By Harold Brutlag
It sounded like Maple Lake had one of their larger St. Patrick’s Day festival crowds Saturday, which kind of surprised me considering the hollowing wind that afternoon. But it once again proved the adage, “The whole world loves a parade”. Those individuals in charge as well as the sponsoring entity, The Maple Lake Chamber, can take a well deserved bow as well as those in charge of the Craft Show and those who organized the coronation program, and the Little Miss Maple Lake and those who ran in the Irish Scamper and those who organized it. It takes a lot of cooperation from people in the community and it sounds like everything ran smoothly… I took a vacation from being a spectator this year, but give me a warm day and I’ll be back!
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Paul Douglas pretty much said our winter isn’t over yet in Sunday’s Tribune and we can expect snow and rain, or a mixture of both as we get nearer the weekend and also next week. It’s so dry out we should welcome any type of moisture so things will green up and lessen the chances of grass fires.
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I think everyone will agree the Minnesota High School Girls Basketball tournament was the best show in town last week. There was a lot of competition, in the Twin Cities with pro-hockey, pro-soccer, Big Ten Men’s Basketball, Timberwolves, to name a few, but I think the attendance at the Girl’s High School Tournament was great.
I watched most of the STMA game with Minnetonka which ended 67-49. Minnetonka went on to win the Class 4 title when they defeated Hopkins 64-58. Hopkins didn’t give up easily and rallied to within three points in the second half when the Skippers ace, Aaliyah Crump, was benched with five fouls.
The Class 3 championship went to Benilde-St. Margaret when they defeated DeLaSalle 81-58. Olivia Olson dominated the first half with 21 points which gave the Red Knights a 44-39 half time lead. Islander Aneisha Scott was their leading scorer with 15, hampered by four fouls.
I was watching Albany in the Class 2 championship when they tangled with Providence Academy but lost 78-81. Albany had defeated Providence during the season 72-70 and this was one of the most thrilling games of the tournament with Providence looking for it’s third consecutive state championship. Albany’s senior forward, Alyssa Sand, at 6 ft. 3 in., was their leading scorer with 29 points, but found herself in foul trouble later in the game on what was referred to as a controversial call. She had 20 points in the first half.
Providence got yoemen’s duty out of their sophomore Maddyn Greenway who was a terror in each of their games. She had 30 points and was the spark Providence needed to take charge of the game and win. Vikings Chad Greenway is her father which might explain some of the drive she had to win.