Sports from the week of February 16, 2005

Boys get first 212 win

The Panther boys’ basketball team registered their third win of the season by upending former Panther Ryan Luft’s Kerkovern-Murdock-Sunburg team at Tracy Tuesday night by a score of 65-59. The win improved Tracy/Milroy/Balaton’s season record to 3-18 and 1-12 in the 212 Conference.

The Panthers led 13-11 at the end of one period of play and increased that to 29-20 at the intermission. With about 1 minute remaining in the third period the Saints increased their intensity and pulled off a 13-0 run to take their first lead in the game at 52-48. TMB came back and out-scored KMS 7-0 to regain the lead at 55-52, with 3:34 to play on the strength of Taylor Rignell’s three pointer from the corner.

Andrew Prairie hit a basket to make the score 57-54 with 1:22 showing and then fed a nice pass to Rignell for a lay-up at 2:06 giving T/M/B the lead 59-57. Two free throw by Derek Radke with 19.5 seconds remaining, two more by Rignell with 16.4 seconds left in the game and 2 free throws by Sean Kirk with 3.5 seconds on the clock completed the Panther scoring.

The Panthers had four players in double figures, Radke with 16, Rignell 15, and Kirk and Prairie with 12 each. The Panthers pulled down 49 rebounds (Kirk 16) to 27, had 11 assists (Kirk 5) to 8, 7 steals to 4, 11 blocks (G. Knott 5) to 5 and turned the ball over 13 times to 19 for the visitors. TMB hit 24 of 46 two pointers for 52 % and were 3 of 12 on three pointers for 25 % while the Saints hit 24 of 63 two pointers for 38 % and were 3 of 13 on threes for 23 %.

“We challenged the boys at the half,” said Panther Coach Nat Boyer. “It was laid on the line right there, it was our game for the taking. After a mental lapse to end the third quarter and to begin the fourth quarter, the team came out of a timeout and took control of the game. Following our 0-7 free throw shooting in the first half, we came back out and shot 8-9 in the second half, which was a major factor in the game. As a coaching staff we are very proud of these young men and the way they responded to the adversity they faced tonight.”

The Panther B-squad lost 55-32.

The C-squad won 56-28.

T/M/B 13 16 19 17 65

KMS 11 9 24 15 59

T/M/B-Nelson, 3,0/0,6; Kirk, 5, 2/7,12; Radke,6,4/4,16, Prairie, 6,0/2,12; Knott, 2,0/1,4; Rignell,5,2/2,15. Totals, 27, , 8/16, 65.

Wolves 60, Panthers 44

The Panthers were within 3 points at intermission but hit a scoring drought in the first four minutes of the third quarter.

“We just have to keep working hard as a team,” said Panther Coach Nat Boyer. “Each member of this team knows how they can and need to improve individually as well as the entire team knowing how we need to improve as a unit. We went with a different line-up tonight and at times it put us at a disadvantage as far as height, but it also put us at a an advantage as far as speed and ballhandling with a four guard line-up.”

The Panthers were out-rebounded 31-25 with MACCRAY collecting 14 offensive boards to the Panther’s 9. The Panthers found themselves in foul trouble in the first half and the trend continued into the second half as well. TMB recorded a season-high 11 blocks which turned into 8 fast break points. Sean Kirk, Taylor Rignell and Andrew Prairie led the scoring with 11 points each. The Panthers had 7 assists to 5 for the Wolverines, 6 steals to 5, 11 blocks to 6 and turned the ball over 21 times to 12 for MACCRAY. T/M/B hit 14 of 43 two-point field goal attempts for 33% and were 2 of 8 on threes for 25%.

T/M/B 17 7 14 6 44

MACCRAY 20 7 19 14 60

T/M/B- Nelson, 1, 0/1,2; Kirk, 4, 3/3,11; Herein, 1,1/2,3; Radke, 2,0/0,4; Prairie, 4, 3/6, 11; Warner, 1,0/0,2; Rignell, 3, 3/3,11. Totals, 16, 10/15, 44.

Girls win county bragging rights

A tournament atmosphere prevailed when Tracy/Milroy/Balaton edged Marshall on the Tracy hardwood Friday, 66-62.

The Panthers improved to 19-3. The Tigers, coached by 1991 Tracy graduate Bruce Remme, fell to 19-4. The Tigers are rated eighth in state Class AAA polls.

“We were ready to play on Friday night,” said Panther Co-Coach Ric Haberman. “The last two games show us how well we can play when we are ready and how poorly we can play when we are not ready for a game.”

The previous night, the Panthers had been upset by Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg.

