Smith leading the way for Blake
By Matt Thomas (From 12/24 edition of The Lakeshore Weekly News)
Last year the Blake girls basketball team was missing a true scorer. Somebody who could be counted on to score in double figures night in and night out. Somebody who they could go to when they needed a last second shot. That somebody was junior Abby Smith.
Smith decided to sit out last season for personal reasons, but her return to the court this season has been key to the Bears 4-2 start.
“She’s our leading scorer and she’s made all the difference in the world,” interim head coach Colleen Hagerty said. “She’s a great kid with an awesome attitude and she’s really turned the attitude on our team around.”
Despite strong shooting from the outside in the second half, Smith couldn’t turn around a 29-17 deficit that the Bears put themselves in during the first half against St. Bernard’s on Dec. 20.
The Bears never led in the game and every time they seemed to get close, the Bulldogs pulled away.
As the third quarter neared an end, Bears sophomore guard Kendall Boyd converted a three-point play to cut the lead to two. The Bulldogs countered just before the quarter’s end with a three pointer to stretch the lead back to five.
Smith cut the lead to 43-41 with a lay-up midway through the fourth quarter, but another three pointer padded the Bulldogs lead once more.
Senior Erica Gray cut the lead down to two on two separate occasions including one time with 1:25 left in the game.
The Bulldogs made their free throws down the stretch, however, and closed the game on a 6-1 run for a 54-47 victory.
Smith led the way with 13 points on 5-11 from the field, while Boyd added nine for the Bears.
“We needed to take better care of the ball,” Hagerty said. “We had 12 turnovers in the first half and 14 in the second half; that’s the ballgame right there, we just didn’t take care of the ball.”
The Bears did turn around the next day and top Southwest Christian 52-29. The Bears came out of the gates with intensity as they led 31-10 at halftime.
Gray, Smith and junior Katie Grudnowski led the way with 14, 13 and 12 points respectively.
The Bears are off now until January 7 when they host St. Croix Lutheran. The layoff over the holidays means head coach Kathy Sandven will return to the sidelines the next time the Bears take the court. Sandven has missed the past four games due to the birth of her son.
The team went 3-1 in Sandven’s absence and will look to keep up their intensity as the conference season starts to pick up.
“We’ve picked up our defensive intensity a lot since our first game,” Hagerty said. “We just have to take care of the ball, because the two games we’ve lost have been because of turnovers.”
Prep Wrap
By Matt Thomas (From 12/24 edition of The Lakeshore Weekly News)
The 30-point club
Wayzata senior Joey Klein nailed eight three pointers on his way to scoring 36 points in the Trojans 65-48 victory over St. Agnes last week. The Trojans fell 59-53 to Hill-Murray later in the week.
Minnetonka senior John Manley scored 39 points just one week after returning to action after suffering a sprained ankle. Manley’s performance helped the Skippers to a 76-73 victory over St. Paul Arlington.
Orono star Ross Devor continued his strong play with a 38 point performance in the Spartans 77-72 loss to Hutchinson. Devor added 19, while Bobby Innes scored 21 in the Spartans 77-45 victory over Brooklyn Center.
Royals Rolling
Four of five starters scored in double figures as the Hopkins girls basketball team topped St. Paul Central 70-46. Senior Jordan Barnes scored 18 to lead the way. Barnes scored 22 and Leslie Knight 18 in the Royals 82-60 victory over Minneapolis Edison. Sophomore Kaitlyn Lillemoe scored 15 points in both contests.
Break-out Game
Wayzata junior Allie Rivard scored a season high 20 points as the Trojans had no trouble with Tartan in a 47-27 victory.
The Brothers Ferguson
Armstrong brothers DaWon and DeAnte Ferguson scored 14 and 11 points respectively to lead the Falcons past Rochester John Marshall 58-44.
Big Win For Blake
Andrew Schremp and Sean Gallagher both scored critical third period goals as the Blake boys hockey team topped Benilde St. Margaret’s 4-3. Coming into the game, the Bears were ranked second in Class A while the Red Knights were ranked seventh. Junior Justin Kowalkoski made 17 saves in goal for the Bears.
