As we welcome a stretch of warmer weather to close out an up-and-down (temperature-wise) December, there’s a brief break in the high school sports action, but things will get busy again soon as the calendar turns to 2020.
The annual Candy Cane Classic — involving four good high school boys’ basketball teams, Minneota, Lakeview, Heron Lake-Okabena / Fulda and host Westbrook-Walnut Grove — took place last Friday and Saturday.
Adrian / Ellsworth’s boys after winning three straight games — over W-WG (92-89), R-T-R (73-54) and Windom (75-64) — lost a close 66-58 decision to Mountain Lake Area / Comfrey in the opening round of a four-team tournament at Tyler last Thursday night. Those were a pair of very good teams playing in that game.
The Dragons will travel to Okabena in a couple of weeks (Thursday, January 7) to tangle with HLOF in what could be a real dandy between the two newly-paired programs — both with excellent numbers and exceptional depth.
Adrian / Ellsworth and Murray County Central don’t play until January 27 (a Monday night) at Adrian and then three nights later (Thursday, January 30) they tangle again at Slayton.
HL-O / Fulda travels to Adrian in early February (Thursday, the 6th) for the rematch with the Dragons. By then the chase for the Red Rock Conference championships should be shaping up.
Southwest Minnesota Christian and MLAC are the boys’ favorites, while Hills-Beaver Creek and Southwest are the clear front-runners in the girls’ title chase. Red Rock Central, Mountain Lake Area / Comfrey and Adrian / Ellsworth also have good girls’ teams, but may not be as awesome as either the Patriots or Eagles.
The boys’ conference race will be most interesting and challenging as at least six of the nine teams appear to be above average — so it’s going to be a grind with lots of teams being capable and able to knock off the favorites on any given night. I don’t know if there will really be any “upsets” because the league is so well balanced in boys’ basketball this winter.
It’s too bad that the Gophers volleyball squad was unable to win a game against Stanford in the NCAA Semifinals Thursday night. The defending national champions, led by towering 6-6 four-time All-American outside hitter Kathryn Plummer, swept the Gophers (25-19, 25-22, 25-22).
Minnesota had an impressive start to the second set, but Plummer and her teammates blasted away at the Gophers and ended the Maroon and Gold’s season at 27-6. Stanford (29-4) played Wisconsin (27-6) for the NCAA Championship, after the Badgers knocked off top-ranked Baylor (29-2) in Thursday’s other semifinal.
It’s been an action-packed December so far and the college football Bowl Games are coming up, including the Gophers tangling with the Auburn Tigers in the Outback Bowl at Tampa, Florida on January 1. Let’s hope P.J. Fleck’s gang can Row The Boat with authority that day!
