Packer History Highlights: 1981 State Semifinals

28 Feb

Thirty years ago, the Austin Packers played in the Class AA (largest school) Minnesota State Boys Basketball Tournament. A reunion of that team is scheduled for this Friday, with introductions of the 1981 team at halftime of the current Packers’ regular season finale against Rochester Century.

In the lead-up to the reunion, we’ll be posting highlights from the 1981 tournament. This post includes video from the second-half comeback against top-ranked Minneapolis North, while today we offer first-half highlights from the semifinals against another undefeated team, Chaska:

Upcoming posts include:

  • Tuesday: Second-half highlights from the Chaska game
  • Wednesday: First-half highlights from the championship game against Anoka
  • Thursday: The second half of the championship game
  • Friday: Video from the player introductions and medal ceremony

Turnout for Friday’s reunion looks to be really strong. Here’s who we have confirmed as attending so far:

  • Aase, Lee
  • Anderson, Bill
  • Anderson, Bruce
  • Gabrielson, Randy
  • Hallum, Rob
  • Haugen, Jeff
  • Jacobs, Brian
  • Jensen, Rod
  • Justice, Steve
  • Longueville, Joe
  • Murphy, Pat
  • Nepp, Doug
  • Pesonen, Mike
  • Stevens, Al
  • Stilwell, Deryk (who gets the travel award, as he is coming from Knoxville, Tennessee)

More to come…

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Packers Bounce Back vs. Tigers

26 Feb

After a tough game Tuesday night, the Packers had strong effort Friday against Albert Lea and guaranteed themselves a winning record for the season with a 62-41 win at home on Senior Night. The seniors were introduced before the game:

Tom Aase pace the Packer attack with 19 points, while Joe Aase added 15, Zach Wessels 8, Jay Ettinger 5, Quinn Yocom 4, Zach Fadness and Nate Weisert 3 and Caleb Knorr 2.

Here are the highlights:

The Packers close the regular season Friday night at home against Century, and can claim third place in the Big 9 with a win.

Packers Start Fast, Hit Wall against Owatonna

25 Feb

After grabbing an early lead, the Packers ran into turnover problems and lost by a lopsided score at Owatonna on Tuesday.

Joe Aase had 16 points, Zach Wessels 11, Tom Aase 6, Zach Fadness 3 and Colin Weisert 3 for the Packers, while the Huskies used points off turnovers and hot three-point shooting to put up 71 points. Here’s the Austin Daily Herald recap, along with the Post-Bulletin article, along with the shortest highlight reel of the season:

The Packers take the home floor tomorrow for Senior Night aiming to guarantee themselves a winning record for the season with a win over Albert Lea.

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Sweeping West, the Week

19 Feb

The Packers completed a season sweep of Mankato West and of the week’s games with a 43-35 win in Mankato last night. Tough half-court defense by both teams led to the low-scoring affair, as the score was just 19-15 at halftime.

Joe Aase led the Packers with 18 points, while Andrew Kaiser had 8, Zach Wessels 6, Tom Aase 5 and Jay Ettinger and Zach Fadness each had a timely trey. Here’s the Austin Daily Herald article.

With the win, the Packers are now 12-9 overall and 10-5 in the Big 9 Conference.

On to the highlights…

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Packers Thump Cougars

16 Feb

The Austin boys avenged an early January loss to Mankato East last night with a 60-51 win over the Cougars.

It was senior night, in a matter of speaking, as Max Coffee, Jay Ettinger, and Andrew Kaiser each scored 9 for the Packers, while Zach Fadness added 8. Joe Aase led the scoring with 14, Zach Wessels had 6 and Tom Aase 5.

Here’s the Austin Daily Herald story.

To the highlights:

The Packers travel to Mankato on Friday to take on West.

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