Spartans Fall to 7-1-1
The sixth ranked Orono girls hockey team suffered their first loss of the season, falling 7-1 to second ranked Benilde St. Margaret’s.
Dynamic Duos
The Armstrong girls hockey tandem of Courtney Horsch and Kelly Crandall continued to thrive last week. Horsch scored two goals, while Crandall scored one goal and two assists in the Falcons 6-2 victory over Osseo.
Kristina Johnson and Kathryn Moos continued their stellar play for the Blake Bears last week. Moos had two goals and one assist, while Johnson had one goal and two assists in a 8-1 victory over the St. Paul Stars.
Another Game Winner
Wayzata junior Whit Graft has defined the word clutch this season. Graft scored another game winning goal this week as the Trojans topped Cretin-Derham Hall 3-2 in non-conference action. The ninth ranked Trojans are 10-3 on the season.
Undefeated
The Orono boys hockey team remained undefeated at 8-0 with victories over Minnehaha Academy (5-2) and St. Michael-Albertville (9-2).
Matt's Moron Of The Week
This week's winner is Star Tribune television critic Neal Justin. The Strib might as well replace the word critic in Justin's title with the word "whiner." If you read Justin's column for a month you'll pretty much get the idea that Justin hates watching television because none of the shows on air are up to his standards.
Justin made this extremely clear in his latest column entitled, "All I Want For Christmas is...Better TV!" In the column Justin pleads with networks to air a Saved By The Bell High School Reunion and suggests that Ozzy Osbourne should be made host of Family Feud.
Neal: Let me clue you in on a little secret commonly known to us humans these days. If you have cable television you have almost 100 channels to choose from. Most people today have satellite dishes meaning they have hundreds of channels to choose from.
If you can't find something you like on television in today's world you should probably lock yourself in your bedroom with a copy of Thoreau's "Walden."
Another reason I can't stand Justin is because I had the unfortunate luck one time to be present at Kieran's Irish Pub Quiz in Minneapolis at a table next to this pompous know it all.
Apparently Justin finds himself to be some sort of idiot savant, because when his answers were announced as incorrect he argued for endless minutes with the host that he was indeed correct.
By Matt Thomas (From 12/24 edition of The Lakeshore Weekly News)
Last year the Blake girls basketball team was missing a true scorer. Somebody who could be counted on to score in double figures night in and night out. Somebody who they could go to when they needed a last second shot. That somebody was junior Abby Smith.
Smith decided to sit out last season for personal reasons, but her return to the court this season has been key to the Bears 4-2 start.
“She’s our leading scorer and she’s made all the difference in the world,” interim head coach Colleen Hagerty said. “She’s a great kid with an awesome attitude and she’s really turned the attitude on our team around.”
Despite strong shooting from the outside in the second half, Smith couldn’t turn around a 29-17 deficit that the Bears put themselves in during the first half against St. Bernard’s on Dec. 20.
The Bears never led in the game and every time they seemed to get close, the Bulldogs pulled away.
As the third quarter neared an end, Bears sophomore guard Kendall Boyd converted a three-point play to cut the lead to two. The Bulldogs countered just before the quarter’s end with a three pointer to stretch the lead back to five.
Smith cut the lead to 43-41 with a lay-up midway through the fourth quarter, but another three pointer padded the Bulldogs lead once more.
Senior Erica Gray cut the lead down to two on two separate occasions including one time with 1:25 left in the game.
The Bulldogs made their free throws down the stretch, however, and closed the game on a 6-1 run for a 54-47 victory.
Smith led the way with 13 points on 5-11 from the field, while Boyd added nine for the Bears.
“We needed to take better care of the ball,” Hagerty said. “We had 12 turnovers in the first half and 14 in the second half; that’s the ballgame right there, we just didn’t take care of the ball.”
The Bears did turn around the next day and top Southwest Christian 52-29. The Bears came out of the gates with intensity as they led 31-10 at halftime.
Gray, Smith and junior Katie Grudnowski led the way with 14, 13 and 12 points respectively.
The Bears are off now until January 7 when they host St. Croix Lutheran. The layoff over the holidays means head coach Kathy Sandven will return to the sidelines the next time the Bears take the court. Sandven has missed the past four games due to the birth of her son.
