The Tigers got back in the groove following the unfortunate break in their schedule, caused by the incident at the school. The boys helped put the unpleasant thoughts aside by defeating Paynesville. "Unpleasant" certainly describes how normal life and routine at the school had to be interrupted.
Most pleasant was how coach Mark Torgerson's squad made ten 3-point shots in Tuesday's 65-61 win over Paynesville, a sub-section rival. (I still vividly remember when Paynesville came here as giant-killer, the No. 8 seed, and prevailed. Ouch.)
The Tigers weren't to be denied in the Tuesday play. Brandon Jergenson in particular wasn't going to let anything get in his way. My, Brandon's shooting eye was sharp. He made half of our 3's, yes five of them, so kudos. I wanted to list the other Tigers making 3's but this info is strangely absent from the Willmar paper's coverage.
No surprise to see Jergenson atop our scoring list with 17 points. Jackson Loge took somewhat of a back seat this time, scoring 12, and 12 was also the total for Thomas Tiernan. Toby Gonnerman added eight points to the mix. Durgin Decker put in five followed by Cade Fehr and Jaden Maanum each with four. Cameron Koebernick's output was three.
Loge was in the front seat for rebounding with his nine, and he was followed by Decker with eight. It was Decker leading in assists with seven while Loge had five. Loge was the front seat Tiger in blocked shots with four.
We built up a 31-23 lead by halftime. The success put us within a game of .500 at 4-5. Paynesville is similarly situated at 5-5. Paynesville picked up steam in the second half with a 38-34 advantage.
The Bulldogs needed a little more balance in their scoring. Two of the green guys really stood out: Corbin Froelich with 25 points and Grady Fuchs with 22. After that it's rather negligible: Rendan Uhlenkamp (4), Carter Wessel (3), Chase Bayer (3), Caden Spanier (2) and Levi Bast (2). Froelich topped the rebounds list with seven. He was also team-best in steals with four.
Girls: Melrose 32, Tigers 29
The trip back including I-94 must have seemed long for the MACA girls basketball team Tuesday. Offense was scant from our squad in the road contest. The Melrose gym was most inhospitable. Where's the offense? Or perhaps we should compliment the Melrose defense. We scored a mere eight points in the last 18 minutes of play.
We held a 21-20 lead at halftime but that faded steadily as action continued. Eight points in the second half? That was a formula for futility as the orange and black was dealt a 32-29 defeat at the hands of the Dutchmen. Melrose is impressing thus far in 2019-20: a record of 8-3.
Yes, Melrose wasn't burning the nets either and a look at their individual scoring shows no one in double figures. So we see Makiya Luetmer with nine points to top the list. Ashley Rademacher and Kyja Birch each scored seven points, while Kinsey Wensmann and Audrey Welle each scored four. Maddie Rosenberger concludes the list with one.
Rademacher and Luetmer each made a three-pointer. Birch was team-best in rebounds with eight. Rademacher stole the ball four times.
Our individual scoring list isn't bound to impress much but Malory Anderson held things up with her 12 points. She recently reached a significant individual scoring milestone. So Anderson was rather a bright spot and we can also feel heartened seeing three Tigers each make a three-pointer: Meredith Carrington, Emma Bowman and MacKenna Kehoe.
A lot of the stats aren't available in the Wednesday West Central Tribune. Anderson was followed in scoring by: Carrington (5), Kylie Swanson (4), Kehoe (3), Bowman (3) and LaRae Kram (2). This was a West Central Conference game.
I have warm memories of traveling along I-94 as I attended St. Cloud State in the '70s. Melrose had superstar Mark Olberding in uniform when I was in high school. He was awesome and went on to a pro career.
The incident at the school
Well, that was most concerning: the reported threat of some kind that caused everyone to just scatter on Friday. Very sad naturally, but people my age are engaged in some head-scratching, as we wonder if the reaction would have been so substantial back in our day. Seriously. Oh yes, times were different, as could be reflected upon in a variety of ways.
Those were pre-political correctness times. Not that maximum safety hasn't always been a good thing. But I don't know, we just saw things in a less frenetic way then. Frankly I think a threat scribbled on a blackboard - it would have been a blackboard then, not a whiteboard - would not have shut everything down. Honestly, here's what I think the reaction would be: the first person to see it would think it's "some silly kid" engaged in the kind of mischief that can be the stock-in-trade of silly kids everywhere. So the remedy might merely be to apply the eraser!
It's hard to believe, but back then we didn't get all excited over unclean jokes with a sexist bent. We didn't like them but I guess it was like water off a duck's back. We knew bullying was bad but we figured the victims just needed to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, try to fare better on another day. Learn from it. Learn from the hard knocks.
Oh, we stood idly by while the objectification of women was rampant. Down deep we all thought, I'm sure, that such judgments were quite unpleasant and inappropriate. We chalked it up to the patriarchy, most likely.
We must wonder if the perfect is the enemy of the good today. So we wonder if the Friday threat at the school required such an awesome response: dogs brought here from the Twin Cities etc. Neat to see the dogs being such a skilled resource.
We hear threats that the responsible party for the prank or whatever should shell out what probably will be a king's ransom. I don't know about that. A good defense attorney might be able to sink his teeth into that. In our society we are supposed to cut slack for kids and the silly mistakes they can make. Yes, even mistakes that can end up costing money. One of my age peers who works downtown agreed with me, on how maybe the application of a simple eraser could have ended the whole thing.
Risks? Ricks are omnipresent. Could I have an anvil land on me as I walk through town? Robert Stack as "Rex Kramer" in "Airplane" would say "forget it, Striker, that never happens."
Of course, we hope and pray nothing bad ever happens. Would I have been scared in high school hearing of a notorious "note" of some kind? I think not. But look out for the girls smoking in the bathroom.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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