Jackson County Central’s girls basketball team will play its next-to-last game of the regular season Friday when the Huskies are on the road at Redwood Valley. JCC will be at home vs. St. James Area Tuesday.
First up though will be Redwood Friday in a game that will carry a lot of weight when seeding for the Section 3AA tournament is held on Monday. You can read a little more in detail about that later in this newsletter.
The Huskies will take a 15-game winning streak and an 18-6 record to Redwood. Their last game was a 91-55 road win at Luverne Tuesday where they had three players score in double figures.
Rylie Cother scored 39 points, Zadi Farmer 20 and Paylin Sether 13.
Farmer, an eighth-grader, made six three-point baskets at Luverne, giving her 67 on the season. That breaks Alaina Wolff’s record of 66 in the 2019-2020 season.
JCC won the first game between the teams 77-68 in Jackson on Jan. 7.
Redwood Valley has won six of its last seven games and 17-7. The Cardinals’ last game was a 76-44 home win over Blue Earth Area Tuesday.
Big South Conference
Girls basketball standings
Through Feb. 12
East Pod
Jackson County Central 6-2
Tri-City United 6-2
Fairmont 5-3
Belle Plaine 3-5
Blue Earth Area 0-8
West Pod
Redwood Valley 6-2
Windom 6-2
St. James Area 5-3
Pipestone 3-5
Luverne 0-8
Big School Pod
Marshall 8-0
New Ulm 5-3
St. Peter 5-3
Waseca 2-6
Worthington 0-8
Pod games only
Section 3AA
There are a lot of talented teams in Section 3AA.
JCC plays in the South Sub-Section, where five of the seven teams have season win totals in the teens and there could be a sixth added on Thursday night.
In the eight-team North Sub-Section, there are three team with 21 or more wins.
Here are the won-loss records for the Section 3AA girls basketball teams through Wednesday. The teams are listed in order of won-loss percentage.
South Sub-Section
St. James Area 17-5 .773
Jackson County Central 18-6 .750
Windom 18-6 .750
Redwood Valley 17-7 .708
Fairmont 16-7 .696
Pipestone 12-12 .500
Luverne 3-20 .150
North Sub-Section
New London-Spicer 23-1 .958
Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 23-2 .920
Minnewaska Area 21-2 .913
Montevideo 10-14 .417
Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta 9-15 .375
Paynesville 7-16 .304
Litchfield 3-20 .130
Eden Valley-Watkins 3-21 .125
Seeding
Pairings for the Section 3AA tournament will be determined on Monday (Feb. 17), with first-round games the following Saturday (Feb. 22).
As shown above, how teams 1-5 are seeded will be interesting.
In most cases, the teams involved in that group will met each other twice before seeding occurs.
There are three exceptions though.
Fairmont will play Redwood Valley and St. James Area once.
And Jackson County Central will not play St. James Area at all. The Huskies and Saints will play Tuesday, the day after seeding.
Here are the records of the teams in that group of five vs. each other this season. The teams are listed in order of won-loss percentage.
Jackson County Central 4-1* .800
Fairmont 4-2 .667
Windom 3-5 .375
Redwood Valley 2-4* .333
St. James Area 2-3 .400
*Denotes games that remain within the group before seeding occurs.
Double digit win streaks
There are now nine Class 2A girls basketball teams in the state with winning streaks of 10 games or more.
Crosby-Ironton and Royalton have both won 23 straight as they are both 23-0. They both play Thursday as C-I is at Proctor (19-2) and Royalton hosts Paynesville (7-16).
New London-Spicer started the season 23-0 before losing 82-79 at Class 3A New Ulm (15-7) Tuesday.
St. James Area and Visitation moved their winning streaks into double figures with wins Tuesday. SJA defeated Pipestone 66-53 and Visitation routed Robbinsdale Cooper 77-13.
The complete list of double figure winning streaks for Class 2A girls basketball teams:
23
Crosby-Ironton
Royalton
22
Providence Academy
17
Minneapolis North
Minnewaska Area
15
Jackson County Central
11
Maranatha Christian
10
St. James Area
Visitation
Top 10 lists
Jackson County Central is sixth in points per game among Class 2A girls basketball teams with 73.8 points per game. Windom is just ahead in fifth with 74.2.
Here are the top 10 offensively and defensively.
Points scored
Providence Academy 89.3
Crosby-Ironton 89.1
Minnehaha Academy 79.5
Duluth Marshall 76.1
Windom 74.2
Jackson County Central 73.8
New London-Spicer 73.0
Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg 72.1
Proctor 69.2
Sauk Centre 68.8
Points allowed
St. Paul Washington/Johnson 35.0
Minneapolis North 36.3
Minnewaska Area 36.7
Nova Classical Academy 37.0
Menahga 37.1
Caledonia 37.4
Proctor 39.2
Royalton 39.9
Wadena-Deer Creek 40.1
Crosby-Ironton 41.3
JCC girls basketball schedule/results
Monday, Nov. 25: Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial, W 76-51
Tuesday, Dec. 3: at Blue Earth Area, W 84-27
Thursday, Dec. 5: at Pipestone, W 84-44
Friday, Dec. 6: New Ulm, L 69-68
Tuesday, Dec. 10: Estherville Lincoln Central, L 82-42
Friday, Dec. 13: at Tri-City United, L 61-51
Tuesday, Dec. 17: St. Peter, L 70-62
Friday, Dec. 20: at Fairmont, L 68-48
Friday, Dec. 27: Marshall at SMSU, L 76-56
Saturday, Dec. 28: MACCRAY at SMSU, W 65-31
Friday, Jan. 3: Belle Plaine, W 89-70
Tuesday, Jan. 7: Redwood Valley, W 77-68
Friday, Jan. 10: at Windom, W 91-83
Monday, Jan. 13: Luverne, W 76-62
Tuesday, Jan. 14: at Worthington, W 93-58
Thursday, Jan. 16: Blue Earth Area, W 82-40
Tuesday, Jan. 21: Tri-City United, W 80-47
Friday, Jan. 24: Fairmont, W 68-63
Monday, Jan. 27: at Maple River, W 95-78
Tuesday, Jan. 28: Pipestone, W 80-58
Friday, Jan. 31: at Belle Plaine, W 86-82
Tuesday, Feb. 4: Windom, W 67-64
Friday, Feb. 7: at Waseca, W 60-21
Tuesday, Feb. 11: at Luverne, W 91-55
Friday, Feb. 14: at Redwood Valley, 7:15 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 18: St. James Area, 7 p.m.