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.
The Austin Packers’ bid for a sweep of the week fell short when they dropped a 57-47 contest to Rochester Mayo on Friday night.
The Packers led by one at the half, but fell behind with a few minutes gone in the second half and couldn’t catch up. The Mayo coach said it was his team’s best performance of the year.
Joe Aase, Zach Wessels and Tom Aase were all in double figures for the Packers, with 16, 14 and 12 points respectively, while Zach Fadness had 3 and Andrew Kaiser 2.
Here are the video highlights:
The Packers are back in action Tuesday night at home against Mankato East.
Thirty years ago next month, the Austin Packers – led by Coaches Howie Strey, Klem Haugen and Bill Lloyd – headed north to the St. Paul Civic Center to play in the 1981 Minnesota High School Boys Basketball Tournament.
On March 4, 2011 we’ll be having a reunion, gathering from 5-6:30 p.m. in the loft area at Torge’s at the Holiday Inn in Austin. Then we’ll head over to the school for the Packers’ final regular season game against Rochester Century, cheering the Austin boys on for what we hope will be another tournament run.
We’ll have be a brief ceremony at halftime of the Century game introducing the members of the ’81 team, which entered the state tournament undefeated at 22-0 and faced undefeated defending champion Minneapolis North in the first round. Here are some snippets from the first half of that contest:
We were down 31-24 at halftime, and next week I’ll post highlights from the second half. At the risk of giving away the ending, during the week of Feb. 21 I’ll be posting highlights from our semifinal game against Chaska (another undefeated team), and then in the week before the Century game I’ll have highlights from the championship game against Anoka.
We’ve been in touch with most of the members of the 1981 gang, although we’re still trying to track down a couple (Deryk Stilwell and Mike Pesonen.) If anyone has contact info for Derek or Mike, please pass this link along to them.
We’re looking for RSVPs to aid in planning, so I’m asking 1981 team members to please confirm your attendance by leaving a comment below.
This also is an invitation to others in the community (or our classmates) who would like to reconnect after three decades; if you’d like to join us at Torge’s before the game, please also indicate that in the comments so we have some idea of numbers to expect.
Go Packers!
It wasn’t their best win of the year, but the Packer boys completed their season sweep of Rochester John Marshall last night with a 58-43 win at Packer Gym.
Turnovers and cold shooting plagued the Pack, but strong defense kept them ahead by double digits most of the game. Joe Aase and Zach Wessels each had 14 points, while Matt Duren chipped in 13, Tom Aase 8, Max Coffey and Zach Fadness 3 each, Jay Ettinger 2 and Andrew Kaiser 1. Let’s go to the film:
The win boosts the Packers’ overall record to 9-8, and they are 8-4 and alone in fourth place in the Big Nine. They return to action at home Thursday night against Waseca, and then travel to Rochester to take on the Mayo Spartans.
The Packer boys had trouble in River City last Friday, as they fell 49-41 to Winona.
The Winhawks’ defense was difficult for the Packers to penetrate, as they managed just 13 points in the first half and were down by 21 at one point in the second. A late surge brought them to within six with two minutes to go, Austin could get no closer.
Zach Fadness led the Pack with 12 points, while Tom Aase had 10, Joe Aase 7, Jay Ettinger 6, Zach Wessels 4 and Andrew Kaiser 2.
Here are the highlights:
Packer Fast Break Club 