors led the way with three entries. Juniors and sophomores had two each with one eighth grader added to the list. With a heavy viewing schedule of AA teams it is no surprise that six came from that class. AAA & A each had one. No AAAA teams were charted this week.

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
8	Grace Heins	Ogilvie	2024	51
9	Katelyn Olson	JWP	2026	38

Olson is the only player this year to not get to a higher-level club (the only one in the 30s). She does continue the AA dominance on the leaderboard with six of the nine weeks.

MILESTONES

Two diaper dandies reached 1000 points this week. Chloe Johnson has been splashed on by the StarTribune. Peyton Hoffman? Not as much attention but made 1000 three games ahead of Johnson. Hoffman is also another family connection with Brenda Slyt (Climax-Fisher 2004) her mother finishing her career with 2358. CF is a school in 8A (the northwest corner of the state along the Red River border with North Dakota).

Morgan Mathiowetz of Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s joined the 1000-point list this week in a win over New Ulm Cathedral. Her sister Madison (2022) ended up with 3762. Also, her father, an uncle and two aunts cracked the 1000-point levels in their careers.

Here is what games players made the 1000-point mark in their careers.

40 – Tori Oehrlein, Crosby-Ironton ‘26
42 – Peyton Hoffman, Climax/Fisher ‘28
45 – Chloe Johnson, Duluth Marshall ‘28
46 – Megan Taylor, Roseau ’97 (3,300 career points)
46 – Maddyn Greenway, Providence Academy ‘26
47 – Tayler Hill, Minneapolis South ’09 (3,888 career points)
49 – Kierah Kimbrough, B-G-MR ’05 (3,036 career points)
49 – Addison Mack, Minnehaha Academy ‘25

As for the 3000-point watch—Keep January 30 on the calendar marked. Oehrlein leads Greenway 2,888 to 2,841 and they each have 3 games before the head-to-head meeting on the 30 at Providence.

Information on lists provided by Matt Pederson.

TOP OF THE LIST

AA expanded their section looks at 2 and 3 hence the increase in their totals in the denominator.

AAAA: .625 5/8
AAA: .875 7/8
AA: .700 7/10
A: .308 4/13

Looking at the top 10s: all 60% or better—next week figure completions.

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

QRF

There are 72 schools left to get to 200, 18 to 100. There are 30 calendar dates available until hard core sections start. It is the churn that is going to get in the way. I don’t see any issues with 100. I don’t think that will be reached until that last regular season week in February. The top 10 should be finished by next Saturday. By extension that will include the top 25. The weather has to co-operate with my travel plans for this to pan out.

Rank	Seen	%
1-10	7	70
1-25	21	84
1-50	41	82
1-75	65	86.7
1-100	82	82
1-125	101	80.8
1-150	114	76
1-175	123	70.3
1-200	128	64
1-225	134	59.6
1-250	136	54.4

The biggest fish left to fry? Maple Grove at #2.

AAAA: 84.47%—9 to go
AAA: 68.8%—20 to go
AA: 33.9%—84 to go
A: 7.5%—136 to go

UNBEATEN

Minnetonka, Delano and…. Metro Schools College Prep???? Still without a loss? Really?? Four scores have NOT been reported. For all we know all four may be losses. Where is MSCP? On the northeast corner of 94 and 55 (AKA Olson Memorial Highway) in Minneapolis.

New London-Spicer lost on Saturday at home to Sauk Centre 59-53 leaving MSCP all by themselves in AA.

Was 4…now 3

AAAA: 1 Minnetonka
AAA: 1 Delano
AA: 1 Metro Schools College Prep
A: none

Danger ahead….Minnetonka faces conference and section rival Eden Prairie and sees Providence, a school where coach Cosgriff teaches, in a battle of #1s on Saturday at St. Michael-Albertville. Delano sees St. Peter on Saturday in another Breakdown event at Chanhassen. MSCP is not scheduled this week.

WINLESS

With two teams searching for a win, one team was going to exit this list. Cannon Falls topped St. Charles on Saturday 58-34 leaving four teams in AA searching for a win. A has the most with 11. There are no winless teams matching up this week…Ortonville faces one win Lac qui Parle Valley on Friday for the best chance to leave the list.

Was 18 now 17

AAAA: 1 Irondale
AAA: 2 Minneapolis Edison, Mound-Westonka
AA: 4, Albert Lea, St. Charles, Medford, Cristo Rey Jesuit
A: 11 Lyle-Pacelli, MN Academy for the Deaf, Immanuel Lutheran, Heron Lake-Okabena/Fulda, Community of Peace, North Lakes, St. Paul City, Ashby, Ortonville, Cook County, Littlefork-Big Falls

STREAKING

Menahga (still in AA for some reason) is the new leader in AA after Sauk Centre topped New London-Spicer on Saturday. A pair now share in A. BLHS has been on a roll and tie with Ogilvie with 13 straight wins. Delano has the longest streak going with 16 wins.

WINS
AAAA: 15 Minnetonka
AAA: 16 Delano
AA: 13 Menahga
A: 13 Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart, Ogilvie

Ortonville has now upped their streak to 40.

LOSSES
AAAA: 32 Irondale 16 +16 last year
AAA: 16 Mound-Westonka 14+2 ly
AA: 39 Medford 15 +24 ly
A: 40 Ortonville 17+23 ly

ROAD AHEAD

The Breakdown hosts events at St. Michael-Albertville, Chanhassen and Becker. Think of STMA as the feature court or “main” court when the Breakdown holds their event in December at Hopkins. Think of Chan & Becker as the “east” court.

SEEDING THE STATE

Changes here and there…lower end of the eights

AAAA

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

AAA

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

AA

1. Providence (5)
2. Minnehaha (4)
3. Albany (6)
4. New London-Spicer (3)
5. Perham (8)
6. Winona Cotter (1)
7. Pequot Lakes (7)
8. Glencoe-Silver Lake (2)

A

1. Goodhue (1)
2. Mountain Iron-Buhl (7)
3. Hancock (6)
4. Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart (2)
5. Mayer Lutheran (4)
6. Southwest MN Christian (3)
7. Ogilvie (5)
8. EGF Sacred Heart (8)