For the week: Twelve Games, 17 new teams (7 duplicates) 147 new players, 1496.3 miles

For the season, 124 games, 194 teams (18 duplicates) 1910 players, 10286 miles

Or to Kalgoorlie, Western Australia —no driving (obviously).

Or to Nome, AK to San Diego, CA to Miami, FL to Toronto and back home. Again flight based…..now if only I could fly to games.

This will be a two parter. The second part later this week will examine the wraps of 2AA South, 3AA South, 8AAAA, Northwest Suburban, and Big South both East and West. Not to mention the entire AAAA field.

There is no time like the present to get ready for sections. It seems like teams were raising their level of play right at the threshold of tournament action. Action was fierce. Leads see-sawed back and forth. The benefit of this week is that the losers can learn from the losses and regroup to battle again; it is not terminal or fatal. That won’t be the case for some teams starting this week as sections begin. Class A & AA along the southern border will start action. Most of the early departures will be teams that are deep seeds (9s through 16s).

This was a loooooong week on the road as you saw above. The trip to EGF Sacred Heart on Tuesday was complicated by health issues (not sickness /contagious, but physical problems). The roads were great, but my body was in rebellion. I did arrive home about an hour later than I wanted (2:40 am). Then came the snows on Wednesday. Luckily my trip was only to Fridley, site of Totino-Grace. Still sloppy road conditions and driving under the speed limit. Going to Wadena on Thursday was a snap primarily because they had no snow on Wednesday north of St. Cloud. Friday to Sleepy Eye and Saturday to Blue Earth were different stories. It seems that McLeod, Sibley, Renville counties are similar to the Bermuda triangle with hazardous roads. Even though it was two days off, the blowing, drifting made the roads icier. And if you are on the county roads that turned up the ice/slickness. I am in one piece, there were no issues that way, but I was more than alert on those byways.

Private schools were the focus the first three days of the week. Visiting teams won the first four games of the week. Only Sleepy Eye prevailed at home. This week was my first time at the East Grand Forks Sacred Heart and Sleepy Eye gym. The Indians’ gym is from a distance vintage with balcony theater seating. SE also has two massive screens/enhanced scoreboards facing the audience. During a break in the action they showed action from regional college games.

REAR VIEW MIRROR

MONDAY: Minneota 69, Mayer Lutheran 63

Both teams were ready to go in what could be a state tournament quarterfinal preview, or at least state tournament teams. Mayer Lutheran led 60-57 with six minutes to go. The Vikings outscored the hosts 12-6 down the stretch. The inability to grab missed free throws doomed the Crusaders. Minneota had six second chance points including an &1 when their post picked up number five. That put Minneota back in front 62-61.

TUESDAY: Park Christian 70, EGF Sacred Heart 64

Two teams that are not on the radar of a lot of folks. They are not part of the “club,” where the heavy hitters play each other. Sacred Heart led 50-41.  A 17-1 run changed the PC fortunes. EGF SH starts four freshmen. They played the night before and fell to Kittson County Central and that perhaps caused some fatigue issues.

WEDNESDAY: Rogers 68, Totino-Grace 52

It was parent’s night for the Eagles at TG. Digging a 14-0 hole was probably not in the plans. The Eagles are without the services of point guard Maria Radabaugh out with an ACL. The game swung to Rogers with TG staging a late comeback. Rogers had to pass it in and was going to pass from out of bounds to another player out of bounds, but the defender interfered and that resulted in a technical foul. At that point Rogers led 57-51.

THURSDAY: Menahga 46, Wadena-Deer Creek 30

A low possession game favored Menahga. The possession count was 50 and 49. The Braves only have one loss on the year.

FRIDAY: Sleepy Eye 70, GHECTML 53

Besides the over 2000 points Cadence Hesse has accumulated she also passed the 500 assist mark on Friday. The Indians trailed 15-11 at nine minutes. After that it was 24-9 SE to half.

SATURDAY

The Big South Showcase was held at Blue Earth and East division school. The premise is to have an eastern school (formerly South Central Conference) play a western school (Southwest). The West won 4-3 overall. Most of the games were compelling and competitive. A couple were not close. Partly that is because the two best teams (Marshall and St. Peter) are to play on Tuesday. They have already played twice this year and may have another chance in the sections.

GAME 1: Jackson County Central 86, St. James 84

Rylie Cother of JCC had 41 points in the win. This was the fastest paced game with 88 possessions. With 1:51 to go it looked like JCC was in the driver’s seat. Two straight 3s by St. James but the game back in doubt at 85-84 with 1:02 left. The Huskies added a free throw with 51.5 and withstood two late 3 attempts to leave with a W.

