D1 HIGH FIVE

There were 30 teams playing on Saturday.

*Alayna Contreras, Middle Tennessee, Hopkins 28-W

*Ja’Kahla Craft, Seton Hall, St. Michael-Albertville 26-W

*Tessa Johnson, South Carolina, St. Michael-Albertville 21-W

*Lily Fandre, Lehigh, Eagan 20-L

*Ella Johnson, Montana State, Elk River 17-W

Totals: 112 points, 4-1

Contreras, Craft and both Johnsons set new personal bests.

All five were AAAA based. STMA had two entries.

D2

There were 41 teams playing on Valentine’s Day.

Abby Berge, MSU Moorhead, Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa 28-W

Emma Miller, UM Crookston, St. Michael-Albertville 25-L

Audrey Swanson, Southwest MN State, Waconia 25-L

Natalie Bremer, MSU Mankato, Lake City 23-W

Allie Berns, Jamestown, Wayzata 21-W

Jessika Lofstrom, Jamestown, Grand Rapids 21-W

Totals: 122 points, 4-2

Berge set a new personal best.

There were three AAAA based players, one AAA, AA, and A.

Five made the state (Berns did not)

D3

There were 40 teams playing on Valentine’s day.

Ava Haus, St. Scholastica, St. Michael-Albertville 28-L

Emily Erickson, Bethel MN, Chisago Lakes 27-W

Brianna Nusbaum, St. Mary’s MN, Spring Lake Park 27-W

Anna Goodman, Gustavus, Eastview 22-W

Sophie Stork, Hamline, NRHEG 21-W

Annika Southworth, Trine, St. Peter 21-W

Totals: 125 points, 5-1

This is the first time on the D3 HF list for Stork and Southworth. That pushes the total to 83.

Haus and Goodman set new personal bests.

Three players were AAAA based; two AAA, and one A.

MN GBB RESULTS

AAA

Bismarck Century 71, #3 Benilde-St. Margaret’s 67

#4 Marshall 98, Tri-City United 29

#5 Hill-Murray 86, Roseville 67

AA

#1 Providence 97, Proctor 65

#6 New London-Spicer 59, Minnewaska 52

#9 Fairmont 79,  Jackson County Central 54

A

#3 NRHEG 78, Hayfield/Schaefer Academy 34

RANKED RESULTS

Winner High 98 Marshall

Winner Low 46 Cloquet

Loser High 71 Lewiston-Altura

Loser Low 29 Tri-City United

Biggest Margin 69 Marshall v Tri-City United

Smallest Margin 2 Wadena-Deer Creek v Hawley; Cloquet v Bemidji

Most Combined: 162 Providence v Proctor

Least combined: 87 Lake of the Woods v Northern

Margins 30 or more 6 (24.0%)

Margins 5 or less 5 (20.0%)

Average 61.48

Winner Average 71.44

Loser Average 51.52

Ranked Average 80.571

Nonranked Average 58.372

Average margin 19.92

Average combined: 122.96

Ranked Losses: one

AAAA Ave 62.875

AAA Ave 67.222

AA Ave 60.412

A Ave 56.000

POINT PARADE

A

Camryn VanMaldeghem, NRHEG 40

Lexi Lawrence 29, EGF Sacred Heart 29

Rinlee Bergan, Lewiston-Altura 27

Finley Horken, EGF Sacred Heart 25

MILESTONE

Freshman Beckett Greenway of Providence reached the 1000 career point mark in the win over Proctor. She is the third 2029 player to reach that level.

SEEDS

AA

1: #1 Red Wing; #2 Rochester Lourdes; #3 Goodhue

A

1: #1 NRHEG; #2 Hayfield/Schaefer Academy; #3 Southland

ABOUT LAST NIGHT…..FOREST LAKE V WOODBURY

The Suburban East had a rare Saturday matinee and Woodbury was the hosts. The Royals were just coming off a monumental win Wednesday over neighboring East Ridge. Add in the fact it was senior day and the mix was combustible. Having spent quite a few years in the SEC senior day is fraught with peril. Visiting teams have had great success in those contests.

