Rosemount, Eastview meet Thursday; North, South have a rematch Friday
Rosemount and Eastview, which already have clinched 20-victory seasons, will face each other this week for a place in the state girls basketball tournament.
The teams will play for the Class 4A, Section 3 championship at 7 p.m. Thursday at Rosemount High School, with the winner advancing to the state quarterfinals Wednesday, March 13, at Williams Arena.
There are few secrets between the teams, which meet twice each year in regular-season South Suburban Conference games.
Although Rosemount averages almost 74 points a game, Irish coach Chris Orr is expecting a half-court battle similar to the teams’ Feb. 23 game, where Rosemount held off Eastview 56-51.
“We’re both very good. We expect a grind-it-out, back-and-forth battle,” Orr said. “We were fortunate to come out on top the first two times (Rosemount also won 65-49 at Eastview on Jan. 26), but that won’t mean anything Thursday night. We’ve both been working for this, and it should be a great environment.”
As the No. 1 seed in a seven-team Section 3, Rosemount received a bye in the first round of the playoffs Feb. 28. The layoff appeared not to bother the Irish (21-6) when they finally did take the court – they routed Hastings 94-35 in a semifinal game March 2, scoring 61 points in the first half.
“We haven’t had the bye before, so we did a little scrimmage-type game (Feb. 28) just to kind of keep that routine going,” Orr said. “It was a great week of practice for us.”
Guards Avery Moeller and Amisha Ramlall scored 25 and 21 points and forward Ayelishka Teko-Folly had 12 for Rosemount. Reserves got a chance to play in a running-time second half.
The reserves “are as much a part of our team as anybody else. Everybody has a role,” Orr said. “Anytime we can get them playing in front of a crowd when the lights are on, that’s a positive thing – not just now, but for our future.”
The top four seeds in Section 3 are from the South Suburban Conference, so it’s no surprise two SSC teams reached the final. Orr said the conference schedule sets up teams to receive favorable playoff seedings and gives them a chance to see what postseason play will be like.
“You look at our schedule and it’s Lakeville North, then Prior Lake, Lakeville South and Eastview. Those are all section final-type games, in terms of atmosphere,” Orr said. “And we embrace that.”
Eastview’s path to the section final was more difficult as the Lightning had to eliminate defending champion Eagan in the March 2 semifinals. Bra’ja Torry scored 19 points, Gabby Fors 15 and Myah Maull 14 in the Lightning’s 63-51 victory. The teams were tied 29-29 at halftime before Eastview (20-8) pulled away in the second half.
Eagan was 8-9 at the end of January before heating up and winning nine of its next 10, including a 67-31 victory over Park of Cottage Grove in the section quarterfinals Feb. 28. Junior forward Maya Meisinger had 15 points and senior guard Drew Buslee 13 in the section semifinal game for the Wildcats, who finished 17-11.
Rosemount is ranked eighth and Eastview 13th in the Minnesota Basketball News Class 4A rankings. Rosemount has gone to the state tournament five times, including three of the last four years. The Irish were state runners-up in 1988 and 2021.
Eastview last played at state in 2019, when the Lightning were in the tournament for the eighth consecutive year and 12th time overall. Eastview won Class 4A championships in 2014 and 2018 and finished second three times.
Class 4A, Section 1
It’s a South Suburban Conference do-over in the Class 4A, Section 1 girls basketball championship game.
Lakeville North and Lakeville South will meet in the section final at 6 p.m. Friday at Mayo Civic Arena in Rochester, in a rematch of North’s 66-51 victory last season.
It was a relatively stress-free route to the section final for seventh-ranked Lakeville North (23-5), which trounced Owatonna 70-30 and New Prague 82-56 in its first two playoff games. Lakeville South (17-11), ranked 20th in Class 4A, survived a 58-57 semifinal against 19th-ranked Rochester Mayo on March 2.
Since Lakeville Area Schools opened its second high school in 2005, Lakeville North has qualified for the state girls basketball tournament 12 times, including seven of the last eight years. Lakeville South, despite reaching the section final several times, is still looking for its first state appearance.
The Lakeville teams have split their two regular-season South Suburban Conference games the last three years. In 2023-24, each team won on the other’s home court. Lakeville North bolted to an early lead at Lakeville South on Jan. 12 and rolled to a 70-43 victory. South got revenge Feb. 12, winning at North 61-52 as senior Finley Ohnstad scored 21 points.
Junior guard/forward Danielle Coleman scored 20 points, including three three-pointers, in South’s semifinal victory over Rochester Mayo. Kaelyn Bjorklund had 11 points and Ohnstad scored nine for the Cougars, who eliminated Mayo in the section semifinals for the second consecutive year.
Senior center Trinity Wilson scored a game-high 26 points and led four Lakeville North players in double figures in the Panthers’ semifinal victory over New Prague. Guards Gabby Betton and Gracie Winge had 12 and 10 points, and forward Aduke Ojullu scored 11.
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