On an 0-4 start to the year, the men's 🏀 team headed to the capital of the conference for a showcase of all four Dakota D1's. They hooked the State university first and came within two points of beating the preseason favorite thanks to Sam Griesel (20 & 8), Maleeck Harden-Hayes (18 & 7) & Rocky Kreuser (17). It finished 77 - 75, blue. As proof of the importance of the game, four of the five starters were on the court for at least 31 minutes.
In game two the guys went against South Dakota's other one. In addition to the aforementioned three, who each scored at least 11, Tyree Eady finished as the leading scorer in the game with 17 on the way to a 74 - 67 win.
Before the three-game series wrapped for the men, the women took the court at Iowa State. Abby Schulte (12), Michelle Gaislerova (10) & Ryan Cobbins helped keep it respectable but the #24 ranked Clones were too much for the up & coming ladies.
A few hours later the guys closed out the tournament against the Grand Forks Green. It was the same four pacing the way for the reigning champs but at a lesser clip as Griesel lead with 14 while MH-H scored 8 on the way to the 53-52 final that was once again in their favor.
Meanwhile, on the south border, ⛳️ great Amy Olson continued to hang around at the LPGA US Open. When her third round was complete she was one shot off the lead and two clear of the next player. While the Open was supposed to continue today, weather had other ideas so she's had to wait another day for the chance at her first tour win. During the wait it was revealed that her father-in-law, Grant Olson's dad, had passed away suddenly. Needless-to-say that there's never a good time for that, but it adds an extra layer to what would be and should be a special time in her professional life.
In a rare bit of Dragons news, 53 of their athletes were recognized by the conference for their accomplishments in the class room...or stream.
There were also more changes to the men's and women's 🏀 schedules but they're both still set to start against Augustana on January 2.
After 9 months off Minnesota got back on the court!
It was pretty close to exactly the kind of game that you would expect considering the many changes to the roster. If there's one thing to take away from the contest it's that the gel needs more mixing. Both the offense and defense should be better given time but the long lay off and all those changes make for a steep curve that few organizations would be able to overcome.
After a long-time partnership with their minor league organizations, Minnesota shuffled the deck. Now the top of their talent pool will be minutes away by car while the AA will be in Wichita instead of Pensacola. The single-A players are still set for Cedar Rapids and Fort Myers but the structure has been flipped, Fort Myers used to be the higher of the two.
That's not a lot but in mid-December what can you expect?
Fargo's 🏒 team was also in Sioux Falls for their one go-round this week. As they have so often already this season, they scored early and then scored late. The opener came off the stick of Tyler Rollwagen, his third of the year. SF evened it up in the second and went ahead 2-1 in the third. With less than three minutes to go in the game, Jack Peart hit the net to force overtime. Two & a half minutes into the extra period, Mason Salquist got his seventh to secure the eighth win in 10 tries.
We're down to hours until Winter starts!!!
In case you missed them, the last few 🏀 previews were released for North Dakota side schools.
Along with that came the preseason rankings.
In addition to those came more college commitments in the past week, but you'll have to hit the Twit to see them!
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