Another Team to a Section Final

Posted on March 3, 2013 by tomobert63

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1-7-11-33Does this photo appear to have appearance difficulties?  Well, it should.  For reasons linked to the inconsistent firing of brain synapses.  It all began yesterday (Saturday) morning.  The supervisor had a busy day lined up for us (well, that’s how I spread the blame).  We had a meeting that lasted from 11:00 am – 2:00 pm from which we hied immediately to the winery for an afternoon of fine music with Anthony Miltich, while also partaking, at least from the beverage standpoint, in the currently re-discovered incredibly healthy Mediterranean diet.  😉  We were subsequently joined by the neighbors of, and allegedly relatives of, the staff photographers, so we slightly overstayed our intended departure time all in the name of good fun.

[Re the insert photo:  Card alum Sam Trumm, now a student at NDSU, was at the game with her folks, but Lauren, also at NDSU, had a school function.  Fellow Card alum Angela Christianson was there with her folks to see the Cards and sister Amanda.]

We raced home and dialed up directions to the gymnasium at the University of Minnesota, Moorhead, for we were going on another road trip.  After sampling several useless sites, we finally printed the best of a bad set of options, and began the trip to the section 8AAA semifinal girls basketball game between our Cardinals and the 25 – 2 Thief River Falls Prowlers, the same team we played in the semifinals last year.  In our rush to make this commitment, I realized several miles down the road that I had forgotten the tools of the trade, i.e., my camera and . . . my brain!  Once there, I relied on the ole snapshot camera for the few photos I took.  Fortunately the staff photographer was there with the proper equipment.  This post will be amended as soon as his material is available.  In the meantime, I was able to video the 1st 3 minutes of the game – the Cardinals came out with all afterburners flaming:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_X1EgWYm2Q

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[The Trumm photos are in!  And the rest of the photos are his!  🙂 ]

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[Contrary to courtside scuttlebutt, I was not refing the game.]

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[Kohler meets the Prowlers.]

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[Aaaaayyyyyyy!!!]

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[Intros, Karly greets Sarah.]

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[And then the Prowlers leading scorer.]

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[Jess greets a Prowler.]

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[Dani and Sarah]

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[Amanda C and Sarah]

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[Amanda C and a Prowler]

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[Kalli says “Hi!”]

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[A bunch of old people came up all the way from Alex.  We’d better win!]

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[Amanda C gets a steal on the Prowlers 2nd possession.  Karly provides support.]

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[And one – she finished with 22 points.]

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[Karly steals . . .]

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[And scores – she had 12 points.]

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[And this point, the Prowlers had yet to get off a shot . . . and had just barely reached the front court!  Something just learned- the Cardinals have the No. 1-ranked defense in class AAA, allowing opponents 40 points per game or less.  And it’s not from taking the air out of the ball – it’s chaos theory basketball!  😉 ]

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[Chaos theory in practice!]

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[(Greg’s getting good at this shot.)]

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[The Master of Disaster brings it up.]

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[The next five photos demonstrate the defense in action with Dani eventually getting the steal and heading up court.  Of course, we enjoy it immensely!]

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3-2-13-233-2-13-243-2-13-25[Go, Dani, go!]

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[Karly – either getting a steal or already on offense?  It’s hard to tell with them.]

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[Kalli on D.  She had 7 steals in the game!  Like Sam before her, what our centers lack in size, they make up for in quickness.  It seemed like every time time the Prowlers tried an entry pass, Kalli would jump in front of their center and intercept it.]

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[Number 11 was their leading scorer.  A good 3-point shooter, and she hit a couple.  We kept her under control.]

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[Kalli goes high.]

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[Playing a frenetic pace requires playing lots of players.  If you don’t get tired, you aren’t playing hard enough.  Fortunately the Cards have “deep depth,” as some wag once called it.  Here the wing span of Emily hassles the inbounds while Sarah and Macy track the exterior.]

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[Hello, 911?  We’d like to report a multi-player pile up in the backcourt.]

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[Listen, ladies, Trumm’s got his camera on us.  Feign indifference.]

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[After another Kalli steal of an entry pass, she took it the length of the court for a lay-up!]

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[Cardinal fans balanced both sides of the court.]

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[The boys’ team was there.  Texting notes back to headquarters.]

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(Listen No. 11, you make this shot and you’ll be wearing Betterman like a second skin for the rest of the game.)]

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[The double-team moves in.]

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[There, there!  That’s Kim Kardashian!]

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[Amanda C was 11 – 12 from the line.  The team was 18 – 20.  Crucial when you’re getting fouled the end of the game.  Once again the Cards showed they can step it up come tournament time!  🙂 ]

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[Remember that second skin thing?]

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[Well, here I am!]

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[At the half.  The Prowlers had an impressive record, like last year.  Checking their schedule, they had some good wins.  But just as in the semifinal game last year, the Cardinal pressure was initially something they had never experienced before.  The Cards turned them over early and often and raced to a nice lead.  It looked like an easy win.  But then, like last year, the Cards hit the scoring doldrums, the Prowlers regrouped, showed they are a good shooting team, and worked their way back into the game.  The Prowlers came out after the half and scored the 1st 7 points, taking the lead.  The Cards looked like the team in trouble.  The Prowlers maintained a slight (up to 3) lead for a while when the Card pressure gradually started to have an impact again.  Slowly the Cards regained the lead and continued to build on it for the rest of the game.  A nice win.  Amanda led the way with 22 – Kalli did well inside, and Karly was her usual pesty self on defense.  And the Cards hit their free throws which was key down the end.  Oh, because of big early lead, the Cards rested the starters in the 1st half so they would have gas in the tank at the end.  The 8th-graders played early and often – and did well.  But we had to laugh at one point when the Cards had an extended offensive possession, then momentarily lost the ball, which was recovered again by Kendall, who then turned and launched a long 3, like a shot clock was running out.  And she made it!  🙂 ]

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[Amanda C leads off the 2nd half with a happy face.]