The team went 3-1 in Sandven’s absence and will look to keep up their intensity as the conference season starts to pick up.
“We’ve picked up our defensive intensity a lot since our first game,” Hagerty said. “We just have to take care of the ball, because the two games we’ve lost have been because of turnovers.”
Prep Wrap
By Matt Thomas (From 12/24 edition of The Lakeshore Weekly News)
The 30-point club
Wayzata senior Joey Klein nailed eight three pointers on his way to scoring 36 points in the Trojans 65-48 victory over St. Agnes last week. The Trojans fell 59-53 to Hill-Murray later in the week.
Minnetonka senior John Manley scored 39 points just one week after returning to action after suffering a sprained ankle. Manley’s performance helped the Skippers to a 76-73 victory over St. Paul Arlington.
Orono star Ross Devor continued his strong play with a 38 point performance in the Spartans 77-72 loss to Hutchinson. Devor added 19, while Bobby Innes scored 21 in the Spartans 77-45 victory over Brooklyn Center.
Royals Rolling
Four of five starters scored in double figures as the Hopkins girls basketball team topped St. Paul Central 70-46. Senior Jordan Barnes scored 18 to lead the way. Barnes scored 22 and Leslie Knight 18 in the Royals 82-60 victory over Minneapolis Edison. Sophomore Kaitlyn Lillemoe scored 15 points in both contests.
Break-out Game
Wayzata junior Allie Rivard scored a season high 20 points as the Trojans had no trouble with Tartan in a 47-27 victory.
The Brothers Ferguson
Armstrong brothers DaWon and DeAnte Ferguson scored 14 and 11 points respectively to lead the Falcons past Rochester John Marshall 58-44.
Big Win For Blake
Andrew Schremp and Sean Gallagher both scored critical third period goals as the Blake boys hockey team topped Benilde St. Margaret’s 4-3. Coming into the game, the Bears were ranked second in Class A while the Red Knights were ranked seventh. Junior Justin Kowalkoski made 17 saves in goal for the Bears.
Spartans Fall to 7-1-1
The sixth ranked Orono girls hockey team suffered their first loss of the season, falling 7-1 to second ranked Benilde St. Margaret’s.
Dynamic Duos
The Armstrong girls hockey tandem of Courtney Horsch and Kelly Crandall continued to thrive last week. Horsch scored two goals, while Crandall scored one goal and two assists in the Falcons 6-2 victory over Osseo.
Kristina Johnson and Kathryn Moos continued their stellar play for the Blake Bears last week. Moos had two goals and one assist, while Johnson had one goal and two assists in a 8-1 victory over the St. Paul Stars.
Another Game Winner
Wayzata junior Whit Graft has defined the word clutch this season. Graft scored another game winning goal this week as the Trojans topped Cretin-Derham Hall 3-2 in non-conference action. The ninth ranked Trojans are 10-3 on the season.
Undefeated
The Orono boys hockey team remained undefeated at 8-0 with victories over Minnehaha Academy (5-2) and St. Michael-Albertville (9-2).
Matt's Moron Of The Week
This week's winner is Star Tribune television critic Neal Justin. The Strib might as well replace the word critic in Justin's title with the word "whiner." If you read Justin's column for a month you'll pretty much get the idea that Justin hates watching television because none of the shows on air are up to his standards.
Justin made this extremely clear in his latest column entitled, "All I Want For Christmas is...Better TV!" In the column Justin pleads with networks to air a Saved By The Bell High School Reunion and suggests that Ozzy Osbourne should be made host of Family Feud.
Neal: Let me clue you in on a little secret commonly known to us humans these days. If you have cable television you have almost 100 channels to choose from. Most people today have satellite dishes meaning they have hundreds of channels to choose from.
If you can't find something you like on television in today's world you should probably lock yourself in your bedroom with a copy of Thoreau's "Walden."
Another reason I can't stand Justin is because I had the unfortunate luck one time to be present at Kieran's Irish Pub Quiz in Minneapolis at a table next to this pompous know it all.
Apparently Justin finds himself to be some sort of idiot savant, because when his answers were announced as incorrect he argued for endless minutes with the host that he was indeed correct.
posted by PulseofMN at 11:07 AM
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