Forest Lake seized advantage of this situation early in the first half and broke Woodbury’s heart on Valentine’s Day. Starting with FL’s eighth possession at the 15:16 mark, they scored eleven straight possessions, a high water mark this season in my charting. FL was golden wrapping up their scoring spree at the 9:15 mark—a solid six-minute stretch of finding nothing but net. It was Ranger Danger going off on a 25-4 burst (34-11). That was the ball game. Take that six minutes out of the equation and FL still wins, but it is 59-57. The corresponding pp100s in that scenario were 86.8 to 81.4. Woodbury tried to stem the flow at the 11:27 mark but FL continued with their hot hands for four more possessions after that. In that stretch FL had six points off second chances, and four 3s. Woodbury was forced on an uphill climb the rest of the way. Points continued to pile up as FL hit the 50 mark (almost matching the outdoor temp) at half while the hosts had 33.

The path didn’t diverge much in the second half. FL led 70-43 after six minutes for their biggest lead of the day.

The FL starters had a 112.3 pp100 for the game. That was more than double the Royal starters at 54.8. Just starters it was FL over Woodbury 73-23. Woodbury’s starters struggled partly because foul trouble kept them on the bench longer. Two starters fouled out, one was saddled with four fouls. The Royals won the battle of the bench 38-11. Neither team shined at the line both going 12/21 or 57.14%. To advance in March that number will need to be much higher. Lately the team that owns the offensive glass has prevailed. No different here with FL coming in at 50% and Woodbury trailing 26.3%.

Team	Pt	PP100	OR/DR	FTM/a	2M/A	3M/A	TO/TpTO	LEAD
Forest Lake	84	106.3	17/28	12/21	15/31	14/25	28/15.93	27
Woodbury	61	76.2	10/17	12/21	14/35	7/24	22/15.91	2

The Rangers were led by the one-two punch of Aubree Hultman and Kendal Damon. They were responsible for 55 (30 and 25 respectively) of the FL points good for 65.47% of the Ranger total. Damon sizzled with a 192.3 pp100 thanks to 5/7 on 3s. Hultman also made five 3s on ten tries. Hultman was the game’s high scorer with 30 points, and had the most d stops with 12. Damon had one less. The top distributor was Hailey DeReu with a dozen.

No Woodbury player made the 31 Club. The best chances was 26.

Player	School	31Club	PP100
Aubree Hultman	Forest Lake	43	130.4
Kendal Damon	Forest Lake	39	192.3

This didn’t move the needle at the top of the SEC race. Despite East Ridge losing two consecutive games the Raptors they are still one game ahead of Cretin-Derham Hall with one week left. ER wraps up conference play with Park-Cottage Grove and Roseville.

Woodbury still looks to be a #3 seed in 4AAAA. Forest Lake should be the #1 in 7AAAA.

WEEK THAT WAS

UNBEATEN

One is a lonely number. Only Menahga is left without a loss. They live in AA which makes it highly unlikely that they will survive unscathed when the dust settles in March. There is no guarantee that they get to state. Right now Menahga is the #4 seed despite no losses in 8AA.

The reason the Braves are lonely is because Mountain Iron-Buhl lost to Rock Ridge 79-67 on Tuesday.

Total undefeated left: 1

AAAA: 0

AAA: 0

AA: 1 Menahga

A: 0

Leaving the list: Mountain Iron-Buhl in the loss to Rock Ridge Tuesday.

Once Menahga falls I will list the one loss teams.

What about the flip side of this? The winless? A dozen are looking for victory number one. For some there is only a postseason contest left in the balance.

Two teams left the lists below this week:

In AA Redwood Valley left the list with a big 75-50 win over Montevideo on Thursday in their final regular season contest.

In A Red Rock Central escaped this list with a 70-55 win over winless Madelia.