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[Kalli lowered her flight path – making more free throws.]

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[The Cards slowly ground them down.]

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[The Mexican place on 6th?  I was thinking Canadian.]

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[Lookin’ good from the line, Cards!]

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[Karly]

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[Amanda C, above and below]

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[C’mon, ref!  She’s only an 8th-grader, for Pete’s sake!  (Great shot, Greg!)]

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[Her mom’s right here on the bench.  It’ll never happen again!]

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[Wrap it up, Amanda!]

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[We won!]

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[Kohler really liked this one.  She was juiced!]

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[Bob “The Voice” returns with Karly for her post-game player-of-the-game for the KXRA listening audience.]

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[“The Voices” courtside.  I had a shot of Bob bringing Karly in as player-of-the-game but it was no good.  Yup, my photo.  😦 ]

[Section final next Friday, March 8, 7:30, @ St. John’s, v. Fergus Falls!  See you there!]

Well, as long as we’re here, we bring you, at no additional charge, the staff photographer’s coverage of the quarterfinal game against Little Falls:

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[The game was out of hand early for the Flyers.  D’yah think?]

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[Silly me!  Wore the opposing team’s color!  The supervisor said, “No DQ for you!”  You will note the regular Super Fans behind us are Ruth and Bud Anderson.  Ruth was my high school classmate and was recently featured, along with Bud, in our class blog.  Little did I know they were internationally-renowned muskie fishermen!  Check them out at: www.65roundup.blogspot.com.  (Did you know muskellunge is Ojibwe for “great fish”?)]

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[Just a guess.  A drummer?]

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[Parents of some pretty darn good Cardinal players.]

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[Sarah drives through traffic.  To my knowledge, she did not violate any laws.]

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[Here comes a play!]

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[Emily draws a bead on a Flyer.]

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[Kalli as our low-post threat.]

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[Is it good?]

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[So, it was either an “. . . and one,” or she’s shooting two.]

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[Nice catch, Mr. Photographer!]

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[At the half.  Time for some channel surfing . . .]

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[A sitting room only crowd, but I was taking a 7th-inning stretch.]

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[Kalli practices her post jumper.]

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[Amanda on her way to 27.]

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[Dani sinks a free throw.]

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[And two!]

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[Amanda C challenged by the Flyer star.]

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[Ref, seriously, that was a foul!]

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[Karly goes in for a two-handed slam!]

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[Amanda C, and below]

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[Is this taco Tuesday?  With the 3 seniors standing behind, Kohler addresses next year’s team!  😉 ]

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[The youth movement.]

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[A nice steal and go series by Macy.]

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[And it’s good!  When Sam and Angela were the stars of the team, Macy and Kendall would hang around as young gym rats.]

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[Bud and Trish, exit stage left.]

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[Next year’s team.]

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[The Prowlers would be next, of course.]

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[Clap, clap, clap – clap, clap, clap – clap, clap, clap!]

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[Aaaaayyyyyyyy!]

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[Bring on the Lynx!]

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[In all his glory!  (Gory?)]

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[Player-of-the-game Amanda C]

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[Kalli visits with the print media.]

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[Dave has now done more interviews than Howard Cosell.]

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[Media row.]

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[Amanda C with the print media.]

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[The coach and her seniors.  Let’s ride this train to the Cities!  😉 ]

About tomobert63

The Journey Begins Thanks for joining me! This is the follow-up to the original, “alexandriacardinals.wordpress.com,” which overwhelmed the system’s ability to handle it any more. Thus, this is “Part 2.” As the original was initially described: 10-26-07-4 “It all began in a 5,000 watt radio station in Fresno, California” . . . wait a minute, that was Ted Baxter on the Mary Tyler Moore Show! Let’s see . . . oh yeah, it all began in 2003 when retirees, i.e., old people, in Alexandria, Minnesota, who had no desire to become snow birds, went looking for mid-winter entertainment here in the frozen tundra of West Central Minnesota. We discovered girls’ high school hockey, fell in love immediately, and it remains our favorite spectator sport to this day. Initially, and for several years, reports on these games were e-mailed to those who were actually snowbirds but wanted to keep abreast of things “back home.” It was ultimately decided a blog would be more efficient, and it evolved into a personal diary of many things that attracts tens of readers on occasion. It remains a source of personal mental therapy and has yet to elicit any lawsuits. ~ The Editor, May 9, 2014 p.s. The photo border around the blog is the Cardinal girls’ hockey team after just beating Breck for the state championship in 2008. It’s of the all-tournament team. The visible Breck player on the left is Milica McMillen, then an 8th-grader – she is now an All-American for the Gophers. The Roseau player in the stocking cap I believe is Mary Loken, who went on to play for UND; and the Cardinal player on the right, No. 3, is Abby Williams, the player we blame most for making us girls’ hockey fans who went on to play for Bemidji State. *********************************************************************************** Photos contained herein are available for personal use. All you have to do is double click on any of the photos and they will become full screen size. You can then save them into your personal “My Pictures” file. They make lovely parting or hostess gifts, or holiday gifts for such as Uncle Ernie who wants to see how his grand niece is doing on the hockey team. If any are sold for personal profit, however, to, for example, the Audubon Society, National Geographic, Sven’s Home Workshop Monthly, Curling By The Numbers, or the World Wrestling Federation, I only request that you make a donation to the charitable organization of your choice. You have two hours and fifteen minutes. Pencils ready? Begin! **********************************************************************************
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