Sports from the week of December 19, 2001 Headlight Herald - Serving Tracy, Minnesota, since 1880

MCC beats Panther boys by 45, 79-34

The Panther boys' basketball team lost to Murray County Central 79-34 at Slayton Friday night. The loss dropped the team 0-6.

"We just didn't play any defense," said Coach Jon Ruoff. "After a couple of minutes of play it was 7-6 and then they went on a 30-3 run to blow the game open."

In addition to defensive breakdowns, the Panthers did not shoot well. TMB hit on 11 of 41 two-point field goal attempts for 27% and only 2 of 18 for 11% from three-point range.

"We had some good looks at the basket," observed Ruoff. "But the ball just wouldn't go in for us. However you can't win many games giving up 79 points.”

The Panthers pulled down 39 rebounds but turned the ball over 22 times and hit only 6 of 16 free throw attempts. TMB had 11 steals and 2 blocked shots. Bryce Peterson led TMB in scoring with 7 points, followed by Greg Carlson with 5.

The Panther boys travel to Olivia to play BOLD Thursday night and host the Holiday Tournament on Dec. 28-29 against Red Rock Central, Wabasso and R-T-R. TMB opens against Red Rock Central.

Evans wins at Maple River

Panther wrestlers were third in the eight-team Maple River Tournament Saturday at Mapleton.

Team scores were: Madelia-Truman, 205.5; Sibley East, 202; Tracy/Milroy/Balaton, 129.5; United South Central, 128.0; Fairmont, 102.5; Maple River, 80; Buffalo Lake-Hector, 58; Alden-Conger, 53.

"We were really pleased with the results," said Assistant Coach Chris Kamrud. "We won this tournament last year, but we have a much younger team this year."

Panther heavyweight Colin Evans went 3-0 to win his class. Others with a winning record were: Chad Cooreman 2-1 with a second place finish; Adam Snyder, 3-1 , third place; Donald Strand , 3-1 third place; Erik Kathman, 3-1, third place.

The wrestlers travel to Canby for a dual meet on Thursday, Dec. 20 Their next home meet is Jan. 10 against Dawson-Boyd.

Improving Panther girls win big over BOLD

The Panther girls basketball team got back on the winning track Tuesday night at Tracy with a 58-32 win over BOLD. The Panthers are now 2-3 for the season and they are 2-2 in the 212 Conference. BOLD drops to 4-3 for the season.

"We played much better tonight," said Panther Coach Paul Soupir. "We took much better care of the ball."

The Panthers were smarting from two successive defeats in which they had an excessive number of turnovers, 29 in their loss to ACGC last Friday. In this game they played good tough defense and their passing was much better.

Tracy/Milroy/Balaton let the Warriors know from the start that they wanted this game badly and jumped off to an 18-7 first period lead and never looked back. By the intermission it was 32-18 and 44-23 at the three quarter mark.

"We really needed this one," said Soupir. "I told Scott Loeslie before the game that we needed to play well, even if we didn't win, but it is so much better to have won the game."