The Austin Packers boys basketball team got their season off to a great start on Tuesday with a 60-45 win over section rival New Prague.
Zach Wessels led the scoring with 18 points, while Bret Lukes added 14, Nik Gasner 11, Gach Gach 8, Curtis Oberbroeckling 5, and Ajuda Nywesh 2 and Zach Coffey 2 each.
See the story in the Austin Daily Herald.
Update: Tomorrow’s game is against Marshall…and so as an appetizer, here are highlights from the end of last year’s OT win in the state semifinals:
As the Austin Packers are gearing up to go for a third straight Big Nine title and to defend their Section 1AAA championship, 2013 graduate Joe Aase is beginning his college career at Davidson College. See this article in Tuesday’s Rochester Post-Bulletin for more background.
Joe saw his first collegiate action Sunday afternoon in an exhibition game against Lenoir-Rhyne University, a Division II school from North Carolina. Here are some highlights of his play:
The Davidson Wildcats open their season Friday at #5-ranked Duke University in Cameron Indoor Stadium. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU at 6 p.m. CST. Their home opener is Monday, Nov. 11 against University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in a game broadcast on ESPN3, also at 6 p.m. CST.
If you want to keep up with the Wildcats basketball team online, see the official men’s basketball site or follow on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Home games that are not televised are streamed from the Davidson Web site for a fee.
The Austin boys are playing in the Saturday Fall League at Kennedy High School in Bloomington, Minn. In today’s action, they faced Woodbury, a Class AAAA team from the suburbs of St. Paul.
The Packers tied the game at 38 with 90 seconds remaining and then played tough defense to get the ball back. Here are the last 30 seconds of the contest:
The 2011-12 Packers saw their first action together this past weekend as they participated in a team camp at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. They played well against some top competition, beating a very good Waverly team that won the Iowa Class AAA championship last year and has several returning starters. They also made strong showings against an Evanston, Ill. team and Iowa City West – which made the large-school state semifinals last year in Iowa, and had all of its starters returning.
One of the top games was a contest against the Howard Pulley 16 and under AAU team, one of the top all-star AAU programs in Minnesota. The Pulley team also had a couple of members of its 17U team participating, including Hopkins point guard Siyani Chambers, a member of last year’s Minnesota state champions in class AAAA. The Austin boys battled until the end, when Chambers hit two free throws with six seconds left for the 86-84 Pulley win. Here are some video highlights of that contest:
The Packers head to Ames, Iowa Saturday for the Iowa State team camp, and will be playing together for much of June.
Several Packers are also playing AAU ball, including Brett Lukes who is playing on a strong 15U team, and Joe Aase, Tom Aase and Zach Wessels, who are playing for the Minnesota Fury Gold 16U team that is currently 35-4 on the year. AAU action resumes in July.
Austin has two members of the Big Nine All-Conference Teams. Joe Aase was named to the first team, while Tom Aase made the second team. Both are sophomores. Senior Zach Fadness received honorable mention.
Here is the complete list:
First team
Austin: Joe Aase, so. Century: Ater Manyang, jr. Faribault: Michael Emge, sr. Mankato East: Brody Ziegler, jr. Mankato West: Des Spann, sr. Owatonna: Vaughn Thada, sr.; Drew Osmundson, jr. Winona: Mark Blacklock, sr.; Martin Feddersen, sr.
Second team
Albert Lea: Kyle Ooms, jr. Austin: Tom Aase, so. Century: Nate Kruisselbrink, sr. Faribault: Chad Hansen, sr. Mankato East: Martin Stevens-Frederick, sr. Mayo: Ian Reid Hathaway, jr.; Nate Penz, jr. Owatonna: Tyler Supalla, sr.; Mike Sebring, sr.
Packer Fast Break Club 