March is here and it feels like late January — it’s still so cold and recent strong winds have been blowing snow which has created early outs and late starts for area schools.
In between lots of postponements and schedule changes, events have taken place and the top four high school boys’ basketball teams — Southwest Minnesota Christian, Murray County Central, Westbrook-Walnut Grove and Russell-Tyler-Ruthton — all advanced to Thursday’s South Sub-Section (of Section 3A) semifinals. Both games will be at Worthington, with SW Christian and R-T-R tangling at 6 p.m. before MCC and W-WG play for a third time.
MCC was certainly impressive in its victory over Adrian (73-41) in the quarterfinals Saturday, displaying great teamwork and excellent shot selection as their athleticism, experience, balance and depth were all evident. The Rebels have a very good team — as do each of the other three teams. It’s too bad that only two squads will advance to Saturday’s finals (6 p.m.) at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall.
It’s like another “Super Saturday” at SMSU on March 9 as all four Section 3 sub-section championship games will be played. The two Class AA games are in the afternoon (12:30 and 2:30) followed by the two Class A contests in the evening. The 3A North title game (8 p.m.) will likely feature top-seeded Minneota (the Vikings are playing fifth-seeded Dawson-Boyd in Thursday’s semifinals) against either second-seeded Lac qui Parle Valley or third-seeded Renville County West.
Over in Section 2A, Mountain Lake Area / Comfrey was seeded third (behind Waterville-Elysian-Morristown and Springfield). If the Wolverines prevailed in their quarterfinal make-up game (Tuesday night) against Truman / Martin Luther / Granada-Huntley-East Chain, they will play the high-scoring Springfield Tigers in Thursday’s semifinals at Lake Crystal.
In girls’ action, Southwest Minnesota Christian outplayed undefeated Hills-Beaver Creek at SMSU last Friday evening, winning the South Sub-Section title with a 58-46 victory. The Eagles are playing for the Section 3A title Friday (8 p.m.) at SMSU against the mighty Minneota Vikings.
Either Minneota (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018) or SW Christian (2010, 2016, 2017) have gone to the girls’ state tournament from Section 3A the last nine years. Who is the last school to represent the section at the “big show” before that?
The answer, of course, is the Adrian Dragons. Led by Sam Lynn and Karli Meyer, the Dragons won the section championship in 2009. The year before (2008), Heron Lake-Okabena, known then as the Southwest Star Concept (SSC) Quasars, earned a state-tournament trip with victories over Adrian (sub-section championship) and R-T-R (sectional title game) at SMSU.
Prior to that, the Fulda Raiders won back-to-back Section 3A girls’ championships in 2006 and 2007 — impressively winning the Class A state championship each of those years.
Minneota defeated a very good Fulda team in a triple overtime thriller for the 3A championship in 2005 after Fulda had claimed back-to-back titles in both 2003 and 2004. That was an amazing run for the Raiders, playing in five consecutive section championship games and winning four of them.
The 2006 sub-section championship game between MCC and Fulda was a true classic — one that could have went either way. That memorable game featured two of the best teams in the state and who knows, maybe the Rebels (had they won that close contest) could have claimed the state championship themselves?
There has been a lot of great basketball — both boys and girls — played in southwest Minnesota over the years.
In 1985, two area boys’ teams — Heron Lake-Okabena and Adrian — both advanced to play in the Region 2 Tournament (it was districts and regions before 1992) at Mankato State’s Highland Arena. Yes, HL-O won District 7 and Adrian was the District 8 champions. Look for more on those two teams in the coming weeks.
I am still not sure when the jump ball was replaced by the alternate possession rule? No one has come forward with any ideas of the own. Last week, I mentioned that I was going to discuss the “no foul out” rule which was in effect during the ’85-86 and ’86-87 seasons. I am out of space, so that will have to wait another week — but that was an interesting rule change which certainly gave a team a few more options when a player was in foul trouble.
In another week in will be the middle of March — soon the snow will start melting!
