Roseau opening foe for TMB
For the past two years, the TMB girls’ basketball team walked off the court at the R/A Facility at SMSU with bowed heads, tears and shattered dreams.
The nightmares of the past were replaced with a dream come true Friday night, as this time Panther players left the court with tears of joy — and as Section 3AA champions.
TMB (29-2) held on to defeat the Eden Valley-Watkins Eagles, 49-48, to punch its ticket to this year’s state girls’ basketball tournament, where it will face defending Class AA champion Roseau (24-5) at 8 p.m. today at Williams Arena.
“They’ve worked so hard for this, they earned this,” TMB coach Derek Ashbaugh said after the game. “I don’t know if I had to say anything to the kids (before the game). They were literally jumping up and down — they wanted to get out there, they wanted to get rolling.”
TMB had lost the last two Section 3AA finals games, both to New London-Spicer.
Friday’s game, as expected, was a classic that came down to the wire. The final point came courtesy of TMB senior Syd Lanoue, whose free throw with 6.7 seconds left proved to be the difference.