Speaking of Sports

By John Fragodt, Sports Reporter

Boy, what a tough loss, Thursday night, by the Minnewaska Area girls basketball team to Sauk Centre.  The game was for the WCC title and also would have given the Lakers a big confidence boost heading into the stretch run of the regular-season.

Instead, the Lakers might start second-guessing themselves although deep down they know they can play with any team in the state, including the 10th ranked Sauk Centre team and fourth-ranked NLS squad, which beat the Lakers by five points earlier this season.

But, that’s one thing about basketball; you can’t win if you don’t score points and both the Minnewaska Area boys and girls basketball teams have been having problems putting the ball through the net this winter.

There are so many scoring options for both teams that I’ve had a tough time figuring out why both teams aren’t scoring more points. 

The Lakers girls are 10-1 when scoring 54 or more points this season.  The only exception was Saturday’s 74-66 loss at Redwood Valley.  And, the Laker boys are 1-0 when scoring 67 or more points.

I haven’t seen many better defenses for girls’ teams than the Lakers have this year, but Minnewaska Area puts unnecessary pressure on itself by missing a lot of easy shots after generating steals.  

I do have to say that I’ve started to really respect the super sports’ programs of some area schools, including Sauk Centre, Albany and West Central Area, who seem to consistently field great teams in all sports every year.

This was a great year to face SC, too, since two of their best players are a freshman and sophomore and that’s not counting a six-foot-four junior post player who is also very good.

The Laker girls should still have a shot to earn a berth in the sub-section finals in three weeks where they would probably face NLS again.  The Wildcats have a great team, but I’m sure they are very aware of what a great battle it would be between NLS and Waska.