Delano Herald Journal

Serving the communities of Delano, Loretto, Montrose, MN, and the surrounding area

Traveling team wins Elk River tourney



The eighth grade Howard Lake Waverly Winsted (HLWW) boys
traveling basketball team played in the tenth annual Elk River Tournament
on Jan. 2 – 3 and were crowned tournament champions.

In the first round, the Lakers played a small, but scrappy,
Irondale team. HLWW’s size and speed wore down their opponents and the Lakers
won 51-30 to advance to the semi-finals.

The Lakers played the Elk River Red team in semi-final
action. Elk River Red had beaten the Lakers in a previous meeting, but this
game belonged to HLWW.

At the half, the Lakers only led by 7, with a score of
20-13. In the third quarter, the Lakers flexed their offensive muscles,
scoring 22 points and increasing their lead to 42-21 by quarter’s end. Final
score of the game was 56-26 Lakers, earning the HLWW team a berth in the
championship game.

The Lakers were matched against Elk River White for the
championship. This would turn out to be a low-scoring game, due to both
teams playing excellent defense.

The Lakers trailed by one at half-time, 13-12, and after
three quarters of play, HLWW was behind 27-23. The Lakers finally managed
to tie the score at 31-31 with 32 seconds remaining in the game.

The Lakers forced an Elk River turnover and regained possession
of the basketball with 15 ticks left on the game clock. After a time out,
the Lakers scored on the ensuing out-of-bounds play and were clinging to
a 2-point lead with just 10 seconds to play.

Again, good defense forced yet another Elk River turnover
and the Lakers ran out the clock to preserve the win with a final score
of 33-31.

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