As the shortest days of the year and the Christmas season approach, it’s time to take a brief look at the busy high school sports season that has been happening over the past several weeks. As expected, Murray County Central, Southwest Minnesota Christian, Mountain Lake Area / Comfrey and Westbrook-Walnut Grove appear to the “cream of the crop” in Red Rock Conference boys’ basketball. All four squads are loaded with experienced depth and talent. It should be an interesting and competitive title chase. As of Tuesday morning (December 18), Hills-Beaver Creek (5-1 overall) was leading the league with a 3-0 conference record. MCC (5-0, 1-0), SW Christian (4-0, 1-0)) and MLA / C (3-0, 2-0) were all undefeated, while W-WG (3-1, 1-1) has an overtime loss (61-59) to Mountain Lake Area / Comfrey. Tuesday’s games included H-BC at Edgerton, Adrian at Ellsworth, W-WG at Fulda, Heron Lake-Okabena at Red Rock Central and MCC at Mountain Lake. MCC is coming off an impressive 52-45 victory over defending Class A state champion Russell-Tyler-Ruthton (at Tyler last Friday, December 14). The Rebels are averaging 67 points per game and allowing just 50.6. In the early-season girls’ conference chase, there are four undefeated teams in league games. Hills-Beaver Creek is awesome and the Patriots are a perfect 7-0 overall, averaging 59.3 points per game while allowing a mere 30.1. H-BC is tall, experienced and deep. It will take a very good game from anyone to knock off the Patriots. Tied with the H-BC girls with 3-0 conference records (before Tuesday’s games) were Mountain Lake Area / Comfrey, Southwest Christian and Adrian. Southwest lost a non-conference clash to Jackson County Central in the Big South Showcase (at St. James, Saturday, December 8), 75-71. Otherwise, the Eagles — as expected — have been rolling. H-BC hosts SW Christian in an anticipated early-season challenge Friday (December 21). The two teams meet again in Edgerton on Tuesday, February 12. Adrian’s girls have won all four of their conference games — by close scores. The Dragons have wins over Edgerton (51-47), Ellsworth (48-44), Westbrook-Walnut Grove (45-42) and Heron Lake-Okabena / Fulda (42-35). The Edgerton victory was non-conference. The two teams will meet in conference action at Adrian on Friday, January 18. MCC’s girls are 4-3 overall (2-2 conference) and are coming off a pair of impressive wins, defeating both the Panthers (60-40 over Tracy-Milroy-Balaton and 60-31 over Ellsworth). The Vikings had an eye-opening first quarter Sunday, scoring touchdowns on their first three drives. Things slowed offensively during the second and third quarters, but the defense was good and a strong fourth-quarter finished off the Dolphins in a 41-17 victory. Minnesota still holds the sixth seed with a 7-6-1 record and will make the playoffs if they can defeat both the Lions and the Bears. If they do, the Vikings will likely play the Bears again in the first round on a cold January day outside at Soldier Field in Chicago. Now that the Denver Broncos are finishing up their season (currently 6-8 and apparently out of playoff possibility) my favorite team is becoming the Los Angeles Chargers. Philip Rivers has been with them his whole career and continues to be a hard-nosed competitor. He deserves a chance to play in a Super Bowl. Who knows maybe it will be Chargers vs. the Rams in an all Los Angeles showdown? The Chargers certainly won a couple of recent “prime-time” thrillers — rallying for a 33-30 win over the Steelers on Sunday Night Football (December 2) and edging the Chiefs (29-28) last Thursday night (December 13). The Chargers and the Chiefs are both 11-3, but Kansas City holds the tiebreaker with a better record within the AFC West. The Minnesota Gophers (6-6) will play Georgia Tech (7-5) in the Quick Lane Bowl the day after Christmas (December 26 at 4:15 p.m.) at Ford Field in Detroit with televised coverage by ESPN.