AAAA: 0

AAA: 2 North Branch; Sauk Rapids-Rice

AA: 1 Albert Lea

A: 9 Madelia; Browerville-Eagle Valley; Ortonville; Bigfork; and smaller charter/privates Lincoln International; MN Transitions; St. John’s Prep; Fond du Lac Ojibwe, and Community School of Excellence

STREAKING

The only change is NRHEG replacing Mountain Iron-Buhl in A. All four classes are north of 20 in the win streak.

AAAA: 21 Rochester Mayo

AAA: 22 Stewartville

AA: 23 Menahga

A: 24 NRHEG

Can these four be state champs? Notice that three of these teams live in the southeast corner of the state. The best bet of the four would be Stewartville at this time.

PROLIFIC OFFENSE

a list of high scoring offenses (and below that stingy defenses)

AAAA 82.9 Rochester Mayo down 0.5

AAA 85.8 Hill-Murray down 1.0

AA 94.0 Providence up 0.5

A: 87.0 Kelliher/Northome up 0.6

The best chance for state titles? Providence easily. Next best chance? Kelliher/Northome. They had a high scoring win over AA power Duluth Marshall on Friday.

AIR TIGHT DEFENSE

There were two switches in AAAA & AA. Owatonna replaces Mayo in AAAA. High School Recording Arts???? Takes over for Menahga in AA. HSRA also has the biggest drop defensively at 5.2.

AAAA 42.6 Owatonna up 0.3

AAA 39.6 Northfield down 1.5

AA 32.2 High School Recording Arts Menahga down 5.2

A 27.5 International School/Chesterton down 0.9.

At no point should anyone claim ISC is the “best” defensive team in the state. If they faced, let us say Providence, the Lions would have 27.5 points by the nine minute mark (if not sooner). “Defense wins championships” they say. None of the four will be champions. You know my saying “There is no such thing as good defense…..just bad offense.” I will say there is such a thing as bad defense, however.

QUEST FOR…

QRF

I made it to three games, but only three new teams were in the mix: #25 Woodbury, #45 Farmington and #67 Eagan as I went after the middle of some AAAA sections.

Biggest fish not seen? Now it moves to Minneapolis North at #40 .

10: 10/10—-1.000

25: 25/25—1.000

50: 48/50—.960

75: 70/75—.933

100: 83/100—.830

125: 87/125—.696

150: 90/150—.600

175: 93/175—.531

200: 93/200—.465

TOP 10S

No real changes here.

AAAA: 10/10-1.000

AAA: 10/10-1.000

AA: 7/10 .700

A: 6/11-.545

Overall, it is 33/41 or .805

#1S IN EACH SECTION

One flip in AAA.

AAAA: 8/8-1.000

AAA: 8/8-.750 Little Falls moved past Fergus Falls.

AA: 7/9-.778

A: 6/11-.545

Grand totals: 29/36-.805.

SEEDING THE STATE

Rearranging the slots in AAAA. Little Falls replaces Fergus Falls AAA. Foley exits with a rough loss to Milaca at home Friday. Sauk Centre replaces them in AA. Perham and JWP come back into the picture too in AA, the busiest switching in any class. Braham replaces BBE in A.

AAAA

1. Wayzata (6)
2. Maple Grove (5)
3. Rosemount (3)
4. Rochester Mayo (1)
5. Minnetonka (2)
6. Monticello (8)
7. East Ridge (4)
8. Forest Lake (7)

AAA

1. Orono (6)
2. Stewartville (1)
3. Marshall (2)
4. Hill-Murray (4)
5. Cretin-Derham Hall (3)
6. Rock Ridge (7)
7. Little Falls (8)
8. Becker (5)

AA

1. Providence (5)
2. Crosby-Ironton (7)
3. Red Wing (1)
4. New London-Spicer (3)
5. Sauk Centre (6)
6. Perham (8)
7. Minnehaha (4)
8. Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton (2)

A

1. Mountain Iron-Buhl (7)
2. Kelliher-Northome (8)
3. NRHEG (1)
4. Hillcrest Lutheran (6)
5. Central MN Christian (3)
6. Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s (2)
7. Mayer Lutheran (4)
8. Braham (5)