AAAA and AAA rankings scrambled

With just a couple weeks to go before sections get seeded, a number of teams improved their chances of a good one with a notable upset, while an equal number of teams hurt their seeds by falling to (then) lower-rated teams. Some of the big results include, in Class AAAA: • Lakeville North took sole possession of 1st place in the South Suburban with a 79-51 rout of Apple Valley as 4 Panthers scored in double figures, led by Temi Carda with 18. • Wayzata stayed hot, defeating Edina 59-56 and Roseville 54-39 as seniors Sidney Franks and Camryn Hay scored 31 and 26 points, respectively, in the 2 big games. • Eastview lost for a 5th time, this a huge surprise to Shakopee 60-57 as Isabell and Brittany West combined for 31 points for the Sabres. • Roseville lost to East Ridge (as Noelle Tomes scored 27 for the Raptors) and Wayzata. • East Ridge beat Roseville but lost to Cretin and Forest Lake. Tomes scored another 23 against the Rangers but only 3 Raptors were able to score at all against Cretin. • Centennial lost to Champlin Park. Champlin got 41 points from Allison Gerads and Erica Hicks. • White Bear Lake beat Forest Lake, Woodbury and Minnetonka. Alexa Molin and Claire Odmark scored 31 and 25 points, respectively, in the Tonka and Forest Lake games. • Moorhead beat Brainerd, Thief and Alex. The Spuds defeated the (then) #3AAA Cardinals 64-51 as Sam Haiby (for Moorhead) and Kendall Kohler (for Alex) each scored 18. The Spuds got back into our consideration set but didn’t quite get into the top 20. In Class AAA: • Holy Angels lost to St. Croix Lutheran despite Destinee Oberg’s 22 points. • Hutchinson defeated Orono and New Ulm as Tori Wortz scored 42 points in the 2 games. • Mahtomedi lost to Simley despite 23 points from Emma Grothaus. • Alexandria lost to Moorhead, but more to the point lost Macy Hatlestad to a knee injury. The Cards bounced back against Buffalo. • Waseca lost to St. Peter for the 2nd time this year, this time 51-45 as Jacey Welp scored 14. • Worthington lost to Marshall 68-60. Marshall finished on a 10-0 run led by Natalie Petrich, who finished with 24. Emma Thuringer had 18 for Worthington. Big Gainers In a manner of speaking, you could say that Holy Angels was the big gainer. They lost to St. Croix Lutheran and then beat DeLaSalle by one. I figured for sure they would drop out of the #1 slot. But, no. Who else would you make #1? Meanwhile, Hutchinson moves all the way from #9 to #2 with its win at (then) #2 Orono. The Tigers have now won 9 in a row after a rocky (2-5) patch. But #1? Gotta see that 2-5 further away in the rear view mirror first. Hermantown also moves up 8 slots from #14 to #6 in after winning at then #6 Zimmerman. Grand Rapids and St. Anthony move up 3 slots. Northfield moves up 4 slots from #11 to #7 after its win over Winona, though the 2 meet again this week, and the Raiders lost to Class AAAA Rochester Mayo. In AAAA White Bear Lake was the big gainer, moving up 4 slots from #18 to #14 after beating Forest Lake, Woodbury and Minnetonka. Moving up 3 places are Park Center, Champlin Park and Shakopee move up 3 slots. Park Center is the highest-rated of the 3 at #7. Big Losers The big drop was Alexandria from #3AAA to #8 after its loss to Moorhead. Undoubtedly, that seems like a big drop for a loss to a Class AAAA opponent. But the ranking is also affected by the fact that 1) the loss was fairly decisive at 64-51, and 2) the Cards also lost their best player, point guard Macy Hatlestad, to a knee injury. Actually it occurred on January 16 but we just heard about it this past week. Centennial dropped 4 slots from #6 to #10 after losing to Champlin Park. Minnetonka, Woodbury, New Prague, Worthington and Jordan dropped out of our top 20 rankings. Newcomers Willmar is the top newcomer, moving into the AAA rankings at #18. Cretin returns to the rankings at #20 in AAAA. Forest Lake, Mpls. South and DeLaSalle also jump into the ratings. Coming Up There’s a separate article about this week’s top games but in AAAA and AAA the 2 really, really big matchups include: • Elk River @ Park Center on Valentine’s Night as the 2 NW Suburban conference unbeatens (both in the conference, Elk River still unbeaten in all games) square off. Since the conference does not have a playoff of its division winners, then if these 2 front-runners stay that way, then this is for all intents and purposes for ultimate bragging rights in these parts. Gabi Haack takes on Danielle Schaub, Ann Simonet, Sommer Blakemore and Meghan DuBois. Sounds like a toss-up to me. But, considering that Haack is not literally all alone out there but has plenty of help from Ava Kramer, Sidney Wentland, Kelsie Cox and others, you’d have to go with Elk, right? • Hopkins @ Wayzata in #1 vs. #2 in the Lake Conference. 1st place is not on the table, however, as Hopkins is 6-0 in the Lake, Wayzata 4-2. Hopkins seems likely to make it 24-0. The first 23 came easily enough. The Sections For the record, based on the statewide rankings in AAAA and AAA, if our top rated team in each section was to go ahead and win their section, then the state tournament would look something like this. AAAA 1. Hopkins Section 6—semi-finalist 2. Elk River 8—semi-finalist 3. Lakeville North 1—semi-finalist 4. Apple Valley 3—semi-finalist 5. Park Center 5 Not seeded— Roseville 4 Edina 2 Andover 7 AAA 1. Holy Angels 3—semi-finalist 2. Hutchinson 6—semi-finalist 3. Grand Rapids 7—semi-finalist 4. Kasson-Mantorville 1—semi-finalist 5. Hermantown 7 Not seeded— Alexandria 8 Mahtomedi 4 Waseca 1