GAME 2: New Ulm 68, Redwood Valley 47

New Ulm lost the services of guard Daviney Dreckman who is out with a knee injury a few weeks ago. Still the Eagles soared over the Cardinals. RV did lead 14-10 with 10:20 left in the first half. NU led 30-18 at the break.

GAME 3: Waseca 40, Worthington 37

Worthington only had 8 points at half and trailed by eleven. The Trojans found some offense in the second half and trailed 38-37 after a pair of free throws by #12 with 39.5 seconds left. They had two cracks at scoring after a turnover. The Bluejays got the rebound and added an insurance free throw with 23.5 and then another at 14.5 after a Worthington turnover.

GAME 4: Luverne 50, Tri-City United 47

The only Cardinals to win on Saturday (with Redwood Valley and Fairmont) were from Luverne. The last lead change in this see saw affair came when Sara Stegen hit the game winning 3 with 18.8 seconds left from the right side. TCU tried a 3 to no avail.

GAME 5: Pipestone 51, Blue Earth 48

Jadyn Kor knocked down 26 points for the Arrows. The Buccaneers trailed by eight in the second half, but long ball put them right back into the game. The host for the Big South Saturday trailed 47-46 with 13.9 seconds left. Kor finished up with free throws on the last two Pipestone possessions to secure the win.

GAME 6: Marshall 67, Fairmont 47

Speed and pressure were the winning ingredients for the Tigers. They kept the ball moving and there was no rest or time off like most teams do in walking the ball up court.

GAME 7: St. Peter 82, Windom 46

It was raining 3s for the Saints. They had ten by half and finished with a dozen. The Southworth sisters Kylie and Annika had six and four.

PP100S

This week got off to a powerful start with the Minneota vs. Mayer Lutheran game on Monday and it didn’t slow down after that. For the week the improvement came in with 6.44. The 82.58 mark for the week was the second highest this season, only missing out to Week 10 by 1.4. There were three centurions along with six in the nineties. Two of the 90s lost showcasing a high level of play as sections await. The overall pp100 window went from 120.6 to 53.6.

Winners overall were 91.71 and losers 73.45 with a margin of 18.26. The competitive level was enhanced by five games in the single digit spread further helped by three straight one possession games on Saturday. The first game on Saturday was the best on two fronts. The margin in Jackson County Central’s win over St. James was 3.4 and the Saints had a 95.5 pp100 making that the “best” for a losing team….a double win for bests for the first time this year.

All four classes were in action with only Rogers in AAAA. That helped that class take the top spot with a 93.2 in the Royals win Wednesday as the snow accumulated. Then Class A rose to the top with a 91 with the six teams charted this week. AAA claimed third place with 85.96 and AA, who had the most teams charted with a dozen trailing at 76.08.

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
10	Benilde-St. Margaret’s	105.6	83.9
11	Pelican Rapids	118.2	81.26
12	Shakopee	111.1	76.14
13	St. Peter	120.6	82.58

St. Peter becomes the third AAA team to make this list and the second from section 2 (Mankato East). The Saints spike their pp100 to the third best mark, and the highest since December 2. From this list six are in the top 10 in their respective classes. Two do not have records above .500 (Burnsville and Shakopee).

31 CLUB

With a dozen games you would expect more 31 Clubbers. And twenty lined up for entrance. The five days prior to Saturday delivered eleven. Saturday itself matched last week’s total of nine. Higher levels were also reached with four 41 Clubbers. Accelerating past that were two that joined the 51 Club. And Rylie Cother of Jackson County Central got to the 61 Club with a score of 64. She had a head start with 41 points in the 86-84 win over St. James—-most of those came on transition lay ups (she had 17 attempts). But she also had a value added of 23 with 13 d stops and 10 distributions for a legitimate kjasr triple double. Cother was 10/17 on her distributions for a 58.8% mark. Kadence Hesse of Sleepy Eye was the other 51 Clubber.

With the dozen games only the Marshall vs. Fairmont game did have a player join. Winners were 13-7 in the Club.

The grade breakdown was almost even with seniors edging out both junior and sophomores by two 8-6.

Every class had members with AA and A tied for the lead with seven. Four AAA and two AAAA players round out the line up. Five schools had double members. The interesting item in that was two of those teams (Mayer Lutheran and St. James) both lost. Sleepy Eye’s pair of Kadence Hesse and Breaunna Mertz were both 41 Clubbers.

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
10	Mattea Henry	Woodbury	2024	53
11	Alexis Rose	Becker	2024	57
12	Catherine Walker	Breck	2025	40
13	Rylie Cother	Jackson County Central	2025	64

Cother is the first player to lead this list twice this season. She has the second highest score and the third player in the 61 Club. From this list only two others had been charted twice or more (Greenway and Rose). The chances are high that Greenway will be charted again. Rose could possibly be. Cother would need to win section 3AA south (they are the #3 seed) and then get past New London-Spicer to get another charting.

