Owatonna Enters Basketball Poll; Blooming Prairie Moves Up

Owatonna boys basketball is having a great season. The voters in the Minnesota Basketball News rankings agree. The Huskies (10-2) enter the Class 4A rankings at No. 19 this week in the poll dated February 24, 2021. Owatonna is the only Section 1-4A team ranked.

The Huskies only losses have come in close games to No. 10-3A Austin and No. 11-3A Mankato West. OHS just beat No. 12-3A Mankato East with a last-second shot. OHS plays at Mankato West Friday, February 26 at 7:30 pm.

This game doesn't count in the Big Nine standings. Only the first pass through the schedule is considered for the league standings and the Scarlets (10-1) have clinched the title, their first since 2008-09.

The top teams are Champlin Park (4A), Minnehaha Academy (3A), Waseca (2A), and Mahnomen-Waubun (1A). A huge showdown looms between Waseca and Minnehaha Academy on Tuesday, March 2. See the full rankings here.

Byron (No. 14) joins Austin as ranked boys teams in Section 1AAA. Mankato East and West trail Marshall (No. 7) as a trio of Section 2AAA rated teams. Section 1AA should be a great playoff section with Caledonia (No. 3), Stewartville (No. 4), and LaCrescent-Hokah (No. 19) ranked.

The Blooming Prairie girls edge up to No. 11 in the latest poll. BP has the inside track on a Gopher Conference title after beating Waterville-Elysian-Morristown (No. 9) recently. Other rated Section 1A teams include Houston (No. 13), Kingsland (No. 14), and Hayfield (No. 20).

The top girls teams are Hopkins (4A), Becker (3A), New London-Spicer (2A), and Minneota (1A). See the full poll from Minnesota Basketball News.

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Players wearing masks. Limited crowds at high school games. Those are a couple of obvious changes we have dealt with during the pandemic. Check out below other things being done differently.