The Panther girls' basketball team advanced in the Section 3AA South Tournament with a 60-45 win over Murray County Central at Tracy Saturday night. Tracy/Milroy/Balaton will next meet the No. 1 south seed Windom at Redwood Falls on Friday, March 5, at 6 p.m. Windom beat Luverne 75-47 in first-round action.

Murray County Central came into their game with the Panthers with a 12-9 season record. Their leadiing scorers were 6-0 sophomore Rachel Christiansen, who averaged 18 points per game, and 5-10 senior Krista Beek, who was averaging 14 points per game.

The Rebels jumped to a 6-2 lead after three minutes of play. The Panthers answered with a 12-0 run to a 14-6 first period lead. TMB kept the pressure on the rebels until they led 52-32 with three minutes to play in the fourth period. The Rebels outscored the Panthers 13-8 in the closing moments.

Panthers prepare No. 1 seed Windom Friday night

The Panther girls' basketball team is still in contention and will play Windom next Friday at Redwood Falls in the second round of the Section 3AA South Tournament.

Windom is the top seed in the south tournament and the Eagles' season record of 22 wins and only 2 losses makes it the favorite to advance to the state tournament from this section. The south section has, by far, the largest number of good teams in the section, According to most knowledgeable fans, YME, the top seed in the section 3AA North Tournament, would likely have been the fifth seed in the south tournament. T/M/B was seeded fourth in the south tournament with a 15-7 season record and won twice over YME in 212 Conference play.

This means the Panthers' task of reaching the section finals is much tougher. If the Panthers can get by Windom they would likely meet either Pipestone or Jackson County Central in the finals of the south tournament. T/M/B won over Pipestone but lost to JCC in season play.

The Panthers' success will largely depend upon the play of their double post players, Kasey Loeslie and Tessa Nelson plus their ability to take good care of the ball and to hit their shots.

Cole Cooreman, Paul Carlson advance to state mat tourney

Tracy/Milroy/Balaton is sending two wrestlers to the state tournament at the Xcel Energy Center on March 4- 6.

Cole Cooreman and Paul Carlson qualified for the state tournament in the Section 3AA Individual Tournament held at Montevideo Friday and Saturday.

Cooreman advanced to the finals on Saturday with a 10-5 win over his nemesis Loren Clarke of Fulda/MCC. He ran into LQPV's Nate Barker in the finals and lost, but since he had already beaten Clarke there was no match for true second.

Paul Carlson (25-17) found his second trip to the state even more difficult than his first last year. Carlson won three straight decisions on the way to the finals, but lost to Redwood Valley's Tom Anderson 18-2, and then had to wrestle for true second. Carlson was pitted against Nick Henning from Fulda/MCC and just managed to eke out a 3-2 win to qualify for the state tournament.

State action begins Thursday morning

Cole Cooreman and Paul Carlson, of the Panther wrestling team, have qualified for the Minnesota State Wrestling Tournament to be held Friday and Saturday of this week at the Xcel Energy Center in St Paul. Both wrestled to second place finishes at the Section Individual Tournament last Saturday.

"Both kids had an excellent tournament at Montevideo last week end," said Panther Wrestling Coach Travis Christenson. "They both beat kids, while qualifying for the state tournament, they had lost to earlier in the season."

Cole Cooreman, with 28 wins and 10 losses on the season, advanced to the finals with a 10-5 decision over Fulda/Murray County Central's Loren Clarke. Clarke had beaten Cole as recently as the February 10 meet with F/MCC at Tracy.

"Cole (Cooreman) did an excellent job in this match," observed Christenson. "We told him to be aggressive but to avoid the cradle."

Paul Carlson, with 25 wins and 17 losses for the season had to work extremely hard for his qualifying berth.

"Paul (Carlson) had to win over the #1, #3, #5 and the #6 seed to win a true second berth in the tournament," said Christenson.

"Adam (Snyder) also had a good tournament as he wrestled to a third place finish," commented Christenson. "And freshman Derek Evans got 25 wins this season and finished fourth in the section."

TMB boys finish regular season with 8-16 record

The Panther boys' basketball team concluded its regular season schedule with an 81-47 loss to the Central Minnesota Christian School at Prinsburg Friday night. The loss gave the Panthers an 8-16 record overall. The team was 4-10 in the 212 Conference.

The Blue Jays scored almost at will and out-scored the Panthers in each of the four quarters. Their quality of play is attested to by the 23 assists they recorded and the fact that they only turned the ball over 9 times while shooting at a 47% clip.

"The Blue Jays are a talented team," said Panther Coach Nat Boyer. “They had a string of injuries early on, but now they have everyone back and healthy and they are playing very well. They were picked by many to win the conference this year."

Ross Ladehoff led T/M/B in scoring with 10 points while Donald Strand added 9 and Anders Davidson 8.