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Sports from the week of February 12, 2003

One-point spells heartbreak

Last-second TMB play is foiled, RCW wins

The Panther girls' basketball team suffered a heart-breaking, one point conference loss to Renville County West at Tracy Thursday night 42-41. The loss dropped TMB's season record to 6-13 and they are 6-6 in the 212 Conference. RCW is now 12-7 for the season and 9-4 in the conference.

"We went into the game with the plan to try to shut down Teri Knapper (five points) and forcing the others on their team to beat us if they could," said Panther Coach Paul Soupir. "We executed our plan very well but others on their team stepped up. We had our chances, they just beat us."

With 5:45 remaining the Jaguars were up 38-32. Two field goals by Jillian Tholen and two free throws and a three pointer by Laura Zwach made it 42-41 with 45 seconds to play. The Panthers got the ball back and called a time-out with 11.4 seconds showing on the clock,

"We ran a play and it didn't work," said Soupir.

TMB called another time-out with 4.9 seconds remaining to set up a shot by Kasey Loeslie. The defender just got a hand on it and it fell short at the buzzer.


Boys get road win

The Panther boys' basketball team got its fifth win of the season, and the first road win in three seasons, by defeating Renville County West at Renville Friday night, 62-51.

The win improved Tracy/Milroy/Balaton's season record to 5-12 and they are 4-7 in the 212 Conference.

"The big feature of this win was that our bench really stepped up," said Panther Coach Nat Boyer. "The quality of play did not suffer a bit when we substituted and that really helped us. Curt Paradis had an excellent game on defense."

Greg Carlson led the Panthers in scoring with 16 points and Jake Peterreins had a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds. Ross Ladehoff added 15 points and Eric Peterson meshed 4 three pointers on the way to his 14 points.


Wrestlers begin team tourney Thursday night

The Panther wrestling team has been seeded 8th in a 12-team Section 3AA tournament field.

Windom/MLBO was the No. 1 seed, followed by YME 2, Red Rock Central/W-WG 3, Worthington/SVRLB 4, Fulda/Murray County Central 5, Pipestone Area 6, Montevideo 7, Tracy/Milroy/Balaton 8, Lac Qui Parle Valley 9, Marshall 10, Luverne 11 and Jackson County Central/SSC 12.

The Panthers will face ninth-seeded LQPV at Windom Thursday night at 6 p.m. The winner of that meet will face No. 1 Windom as soon as possible after the completion of the first meet for the right to participate in the final four at LQPV on Friday, Feb. 14.

"I don't know what the rationale is for us (the number 8 seed out of 12) meeting the number one seed, if we can get by LQPV," said Panther Coach Travis Christenson. "I would sure change it if I could but I guess we just have to play the hand we are dealt."