Three Up Three Down: Class AAA

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>What Class AAA teams are rolling and what Class AAA teams have ran into a rough patch and hope to turn it back around? Here is Three Up, Three Down</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Three Up</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Stewartville (11-3). The Tigers lost three of their first five games and I think were forgotten state wide a bit. The teams they lost to - Mahtomedi, Lake City, and Goodhue - have all turned out to be better than expected. Stewartville has won nine games in a row including wins over PEM, Columbia Heights, Byron and others. The best part of their wins is the balance they are playing with as six guys are scoring between seven and 14 points a game led by the 14 points a game from Brad Pitt's brother, [player_tooltip player_id='1139594' first='Henry' last='Tschetter']. Tegan Malone is scoring 12 a game. Stewartville has a huge game with Lake City tonight. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Worthington (11-2). Worthington might be the surprise of the season right now. They are 11-2 having upset New Ulm, beaten Marshall twice, defeating Luverne, and others. Their only losses are in the season opener to a very good Southwest Minnesota Christian team and Western Christian who is an Iowa powerhouse. This is a balanced team that has excellent wings in the Opiew twins Abagotte and Marenono, Kalbel Knothe is an energetic grinder at PG, sophomore Jacari Swinea has really stepped up, and the other PG in the two PG attack Mikele Walu has also been excellent. Worthington has been the surprise of the year!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Sauk Rapids-Rice (6-7). The Storm are young, they have a new coach, and they got off to a slow start losing their first five games. They have bounced back to win six of eight plus they gave Delano a run before losing a close one. Not only are they winning games but they have blown three or four teams out this month. [player_tooltip player_id='1225629' first='Mason' last='Rudolph'] is the senior leader while sophomore pair [player_tooltip player_id='1579918' first='Hudson' last='Omoke'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1579917' first='Keller' last='Hanson'] have done a lot of the scoring in the run. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Three Down</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Marshall (6-9). There was a point that I may have pronounced Marshall was back on a roll and was likely to get back to where we are used to seeing them. About the time I said that they then went on a five game losing steak and unfortunately only one of those games was a close contest. With New Ulm and Mankato West up next it doesn't get any easier. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>North Branch (7-8). [player_tooltip player_id='2104446' first='Tyler' last='Minke'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1167067' first='Brody' last='Beaver'] have been a strong scoring combination for the Vikings this season and they had a stretch where they won seven of eight games. They've joined the Minnesota Vikings lately in the bad luck category having lost THREE overtime games in an eight day span. And on Tuesday they lost to Chisago Lakes by a single basket! Despite being a game under .500 they are still out-scoring teams by an average of four points a game, they are just having some bad luck. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hibbing. It was going to be setback this year for sure with so many players graduating but unfortunately they have not won a game yet. None of their opponents are going to feel bad for them after years of Hibbing success but there have been a lot of blowouts. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->