Alex girls own second half for third place win

Cardinal red is a mighty classy color right now. The Alexandria girls were able to keep their spirit and determination high for the state third place game. Playing for third means you're coming off a loss in the semi-finals. Of course teams at this level are all going for No. 1. Could Alex keep their focus strong even when out of contention for No. 1? 

Well yes! Classy as they are, they took to the court and executed most impressively on Saturday in this third place contest. I had to wonder how this was going to go. When I first saw "Cretin-Derham Hall" as their opponent, man, a part of me flinched. Cretin-Derham Hall is one of those private schools that includes rarefied-air athletes so often. 

Providence Academy is like that this year. They can intimidate with their record and credentials. I have learned that you can make no assumptions about a well-known private school in state. They can be bulldozers or they can be mortal. I'm not sure how Cretin-DH ranked on that scale, actually, because maybe the Alex Cardinals simply performed as the bulldozer! Leave it to me as a sportswriter to get carried away with this extraneous analysis. 

Let's let the game outcome tell the story. And, this was a 66-36 win by Alex at the Gangelhoff Center at Concordia-St. Paul. 

Cretin-DH is known as the "Raiders." The game was the last for five Alexandria seniors, a group that includes Chloe Scholl, daughter of Morris native Heather (nee) Lucken. Chloe is also the granddaughter of Morris native Bev Kieffer who was known as Bev Lucken in her Morris time. I have to type the Lucken name to make clear to many Morris people who we're talking about. 

It was a pleasure for yours truly to know Bev pretty well. She served with commitment on the Morris school board. Chloe's grandfather is the late Rick Lucken. Now, how could any of us forget Rick! Let those memories never die. 

Bev is married to Dennis Kieffer. So Dennis is the proud step-grandfather. Chloe bears resemblance to her mother Heather. The blond hair is a big example. Heather has a sister Chris. The two were active in MAHS athletics back in the day. There was some turbulence in MAHS athletics during that time period. 

Appears there is no turbulence with Alexandria Cardinal athletics today. The Cardinal boys just like the girls are most high-achieving. The Cardinals are "alive" in the tournament season as I write this. There are four Witts involved with the boys, two players and two coaches. That's the Witt family with such a strong background from Morris and from UMM. 

What would Alexandria do without its Morris connections, eh? I guess Alex is the place to retire if you've "made it." I'm still here in Motown. Am happy to still be writing about area sports. At this point I'm almost a little exhausted. I have been drained writing about Minnewaska Area and Alexandria. 

Minnewaska took fourth in state AA. Alex plays at the AAA level. And my how they achieved. It wasn't even close in the girls' last game versus Cretin-Derham Hall. We now know that the Cretin-DH kids put their pants on one leg at a time like everyone else! 

Yes I was a little stunned when I first saw "Cretin-Derham Hall" as the upcoming opponent. 

"Uh-oh," I thought for a moment. The best way to wrap this up is to quote Chris Berman of ESPN, a line he uses often: "that's why they play the game." Make no assumptions based on reputation. 

There were five seniors total on the Alex team. Chloe was joined by Allie Haabala, MaCee Linow, Camree Miller and Hadley Thul. 

Cretin-DH did get an early lead in the Saturday contest. Alex crept back and so we saw a tied halftime score of 24-all. And then Alexandria turned on the jets! The Cardinals owned second half play. My, this was to the tune of outscoring Cretin 42-12! The Raiders were hurt by turnovers. 

Thul passed the career 1,000-point mark along the way. Her final career number is 1,007. Linow made four of her six three-point shots. 

For Scholl, her stats were modest on this day as she scored four points. She grabbed five rebounds. But Scholl made quite the impression overall in the tourney, and this was reflected in her being named to the AAA All-Tournament Team long with Thul. The final Alex won-lost mark is 26-5. They took third in state in back-to-back seasons. 

Let's review the Alex individual scoring from Saturday: Thul 23, Scholl 4, Linow 14, Haabala 7, McKinley Hoelscher 2, Camree Miller 6, Lauren Beyer 7, Riley Beyer 3.

 

Media notes 

I tried looking up info on this game Sunday, all day really, but I kept finding "404 not found" on the Echo-Press site. I'm sure many people were looking for this coverage. I tried again early Monday morning and got the same result. Then later in the morning, the problem was fixed. 

Is it possible the problem couldn't be fixed on Sunday because people "don't work on Sunday?" I think that would be sad. Society has been gradually getting over this obsession with weekends being totally free time. We have obligations. 

The Willie's grocery store in Morris was once closed on Sunday "because it was the Lord's day." We have gotten over that. Today, Christianity seems more like an extension of the Donald Trump presidency.

Chloe Scholl of the Alexandria Cardinals. She's committed to Gustavus Adolphus for future play.

 - Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com