Sections Semi Saturday
What is the biggest day of girls basketball in the state? Championship Saturday at the state tournament? Well, that’s just four games! The North Tartan Meltdown? The Breakdown Tip-Off? Those are all great, but I like Section Semi Saturday.
This year Section Semi Saturday features 8 sections, 16 games and 32 semi-finalists, and that’s just in Class AAAA. Then, there’s exactly the same in Class AAA. In Class A and AA you’ve got just 2 sections playing their semi-finals, but that’s 4 more games and 8 more teams. And, finally, you’ve 7 more sections playing 4 quarter-final games each involving another 56 teams.
So, in total you’ve got 25 of 32 sections playing 36 semi-final games, and 64 games in all. And, guess what? We can’t preview them all. So, here’s what we’re going to do. First, we’re going to see 4 games on Saturday. We’re going to preview those 4 games. And then we’re going to recap the section action so far, highlighting mainly those sections where there has been an upset or two, where one or more of the top teams have already been sent home. Here goes.
Section 5AAAA @ Anoka
#6AAAA Park Center (22-5) vs. #11AAAA Roseville (21-6) 1 p.m.
Park Center finished the regular season strongly. Roseville not so much. The Pirates will try to wear out the Raiders with platoons of guards including seniors Danielle Schaub and Ann Simonet, juniors Sommer Blakemore and Meghan DuBois, and youngsters Lauren Frost, Kayla Cox and Ailiyah Ragulen. And, then, on the inside there’s Mikayla Hayes and Azsha Michael.
Roseville counters with Kaia Porter at the 1, the dynamic freshman forward Jayda Johnston, and big Meleah Hansen, who has been vastly improved. If she can come anywhere close to holding her own against the Florida-bound Hayes, Roseville might have a chance. And Kaia Porter is surely stronger than any one of Park Center’s guards, but is just as surely going to be outnumbered out there. Roseville’s only outright advantage might be the freshman, and it’s a lot to ask a freshman to win you a section title. Our pick: Park Center 57 Roseville 52.
#8AAAA Centennial (21-6) vs. #9AAAA Champlin Park (21-6) 3 p.m.
Centennial still has the section’s best talent, taken individually, but it has still not quite gelled as in late losses to Champlin and Anoka. Still, centers Sara Stapleton and Sarah Grow give the Cougars an advantage in the post. But, Champlin matches up pretty well around the rest of the starting lineup with Allison Gerads and Gabby Mocchi at the forwards, and Erica Hicks and Amanda Pollard at the guards. Centennial is deeper, though it remains to be seen whether this is a real advantage or not. You can only play 5 players at a time. But, I look for somebody off the Centennial bench to make some plays. Our pick: Centennial 58 Champlin 55.
Section 3AAA at St. Paul Washington
#16AAA St. Anthony (18-6) vs. #6AAA St. Paul Como Park (19-7) 6 p.m.
St. Anthony is one of the surprise teams of the year, but Como is at least a mild surprise, starting 3-5 then finishing 16-2. Elaina Jones is a beast, Mikayla Van Nett is one of the state’s top 3-point shooters, and Autumn Tucker may be the best player 5-0 tall or less that I have ever seen. Our pick: Como 73 St. Anthony 59.
#8AAA Mahtomedi (22-3) vs. #15AAA DeLaSalle (15-10) 7:45 p.m.
Mahtomedi is the #1 seed, but DeLaSalle would scare the heck out of me. They’re just 15-10 but 4-4 in 2016, 5-4 in January, 6-2 in February when they played St. Croix Lutheran, Cretin, Maranatha and Holy Angels. They increase their scoring during those 3 periods from 48 to 62 to 67. Dacoda Speidel is back from an injury, and De has 8 players scoring 5 ppg or more. Mehtomedi, meanwhile, has had some injuries. They’ve played well in spite of that, but De is peaking at the right time. Our pick: DeLaSalle 62 Mahtomedi 57.
Class A and AA
Section 1A: The top 2 teams in the east, Rushford-Peterson and Mabel-Canton, are already gone, but #1W Goodhue and #2W Lyle-Pacelli remain. Their semi-final Saturday in Rochester has been an annual classic in recent years.
Sections 4A through 8A all play their quarter-finals Saturday, with all of their top seeds still standing. Only a few #4s have been eliminated.
Section 1AA: The #8 seed Winona Cotter shocked #1 and defending state champion Plainview-Elgin-Millville 54-52 the other night, opening the door for the winner of #2 Hayfield vs. #3 Rochester Lourdes. Cotter plays #4 seed Kenyon-Wanamingo in the other semi.
As in Class A, Sections 4AA through 8AA all play quarter-finals Saturday, with all of their top seeded teams still in action.
Elsewhere in Class AAA
All 8 Class AAA sections are in action on Saturday. The upsets here mostly have been of the minor variety—maybe ALL of the minor variety. #5s Byron, Mankato West, Visitation and Detroit Lakes advanced. Only DL is a threat and, even then, only because of Macy Hatlestad’s injury in Section 8AAA.
And, #6 seeds Benilde-St. Margaret’s, Hibbing and Bemidji also advanced. I don’t consider any of them to be a real threat but one of them—Bemidji in Section 8AAA—took out what looked like a real threat, Thief River Falls, 71-54. That makes #1 seed Alexandria’s task a little easier.
Elsewhere in Class AAAA
Ditto, all 8 sections are in action on Saturday. The only upsets so far are of the #5 vs. #4 variety, as is the case with Sections 1, 3 and 6. Farmington surprised Owatonna in 1AAAA, Hastings edged Park 48-47 in 3AAAA, Mpls. South survived Armstrong in 6AAAA. But, I don’t see any of these as a threat, and all of the real favorites will be in action.
Section 3: Special attention here and in Section 8. In Section 3AAAA, Apple Valley has been in quite the funk over the last couple-three weeks of the regular season. But, apparently, the post-season gave the Eagles a new lease on life. They exploded against a good Sibley team, winning 91-49. So, maybe they’re a threat to Eastview after all.
Section 8: Here, St. Michael had a surprisingly close game with Brainerd 69-62 as Rae Johnson scored 32 and Kylee Heurung 27. Does that suggest an Elk River win next week, assuming both win on Saturday at Monticello?