North, Farmington take top-10 rankings into title game
Two South Suburban Conference heavyweights – and two teams ranked in the state’s top 10 – will play for the Class 4A, Section 1 boys basketball championship Friday night.
Lakeville North and Farmington, the top two seeds in the section, meet in the Section 1 final at 6 p.m. at Mayo Civic Arena in Rochester in a matchup of teams with vastly different postseason resumes.
North has been to the state tournament 10 times since 2006 (plus appearances in 1995 and 2004 as Lakeville High School). The Panthers were state champions in 2014 and state runners-up three times.
Farmington is playing for school history. Farmington High School’s last – and only – trip to the state tournament was 87 years ago, in 1937.
But they’ve followed the same path to get to the section final – by not backing down from tough competition. Not only do the Panthers and Tigers play in one of the state’s toughest conferences, they have sought out quality non-conference opponents. North has faces Wayzata and Park Center, who played in last year’s state Class 4A final. Farmington owns a victory over Cretin-Derham Hall, a 23-4 team that’s also playing for a section title this week.
“We play those types of teams so the kids understand that’s the level they have to play at all year,” Lakeville North coach John Oxton said. “And it’s especially true in the playoffs.”
Lakeville North (23-5) and Farmington (22-6) finished first and third in the South Suburban Conference, a league that will send at least two teams and possibly three to the state Class 4A tournament next week. Eagan and Eastview play for the Section 3 championship Thursday. Also on Thursday, Shakopee, the South Suburban runner-up, plays Lake Conference member Minnetonka for the Section 2 title.
North and Farmington also were sixth and seventh in the final Minnesota Basketball News Class 4A rankings.
In regular-season play, Farmington defeated Lakeville North 77-67 on Jan. 2, and North beat the Tigers 74-67 on Feb. 17.
“The first game, (North senior guard Matt) Drake was injured, but we played really well,” Farmington coach Tharen Johnson said. “(Jack) Robison (North’s leading scorer) got his, but we were able to hold down their other guys.
“The second game we had a shot to tie it with 50 seconds left and missed, and they pulled away with free throws. That game was the only one this season where we were outerebounded.”
Each team has a star player – Robison, a University of Wisconsin commit, averages 22.1 points for North, and Sioux Falls commit Brandon Hrncir leads Farmington with a 20-point average. But each team has made it this far because other players have come through when needed.
“The biggest thing with Farmington is they’re very balanced,” Oxton said. “Hrncir is a big part of it, but they have a lot of other kids who can score.”
As for Lakeville North, “everybody knows about Robison,” Johnson said. “But the guy who really hurt us in the second game was No. 55 (senior forward Andrew Quam, who scored 24 points).”
Farmington survived an overtime game against seventh-seeded Rochester John Marshall in the first round of the section playoffs, winning 78-69. Tigers senior Tyler Beckwith scored a season-high 24 points as Farmington turned back Lakeville South 69-52 in the section semifinals March 9.
“Tyler was a difference-maker in both (section) games,” Johnson said.
DaMarcus Burks scored 16 points and Ryan Johnson had 14 in the section semifinal game for Lakeville South, which finished 18-10. Lakeville South split two regular-season games against Farmington, but in the playoff game found it difficult to get good looks near the Tigers’ basket.
“That was our game plan going in,” Johnson said. “We know they have some good shooters, but we made the choice to try to force them to take perimeter shots.”
Lakeville North had no trouble in the first round of sections, defeating New Prague 85-38. The Panthers faced more resistance in a 78-71 semifinal victory March 9 over Rochester Century, the section’s fourth seed but a 20-win team.
“It wasn’t our best game and Century played really well,” Oxton said. “We got off to a poor start. We were down 7-0 and 9-2 but did a good job to take the lead (41-33) by halftime.
“We got the lead to 10-11 points in the second half but couldn’t quite put them away. What really helped us was Matt Drake was 13-for-13 on free throws.”
Drake finished with 26 points and Robison scored 21 in North’s semifinal victory.
The Lakeville North-Farmington winner advances to the Class 4A quarterfinals Wednesday, March 20, at the Target Center. The semifinal (March 21) and championship (March 23) games move to Williams Arena.
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