Sports from the week of February 2, 2005

TMB girls are back on top of 212 conference

Panthers reverse earlier YME loss

The Panther girls’ basketball team avenged an early season conference loss to Yellow Medicine East by beating them at Granite Falls Thursday, 52-40. The Panthers’ season record is now 13-2 and they are 9-1 in the 212 Conference. YME fell to 17-2 and are 11-1 in the Conference. The teams are tied (in the loss column) in the conference race.

“We didn’t score in the first 6:30 of the third quarter and let them get as close as 2 points,” said Panther Co-Coach Ric Haberman. “Except for the third quarter we played very well and did a better job of rebounding.”

The Panthers got off to a 16-12 lead at the end of the first period and used a strong second quarter to lead 30-18 at the intermission. However the poor third quarter saw the lead drop to 32-28 at the end of the third quarter. Tracy/Milroy/Balaton rallied in the last stanza by out-scoring the Sting 20-12.

Tessa Nelson and Ashlee Domine led the team in scoring with 17 points each and Alyssa Kirk drained 3 three pointers while scoring 13 points. T/M/B had 23 rebounds (Nelson 9) to 32 for YME, had 13 assists (Schaar 3) to 10, 9 steals (Kirk 3) to 15, 3 blocks (Nelson 2) to 1 and each team turned the ball over 15 times.

The Panther B squad lost to YME 29-46. The young Panthers were led in scoring by Fultz with 9 points, M. Miller had 7, Haecherl 6, Coulter, Tholen and Daniels had 2 each and Carpenter 1 point.

T/M/B 16 14 2 20 52

YME 12 6 10 12 40

T/M/B-Schaar, 0,1/2,1; Nelson, 8,1/3,17; Tholen, 1,1/2, Kirk, 4,2/3,13; Domine, 8,1/1,17. Totals 21,6/11,52.

Wrestlers get first-round bye in team tournament

The Panther wrestling team has been seeded second in the North Sub-Section Wrestling Tournament to be held in Granite Falls on Tuesday, Feb. 8.

Yellow Medicine East is the top seed. Montevideo was third, Marshall fourth, Lac qui Parle fifth, and Redwood Valley sixth.

In the South Sub-Section at Adrian, Adrian/Ellsworth was the top seed, followed by Murray County Central/Fulda MCC/Fulda, Pipestone, Worthington, Red Rock Central/Westbrook-Walnut Grove, and Luverne/Hills Beaver Creek.

The Panthers will get a bye in the first round. The finals take place Friday, Feb. 11 at Redwood Valley.

Panther girls dodge Arrows

The Panther girls prevailed in a hard-fought non-conference game with Pipestone-Jasper Tuesday night at Tracy 42-41. The win improved Tracy/Milroy/Balaton’s season record to 15-2 and 10-1 in the 212 Conference.

“We missed some easy shots early in the game but played hard and well at the end,” said Panther Co-Coach Paul Soupir. “I was happy to see that we played with some urgency when we needed to.”

The Panthers jumped off to an early 3-0 lead but it was all Arrows from then until TMB tied the score at 20-20 with 1:32 remaining in the second period. The Arrows over came the early Panther lead to go out in front at 10-3 and led 18-12 early in the second quarter. The halftime score was 24-22 in favor of the Arrows and the teams were still tied at 30-30 after three quarters of play.

The Arrows jumped up 34-30 before TMB came back with a steal and a coast-to-coast basket by Alyssa Kirk and a three pointer by Emily Miller to go ahead 35-34. The Arrows came right back with 2 quick baskets to take the lead again with 3:07 left in the game. Two baskets by Ashlee Domine tied the score again at 39-39 with 1:04 to play. Jillian Tholen then got a very timely steal and drove for a layup, and when she dropped the ensuing free throw the Panthers led 42-39. The Arrows scored a meaningless basket on a rebound as time ran out to bring about the final score.

Ashlee Domine led the Panther scoring with 18 points and carried the scoring load for Tessa Nelson who was missing because of having 4 wisdom teeth pulled.

The Panthers had 28 rebounds to 22 for the Arrows, 9 assists (Schaar 4) to 12, 8 steals (J.Tholen 4) to 4, 1 block to 1 and turned the ball over 11 times to 14 for the Arrows.

There was no C squad game but the Panther B squad won over P-J 53-36. Molly Miller led the scoring with 27 points and Lanoue added 11, Daniels 6, Kirk 3 and Fultz, Vroman and Cassie Miller added 2 each.

The Panthers hit 12 of 22 two point field goal attempts for 55% and were 3 of 16 on three point shots for 18%. P-J was 11 of 23 on two point shots for 48% and 5 of 9 from three point range for 55%.

TMB 12 10 8 12 42

P-J 16 8 6 11 41

TMB-J. Tholen, 3, 2/3,8; K.Tholen,1,0/2,2; Kirk, 3,1/2,9; Domine, 7,4/6,18; Miller, 1,2/4,5. Totals 15,9/16,42.