The MACA boys basketball team merits incredible support and enthusiasm now. Not only winning, but doing so with a commanding flair as we saw Thursday evening. Orange and black fans traveled to Litchfield. What could be better than to enjoy a 90-36 romp by the Tigers? Kind of had to feel sorry for the host Litchfield Dragons.
My, how the Tigers turned on the jets! It was to the tune of a 52-19 halftime advantage. And then to win by the margin of 54 points! We outscored the Dragons 38-17 in the second half.
All this happens while the joyous trappings of the season are coming into play. I plan on stopping by Dakotah Bank sometime today (Friday) which has special holiday accommodations. They say I can get my complimentary 2025 calendar today. I'm a decent customer there.
It has become harder to find those complimentary calendars from businesses. When Willie's passes on this, it's a worrisome sign. I asked for the second time there a couple days ago. Normally Willie's has cartoon calendars - nice levity. Maybe Willie Martin will advise from heaven to get this service going again.
But the emphasis in this blog post is basketball. Many players got into the scoring act. No one was super dominant in the scoring list. But we did see Riley Asmus put in 21 points to lead. Alex Asmus worked in tandem with the other Asmus and his point total was 20. Riley has been at it a long time on varsity but he's not even a senior yet. He's a junior and Alex is a sophomore.
Riley made nine of 14 shots from the field. Alex's numbers were eight of 15. Ben Tiernan was our third double figures scorer and he put in ten, on three of eight shooting. A tandem of three Tigers each scored eight points. So we see Tyson Grove, Tyler Friesen and Jack Kehoe each scoring eight. Ozzy Jerome contributed seven, and Jonah Huebner and Drew Huebner each scored four.
As a sportswriter it's important to remember there are two Asmus's and two Huebners on the squad. It's easy to get caught sometimes and forget something like this. You can never use a last name by itself, unless one of the siblings does not have stats to report.
Our team shooting numbers were 35 of 67, 52 percent. Was our 3-point shooting good enough? I'm not good at judging this. Whatever, we made 14 of 32 for 44 percent. I'm guessing that's good. Alex Asmus made four long-rangers to lead. Then we see five Tigers each with two makes: Tiernan, Grove, Riley Asmus, Friesen and Jerome.
We were six of nine in freethrows. Tiernan and Kehoe nailed both their tries. Riley Asmus and Jerome each made one freethrow.
Our rebound harvest was 31 with ten coming offensively. Our most aggressive rebounder was Drew Huebner whose total was ten, five offensive. Alex Asmus collected five rebounds. On to assists: This was a balanced department with Drew edging out the others with his four. We had 22 as a team.
Three Tigers each performed three steals: Grove, Alex Asmus and Jonah Huebner. We had 14 total steals. We had only two turnovers.
The lagging Litchfield attack was led by Gideon Boerdema who made four 3-pointers and scored 14 points. Noah Dietel put in eleven.
I invite you to compare my coverage of the Litchfield game with what you see on the Stevens County Times website.
Our Cougars had the same foe in the last two games. That's Mayville State University. I don't know why some of these schools bother including the "University" term. We all know what they do. Our "state universities" of Minnesota could just as well have kept the "college" terminology. What difference does it make?
Anyway, Mayville out-gunned our Cougars in both recent contests, scores of 93-54 and 78-73. The latter was here at the Gremmels Court. So, home court must be conferring advantages! The team will test that again on Saturday. That's when a very obscure opponent from way up north will play here. Shall we welcome Oak Hills Christian College? Maybe we shouldn't, seriously. The Saturday game presents a supreme irony. I'll explain this by quoting from Wikipedia about Oak Hills Christian:
Homosexuality
is prohibited at Oak Hills Christian College. Students must swear to
give up "sinful attitudes or actions" including homosexuality and
immodesty, and affirm that only heterosexual marriage is permissible.
Employees of the college must sign a similar pledge. The college was granted an exception to Title IX in 2017 which allows it to legally discriminate against LGBT students for religious reasons. It is ranked among the "Absolute Worst Campuses for LGBTQ Youth" by Campus Pride.
Meanwhile, our U of M-Morris has a reputation of having been an all-out leader in the gay rights cause, going back to when it was a flashpoint. So, what an interesting meeting we will have on Saturday at the P.E. Center, n'est-ce pas? Game-time is 1 p.m.
I would say we have a good chance of winning. Maybe I'll even attend. Are pizza slices still available as concessions? I shudder though to think of the price inflation we may have seen. Inflation is everywhere, and the policies of the incoming U.S. president, assuming he is not bluffing, will make inflation considerably worse. Are y'all really ready for that?
Is it worth it for setting up "mass deportation camps?" What a black eye to our global image we will get. Are you ready? Will we get into "tariff wars?" Will it be worth it?
Reaction to murder
Significant news reports this morning show that cheering for the outright murder of a health insurance CEO does not bring automatic condemnation, is bringing mixed thoughts and even some sympathy! Wow, this is an inflection point for America! To realize that the brutal killing of such a person would bring a shrug if not outright cheering from a significant number of people!
Sometimes a sudden event in America confirms what a lot of us had been thinking anyway. A friend emailed me this morning making note of this phenomenon. He implied some sympathy with the hardened reactions. And so I answered:
YES I too am struck by the reaction to the murder. There's a commentator in the news whose name escapes me right now, who more or less said she was glad it happened and she was not instantly condemned by everyone. Wow! Maybe Bernie Sanders is right. And maybe the underlying problem is that our currency has been devalued so much, it's harder to get proper value for everything we need! That's because the stock market keeps demanding lower interest rates. I guess I'm ignorant but why should I put all my money in the stock market? How would I get access to it, like for buying breakfast next week? What am I missing? Inflation literally drains the value of our money. It is THEFT and it is a TAX.
- BW
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