The Tigers hit the first four shots they took, all from three-point range. Those four shots and a free throw gave them a 13-10 lead midway in the first quarter (Marshall hit 9 three point shots in the game). TMB came back to go ahead 21-16 but a late spurt by the Tigers put them up 23-21 at the end of a fast first period. The Panthers regained the lead by the end of the first half 37-36 and led 51-48 at the three-quarter mark. TMB missed several free throws in the last period. The Tigers hit a three pointer just as the game ended.

Tessa Nelson and Ashlee Domine led the Panthers in scoring with 19 points each.

TMB had 31 rebounds to 24 for the Tigers, 12 assists to 11, 4 steals to 12 and 4 blocks to 2. An aggressive pressure Tiger defense forced 18 Panther turnovers while Marshall committed only 6.

The Panther B squad lost to Marshall 23-40 with Daniels leading the scoring with 7 points while Fultz tallied 6, Carpenter added 4 while Haecherl, Miller and Kirk each had 2 points.

Marshall 23 13 12 14 62

TMB 21 16 14 15 66

TMB-Nelson, 5, 9/14,19; Domine, 6,3/4,19; Miller, 2,1/2,6; Kirk, 2,1/2,6; Schaar, 3,0/2,7; Tholen, 0,0/2,0; J. Tholen, 4,0/0,9. Totals, 24,14/26, 66.

Marshall-Buysse,1,1/2,3; Shultz, 2,2/2,8; Michelson, 5,4/6,18; Meier, 2,0/0,5; Kruger,4,3/6,11; Haukorn, 4,1/4,11; French, 2,0/1,4, Onken1,0/0,2. Totals 21,11/21,62.

KMS 60, TMB 47

Kerkoven/Murdock-Sunburg improved to 15-8 and 7-6 in the 212 Conference with a 60-47 victory over the Panthers Thursday.

The loss knocked the Panthers out of a tie for the 212 Conference championship with Yellow Medicine East.

“We weren’t ready to play Thursday night,” said Haberman. “However KMS has a good team, they finished in third place in the conference. Hopefully we learned a good lesson.”

The Panthers fell behind 14-5. In the first period, and were outscored 20-12 in the final period.

Nelson led the Pantherswith 23 points, 12 rebounds, 4 steals and 5 blocks. TMB had 22 rebounds to 30 for KMS, 7 steals to 5, 12 assists to 12 6 blocks to 5 and turned the ball over 10 times to 13 for KMS.

KMS won the B-squad game 31-26. Mallory Fultz led the TMB scoring with 8 points, followed by Lindsey Daniels with six.

TMB 5 11 19 12 47

KMS 14 11 15 20 60

TMB- Schaar, 0,2/2,2; Nelson, 9,5/11,23; Tholen, 1,0/1,3; Kirk, 3,0/0,9; Domine, 3,2/2,8; Miller, 0,2/2,2. Totals, 16,11/19,47.

State is ultimate goal for TMB wrestlers Saturday

Panther wrestlers are preparing for the individual tournament at Pipestone Friday and Saturday.

“It is very difficult to predict who has the best chance of qualifying for the state tournament, so much depends upon the luck of the draw,” said Panther Coach Brian Michelson. “However I would say that Paul Carlson, Cole Cooreman, Adam Snyder and Chia Thao have the best chances, with Luke Prairie a sleeper.”

Tracy/Milroy/Balaton wrestlers were eliminated from team competition last week, after giving defending state champion Adrian a battle. The Dragons won 49-13.

“Despite the final score we really did much better against Adrian than we did back in January,” said Michelson. “The kids wrestled with much more intensity and we won four matches (almost five).” The Panthers got wins from Chia Thao, Luke Prairie, Ross Ryan and Paul Carlson. Adam Snyder lost a tough 5-4 decision at 125 pounds.

103- Chia Thao won, M dec., 11-3, Loosbrock;

112- Luke Prairie, won dec., 10-4, Their;

119- Cole Cooreman, lost dec., 5-1 Joey Bullerman;

125- Adam Snyder, lost dec., 5-4, Reker;

130- Derek Evans, lost, dec., 8-2, J. Reker;

135- Ross Ryan, won, dec., 6-0, Heitkamp;

140- lost forfeit;

145- Chad Cooreman, lost, fall, 5:08, Dusty Bullerman;

152- Kyle Lanners, lost, fall, 3:10, Sauer;

160- Dan Deiter, lost, dec., 10-2, Englkes;

171- Paul Carlson, won, dec., 5-4, Reverts;

189- lost forfeit;

215- Mike Schreier, lost, fall, 2:14, Luttmer;

Hwt- Jordan Rolling, lost, fall, 2:36, C. Luttmer.