The Panther boys basketball team beat BOLD Saturday afternoon at Tracy 77-53. The win improved Tracy/Milroy/Balaton's season record to 4-8 and they are now 2-4 in the 212 Conference.

In a game between two conference rivals in need of a win, the Panthers shot the ball extremely well. TMB hit 30 of 44 two-point field goal attempts for .682 and 7 of 8 three point shots for .875 while the Warriors hit 19 of their 48 two point field goal attempts for 40% and 3 of 9 three point shots for 33%. Eric Peterson hit 4 of 5 from three point range 80% while Ross Ladehoff (1 for 1) and Kyle Stibbe (2 for 2)were 100%.

"We shot the ball extremely well," said Panther Coach Nat Boyer. "We also had 28 assists which shows we were not being selfish with the ball."

The game began with the Warriors looking like they wanted the win more than the Panthers. BOLD recovered from Eric Peterson's opening basket off the tip and put up 10 straight points to take a 10-2 lead midway in the first period. However the Panthers stuck to their game plan and went on a 10-1 run to bring the first quarter score to 12-13 in favor of the visitors.

The lead stayed with BOLD until Peterson intercepted a Warrior pass and took the ball in for a lay-up to give T/M/B the lead at 22-21. The Panthers then scored seven points to BOLD's two and took a 29-23 lead at the intermission on a three pointer by Stibbe and field goals by Sean Kirk and Chris Bangasser.

The second half saw T/M/B increase its lead until the score mounted to 62-41 early in the fourth period. At that point the Warriors showed they are a scrappy bunch by intercepting passes and forcing turnovers to put up 10 points to T/M/B's 2 making the score 64-48. The Panthers retaliated by out-scoring BOLD 13-5 in the final moments.

"I have never seen a high scoring game like this one without a free throw attempt by one of the teams," said Boyer. "We committed 17 fouls and they had 11 but we did not get to the free throw line once!"

Panther girls outrun Renville County West

The Panther girls' basketball team literally ran past the Renville County Jaguars at Tracy Tuesday night 71-50. The win improved Tracy/Milroy/Balaton's season record to 10-5 and they are 9- 1 in the 212 Conference.

"We won but we need to keep our composure against the press," said Panther Co-Coach Rick Haberman,

The Panther defense was very effective against the Jaguars, leading to many fast break opportunities, most of which were converted to points by the T/M/B offense. The Panthers got off to a 7-0 lead in the opening minutes and worked to a 17-7 lead at the end of the first period. By the intermission the lead had increased to 44-29.

It was in the opening moments of the second half that the Jaguars surprised the Panthers with a full court press. In a space of just a few seconds they forced three straight turnovers and converted them to six points to cut T/M/B's lead to 46-37.

"We gave up six points before we adjusted to the press," said Panther Co-Coach Paul Soupir.

"To our credit we did adjust and played pretty well after that , however we are going to have to be able to recognize the defense and adjust to it more quickly ."

The Panthers then put on a 8-0 run, featuring 2 three pointers by Kasey Loeslie to bring the three quarter score to 54-37.

T/M/B was led in scoring by Loeslie with 23 points , 7 rebounds and 3 steals. Steph Kaup and Alyssa Kirk added 11 points. The Panthers out-rebounded RCW 47-23 ( Domine 11), had 12 steals (Tholen 3, Loeslie 3) to 10, 23 assists ( Tholen 7) and 3 blocks (Nelson 2) to none. T/M/B turned the ball over only 11 times to 17 for the visitors.

Competition keen at Plum Creek

The Panther wrestlers participated in the Plum Creek Wrestling Tournament in Lamberton Saturday and finished ninth out of 11 teams. The team scores were: 1)YME, 211; 2) Minneota, 188; 3) Windom/MLBO, 181.5; 4) Redwood Valley, 140.5; 5) Fulda/MCC, 109.5; 6)Dawson/Boyd, 81; 7)RRC/WWG, 76; 8) MACCRAY, 64.5; 9)T/M/B, 58; 10) Pipestone, 45; 11) Chokio/Alberta/Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley.

"It was a tough tournament," said Jeremy Trulock who was subbing for Panther Coach Travis Christenson as his wife Mandy gave birth to a baby girl named Aftyn. "We saw a lot of state-ranked wrestlers and we went in with only 9 of 14 wrestlers.

"Derek Evans is wrestling really well, Cole Cooreman should have been declared the winner of his last match, Adam Snyder had a very tough bracket that included 2 state-ranked kids plus a returning state champion and Paul Carlson also wrestled very well throughout the day," observed Trulock.