Congratulations to the Osseo-Fairchild
Chieftains, the Flambeau
Falcons and Neillsville
Warriors for advancing to the girls
state basketball tournament in Madison this weekend!!!
The Chieftains
advanced to Madison by beating Park Falls 59-51 on Monday night. They
were led by Letaya Mulhern and Laura Olson. The Chieftains play
Amherst at 9am on Thursday in a Division 3 semi-final game. It will
be a busy day of traveling for Chieftains fans as the boys play later that
night in Chippewa Falls against Eau Claire Regis in a rematch of last
year's sectional semi-final game.
The Flambeau Falcons
under head coach Ted Alberson are returning to state after beating Lake
Holcombe 62-34 on Saturday. Is anybody really surprised Flambeau is
returning to state yet again with names like Verdegan and Alberson on
their roster? The 24-1 Falcons face 20-4 Wausau Newman at 9:00 on Friday
morning in a Division 4 semi-final game. These two teams will face each
other for the 2nd time in a month as Flambeau beat Wausau Newman 47-43
back on February 9th.
The Neillsville
Warriors are heading to Madison after eeking out a 36-34 win over Rice
Lake on Monday night. Neillsville was led by Sheila Opelt and
Kristen Perkl and a tenacious zone defense that kept Rice Lake at bay all
night. The 22-2 Warriors play the New London who is 23-2 at 1:30 on
Friday afternoon in a Division 2 semi-final game.
After many weather related delays the boys
sectionals in divisions 1-4 are finally set for this weekend.
In D1 from this area we have Eau
Claire Memorial vs. Superior
on Friday night in Marshfield. The
14-8 Old Abes beat Chippewa Falls 49-45 on Saturday. The 19-2
Spartans beat Hudson 61-52 on Saturday. Superior and Memorial last met on
January 20th up in Superior and the Spartans came away with a close 59-57
victory. Expect another close game this time around.
In D2 we have Spooner
vs. Rice Lake and
Neillsville vs.
Wisconsin Dells. The 18-5 Spooner
Rails are coming off a 6 pt win over Northwestern on Monday and Rice
Lake with a big 4th quarter defeated Altoona last night. Rice
Lake won their previous encounter 66-53 back on December 27th.
The 12-11 Neillsville Warriors beat Nekoosa
on Saturday 48-42 and face a Wisconsin Dells team that upset
Adams-Friendship on Saturday 58-43. The Warriors will have their
hands full to be sure.
In D3 we have a rematch of last year's
sectional semi-final between Eau Claire
Regis and Osseo-Fairchild.
Both teams secured Regional final
wins on Monday night. The Ramblers beat Prescott 36-33. Killian Murphy and
Matt DeMars led the way for the Ramblers. The Chieftains beat Mondovi
52-49. Tyler Langner and Justin Pettis led the way for the Chieftains. One
can debate over the water cooler who is the real cinderella team so far in
either Osseo-Fairchild or Neillsville. Regis swept the regular season
series between these two teams but Osseo is playing as well as they have
all year long right now.
In the other D3 bracket we have the 21-2 Webster
Tigers vs. the
21-1 Cameron Comets.
The Comets are coming off a 47-45 win over a pesky Ladysmith team on
Saturday. The Tigers secured a 9pt win 51-42 over top seeded Glenwood City
on Saturday. These two teams did not play each other during the regular
season so it should be an interesting battle Thursday night in Rice Lake.
In D4 we have the Eleva-Strum
Cardinals vs the
Blair-Taylor Wildcats. The Cardinals
absolutely dismantled previously unbeaten Elmwood on Saturday night in Eau
Claire. In their 67-45 win they outscored Elmwood 25-5 in the 2nd
quarter. Lance Rongstad and Adam Walker did their usual damage on the
scoreboard and shockwaves were sent through the entire gym as the
Cardinals used a very rarely used 1-3-1 zone on the Raiders. It was
effective though and time will tell if they use that again. The Wildcats
of Blair-Taylor are coming off an equally impressive 78-56 win over Royall.
I've stated before they were my sleeper team of the tournament and they
haven't disappointed. These two teams hooked up back on January 16th
with the Cardinals winning 54-42. Both teams have won all their
tournament games by double digits so far so this should be a good game
Thursday night in Osseo.
We also have the Gilman
Pirates vs the Clear Lake
Warriors. The Pirates are
coming off an impressive 62-47 win over Abbotsford on Tuesday night.
Mudgett, Doro, and Kulesa led the way for the Pirates. The Warriors are
coming off a 70-58 win over Clayton Monday night. Mike Anderson and
Matt Thayer led the way for the Warriors. These two teams did not
meet during the regular season. The Pirates played in the strong Western
Cloverbelt conference and the Warriors have shown they can score alot of
points.....they scored over 90 pts in one game and over 80 pts in two
others.
Jake Campbell from Eau Claire Regis
announced recently that he is going to walk-on and play for the University
of Wisconsin under head football coach Bret Bielema. Jake is going
to try on to be their kicker and has shown the ability to kick field goals
of over 50 yards.
Wisconsin
Badgers guard Alando Tucker was
named Big Ten player of the year yesterday by the Big Ten coaches and
media. Wisconsin is the # 2 seed in this weekend's Big Ten
tournament. They face the winner of Michigan State/ Northwestern in a game
slated for late Friday afternoon.
