Sports from the week of January 29, 2003

Boys finish strong in close game with ACGC

212 win is third of season

The Panther boys' basketball team used a strong fourth-quarter (26 points) to garner a big 212 Conference win over Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City at Tracy Saturday night 63-49.

The win improved TMB's season record to 3-11 and they are 3-5 in the conference. It was a bench mark win for the Panthers as they had lost to the Falcons in the opening game of the season at Grove City.

"We were up by two points with 2 1/2 minutes to play and we demonstrated that we have the ability and the desire needed to finish off a game when we won by 14," said Panther Coach Nat Boyer.

"We used four different defenses in the game and our assistant coaches did a great job of helping with the adjustments. Again our great crowd was a big help in getting the win."

The Panthers did a great job at the free throw line, making 20 of 29 and meshing 10 of 14 in the fourth quarter alone. T-M-B had four players in double figures. Ross Ladehoff led in scoring with 14 points (5 steals, 5 assists). He was followed by JakePeterreins with 13, Eric Peterson with 12 and Greg Carlson with 10. Carlson also had 9 rebounds.

The Panthers hit 20 of 49 field goal attempts for 41% shooting while the Falcons hit 20 of 56 for 36%. TMB out-rebounded ACGC 37-24, had 11 steals to 5 for the opponents and each team turned the ball over 17 times. TMB had 6 blocked shots to only 3 for ACGC.

"Ross (Ladehoff) and Sean (Kirk) did a good job defensively against ACGC's Hopp, holding him to only 11 points and Curt (Paradis) and Kyle Stibbe also played well on defense," said Boyer. "Jake (Peterreins), Ross (Ladehoff) and Greg (Carlson) all played very well. We got some strong minutes from Anders Davidson when Greg Carlson suffered an ankle injury and Billy (Fedde) gave us some strong minutes as well."

Wrestlers win home dual

The Panther wrestling team recorded their second dual meet win of the season Thursday night over Luverne 42-31 at Tracy.

The Panthers took an early 24-0 lead when Drew Hebig (103) and Cole Cooreman (112) won by forfeit plus Chad Cooreman (119) and Adam Snyder (125) registered pins. However Luverne went on to win four of the next five matches to put Tracy/Milroy/Balaton's lead in jeopardy. At that point Panther 160 pounder, Scott Torkelson displayed terrific quickness by recording five-straight take-downs and leaving his opponent beleaguered, before pinning him at the 2:27 mark.

"Scott's (Torkelson) win came in the pivotal match of the meet," said Panther Coach Travis Christenson. "It was great to get the win, we needed it badly. Everyone has reached the weight they will wrestle at in the tournaments and it was a good time to gain some confidence."

Zwach scores 31, TMB knocks off 212 leaders

The Panther girls' basketball team knocked off conference leading BOLD at Tracy Tuesday night, 60-52. The win improved Tracy/Milroy/Balaton's season record to 5-10. They are now 5-5 in the conference. BOLD dropped to 13-5 for the season and they are now 8-3 in the conference.

"Our plan was to let them shoot from the outside and shut them down inside. If they were going to beat us they were going to have to do it from the outside," said Panther Coach Paul Soupir. "It almost backfired because they hit from outside early and led us by eight points in the first quarter and they also started to hit from the outside late in the game, but it worked for us most of the game. We wanted to hold down their three leading scorers (Wallenta, Posl and Fesenmaier- who had 33 points in our last game) and we did. Fesenmaier had 14 at half-time but we held her to only 2 points in the second half."

Senior Guard Laura Zwach had her best game of the year as she hit 3 two point field goals, five threes and was 10/13 from the free-throw line for a total of 31 points. The Panthers used a strong third period to out-score BOLD 13-3 to give the Panthers the lead for the first time in the game. A big part of TMB's third period surge was due to Kasey Loeslie who solved the Warrior's zone defense for three straight field goals to open the second half. The Panthers also answered BOLD's challenge in the final period and put up 17 points to the Warriors 16 to win the game.

The Panthers had 32 rebounds, 9 steals and 19 turnovers while the Warriors had 37 rebounds, 6 steals and turned the ball over 20 times. TMB hit 18 of 54 attempts for 32% shooting while BOLD was 17 of 59 for 29%. Both teams shot well from the free throw line as TMB hit 18/23 and BOLD 16/20.

"Our kids did a really fine job of defensive rebounding ," said Soupir. "We couldn't afford to give them any cripples underneath. We needed this win. It should give the girls a big lift."