MILESTONES

There are now nine 2000 point scorers for the season. I have charted seven this year. The newest trio of additions include
Grace Heins, Ogilvie
Addison Hoof, Lester Prairie
Elizabeth Lukken, Underwood

All are A players. Hoof is a junior, the other two seniors

TOP OF THE LIST

Four left for the #1 seeds, three left in A, one in AA.

AAAA: 1.000 8/8
AAA: 1.000 8/8
AA: .900 9/10
A: .769 10/13

Top 10 polls

Three to go—all in A.

AAAA 10/10 100%
AAA 10/10 100%
AA 10/10 100%
A 7/10 70%

QRF

We are now entering the twilight zone. The regular season and the sections share the same dates. Some teams will be turning in uniforms by the end of the week.

Rank	Seen	%
1-10	10	100
1-25	25	100
1-50	50	100
1-75	75	100
1-100	100	100
1-125	121	96.8
1-150	142	94.7
1-175	156	89.1
1-200	167	83.5
1-225	176	78.2
1-250	181	72.4
1-275	192	69.8
1-300	194	64.7

The biggest fish left to fry? Austin at #120.

As for the completeness of each class

AAAA: 100%
AAA: 81.25%—12 to go
AA: 52.76%—60 to go
A: 16.33%—123 to go

Besides the full slate seen in AAAA I crossed over 50% seen in AA. Miles for A to catch that level in three weeks (it won’t happen).

SOLOISTS

EGF Sacred Heart left this list on Monday when the Eagles lost to Kittson County Central, the day before my charting. Then they lost to Park Christian when I was in the house. Then they lost to Ada-Borup-West on Thursday. They broke that three-game losing streak with a win over Warroad on Friday.

Hancock fell to Brandon-Evansville 70-67 on Thursday in overtime.

Was 7 now 5

AAAA: none
AAA: St. Peter, Delano
AA: Albany, Menahga
A: Fosston

Danger ahead: Delano has back to backs on starting with Jordan on Tuesday and following Holy Family on Wednesday. St. Peter hosts Byron on Thursday.

Menahga travels to Pelican Rapids on Friday.

Fosston sees Cass Lake-Bena on Tuesday.

WINLESS

North Lakes and Community of Peace both left the list. NL is on a two game winning streak. They broke their losing streak with a win over Hiawatha on Tuesday and followed up with a win over Hmong Academy on Thursday. Hmong Academy was also a cure for CoP on Monday when the Tigers won 31-21. Littlefork-Big Falls beat Fond du Lac Ojibwe in a battle of teams in quest of their first win 51-48 on Tuesday.

But lose two (NL/CoP) and gain one? Two? ….Parnassus Prep finally got the result posted from a loss in January to Lakes International Language Academy (LILA) 28-15. And now Cook County is not even on the standing page even though they played and lost to Silver Bay back in January. And that puts SB back in the winless column. Someone has some explaining to do. I am keeping SB off, and CC on.

Was 13 now 11

AAAA: none
AAA: 2 Minneapolis Edison, Mound-Westonka
AA: 2 Albert Lea, Cristo Rey Jesuit
A: 7 Immanuel Lutheran, Parnassus Prep, St. Paul City, Ashby, Ortonville, Cook County, Fond du Lac Ojibwe

Either Ashby or Ortonville will leave the list in a quest for a first win on Thursday at Ortonville.

STREAKING

Fosston takes over the top spot in A with Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart’s 75-72 loss to Hancock on Saturday.

AAAA: 16 Hopkins
AAA: 16 Benilde-St. Margaret’s, St. Peter
AA: 23 Menahga
A: 13 Fosston

The woes continue.

AAAA: 23 Bloomington Jefferson 23 (all this year after opening with a victory)
AAA: 26 Mound-Westonka 24+2 ly
AA: 28 Albert Lea 25+3 ly
A: 46 Ortonville 23+23 ly

ROAD AHEAD

The southern tier of AA and A start their section action starting as early as Tuesday. More sections will release their seeds by next Sunday.

SEEDING THE STATE

A few changes—at spots six through eight.

AAAA

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

AAA

1. Benilde-St. Margaret’s (6)
2. DeLaSalle (4)
3. Alexandria (8)
4. Peter (2)
5. Byron (1)
6. Monticello (5)
7. Rock Ridge (7)
8. Minneapolis Roosevelt (3)

AA

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

A

1. Goodhue (1)
2. Mountain Iron-Buhl (7)
3. Hancock (6)
4. Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart (2)
5. Minneota (3)
6. Mayer Lutheran (4)
7. Fosston (8)
8. Braham (5)