St. James, Chargers have tough road ahead

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- After watching St. James and Minnesota Valley Lutheran play Monday night in boys basketball, you know that sometime in mid-March, these two teams may meet again in tournaments with a lot more riding on the outcome.

But meeting again may not mean meeting in the championship game as this year's section is loaded -- perhaps the strongest in years.

"I think that our half of the section with Martin County West, MVL and ourselves in it is very tough," veteran St. James coach Steve Walker said. "They look to be the top three teams. But Blue Earth has played well at times and LeSueur is capable. Our half is really loaded this year."

BEA beat MVL 64-62 at the end of January.

St. James has beaten MVL and handed MCW their only loss.

"They [MCW] has had a good solid year," Walker said. "They have beaten [South Central Conference champion] Fairmont twice and also beat Blue Earth. They are a balanced team with three, three-year starters."

Walker said that his team's goal is to get back to the state tournament.

"But this is a tough a road as we will have to get there. When March comes around, no matter who the teams are, you have to beat them all," he said. "Our goal is not only to get to the state but win the state."

Walker said that the section winner will have a good chance of winning the state title.

"MVL was ranked number one in 2A in the state, we were number one, Martin County West is now the number two in the state," he said. "The team that comes out of our section will certainly be battle-tested."

MVL coach Craig Morgan agrees that the section is the toughest that it has been in the last couple of years.

"Years before, it has been pretty even, but this year you have three or four strong teams," he said. "I think that St. James and Martin County West will be one and two in the seedings. I think that we may be a four seed behind St. James, MCW and Blue Earth. That loss to Blue Earth was a big loss for us."

This will prove to be one of the best section tournaments in recent years.

EAGLE GIRLS FALL IN SECTION: People who were at the Section 1A girls playoff game between Austin and New Ulm Saturday night had to feel pretty good about the Eagles' chances of winning, especially after the first period.

New Ulm kept the play in the Austin end of the rink for the majority of the period. Eagle skaters were taking Austin skaters off of the puck and New Ulm appeared to be a step faster than the Packer skaters.

But in the back of the mind, people had to return to last year's sectional game against Faribault where New Ulm -- at home -- dominated the game but came up with an overtime loss to the Falcons.

When Austin took a 1-0 lead in the second period and then quickly made it 2-0 in the 5-1 win over the Eagles, New Ulm coach Todd Nelson said that the Eagles started to panic.

"We did not do the smart things on the ice," he said. "We took to long of shifts, not making quick decisions. Those things were factors in the game. But in playoffs, you need to take advantage of your chances and if you don't do that -- look out."

New Ulm outshot Austin by 26 shots.

Nelson said that after Austin took a 2-0 lead, that his team's confidence also went down.

"We were dominant the first two shifts of the period," Nelson said. "And we had three or four scoring chances. The third shift went out for us and Austin took it down and scored. We went down from that point for at least eight minutes of that period. That is when they scored two more goals."

New Ulm did score their only goal when Sam Richter scored. But it was already a 4-1 Austin lead.

"We finally banged one home -- we should have been doing that all night," Nelson said. "Pucks were laying there in front of the Austin goalie all night. We were standing up straight instead of getting down low on our sticks and banging those loose pucks in."

Nelson said that last year's loss in the section "was a harder loss to take, just based on the fact that we were a better team record-wise. I think that composure-wise we were a better team this year. The loss stinks because we are getting things going but getting them going to late.

"We have been kind of an up and down team all year long," Nelson said. "Hopefully next year's team can do well -- we will be young as we will have eight new players. Having younger girls, we may not have as many outside issues to deal with.''

New Ulm returns a nucleus next year of goalie Kayla Nesvold, forwards Mary Otis, Kyla Hoffmann, Richter, Emily Drexler, Tiffany Hoffmann and Amber Reinhart, along with defensemen Liz Bode, Dani Budahn and Jen Filzen.