WORTHINGTON 79, SOUTHWEST MN CHRISTIAN 75

I did a 180 today figuratively and literally. Yesterday it was the Northeast part of the state, today it was the Southwest. I braved the snow to Worthington for a cross class clash with Southwest MN Christian. The weather outside may have been nasty, but it was an old fashioned barn burner inside. The Trojans pulled off a come from behind win in the last two minutes to celebrate senior night. But it was sophomore Nyamer Diew that put the exclamation point on the win. Worthington trailed by five with eight minutes to go and cut the margin to one a variety of times only to see the Eagles push it just beyond reach. SWC led 72-68 with 3:07 left. Madisyn Huisman scored a pair of free throws to cut the gap to a single possession. With 2:15 to go Diew wove through the land for a lay up and knotted the score at 72. Another SWC miss resulted in a Diew rebound and she took it up court and popped a 3 from up top after being left alone. It was her third for the evening. The multicultural Trojan fan base exploded with joy with their first lead since two minutes into the second half. After a few free throws, SWC’s Jazlynn Prins cashed in a 3 to narrow the margin to 77-75 with 19.5 seconds remaining. Diew added to her game high point totals with two more free throws which wrapped up the scoring for the night. SWC had another opportunity to score, but a three was off the mark.

Both teams were even Steven after the first half. All five of the Eagle starters had nine points or more (four in double figures).

SWC’s Hannah Nerem finished with a kjasr triple double with 16 points, 11 distributions and 17 d stops.

This game was originally supposed to be played on January 22, but SWC had a band conflict that day.

SWC will be back in Worthington on Saturday for the 3A South quarterfinals. Think of today’s game as a field trip.

Worthington is now 17-8; SWC drops to 21-4.

I have now charted 71% of the AAA teams. I also completed the set for section 2AAA. No other AAA section will be seen in its entirety. In the quest for the top 100 I again return to a final four to go.

The roads weren’t bad on the way down, but the roads, especially the passing lanes, were starting to get impacted south of St. James. On the way home the roads were awful. You could barely make out pioneer wagon wheel ruts on the snow covered roads. Just west of Madelia I did a real 180 and ended up facing southwest when I wanted to face northeast. The top speed on the way home was 45 mph. Most of the night was spent between 30 and 39. What usually takes three hours took five hours and 15 minutes. The MN511 site had the whole route covered with snow. I didn’t see a single solitary plow moving in either direction until I got to 169 and highway 7 in Hopkins. I finally made it home by 2:45 am. Let’s just say it was an ordeal.

 

Team	PP100	scorer	Distributor	D stops
Worthington	89.8	Nyamer Diew 28	Payton Sauerbrei 10	Nyamer Diew 16
SW MN Christian	86.2	Jazlynn Prins 18	Hannah Nereum 11	Hannah Nereum 17

TRENCH PLAYER: 6-0 sophomore forward Nyamer Diew of Worthington. She made an impact on offense, but she cast a large shadow on defense as well. She was assigned hot shooting Brooklyn DeKam. Diew bottled her up, prevented open looks from 3 and held her to a dozen points.