Girls basketball state championships: Only the highest seeds still stand

Ron Haggstrom and Theo Franz will cover the Class 1A and 2A semifinals Friday at Williams Arena, and they’ll also look for stories beyond the games. Come back for their latest and to see contributions from other Star Tribune staffers.

8:59 p.m.

If Providence Academy sophomore guard Maddyn Greenway scores at about half her usual pace Saturday, she’ll move to the cusp of a state record.

After scoring 30 points Friday in a Class 2A semifinal victory over Crosby-Ironton, Greenway has 314 points in state tournament games, according to statistics compiled by Twin Cities basketball historian Matt Pederson.

Greenway needs 16 points to pass the 329 scored by Janet Karvonen of New York Mills in a career that ended in 1980. Carlie Wagner of New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva holds the record of 371. She hit that total in nine games, averaging 41.22 points per state tournament game. She graduated in 2014.

Karvonen played in 12 state tournament games. Greenway has played in 11 state tournament games, averaging 28.55 points.

5:01 p.m.

Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart senior twin sisters Kristi and Rachel Kottke did that twin thing, each scoring 13 points and each fouling out in their team’s loss to Mountain Iron-Buhl.

Each also shed tears during postgame interviews, and each showed that the disappointment is accompanied by pride.

“We wanted to make it all the way to the championship,” Rachel Kottke said. “We wanted to inspire people.”

Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart reached state this year for the first time since 2010.

“We have definitely laid a foundation for the program,” Kristi Kottke said.

2:15 p.m.

The Lake Conference’s outsized influence on the Class 4A field, with three of the four semifinalists competing in the west metro league, has been well-documented.

All three conference coaches in Thursday’s semifinals stressed its impact.

“The reality is any time you played in the Lake Conference, you were going to be in a battle. It was going to be physical, well coached, really well played, night in, night out,” Minnetonka coach Brian Cosgriff said. “You had to be really well prepared to play these teams.”

Hopkins coach Tara Starks said that the conference schedule was perhaps the best preparation her team could have going into Saturday’s championship game against conference rival Minnetonka.

“We know that we’re getting ready to walk into a flat-out battle on Saturday,” Starks said. “We know how tough the Lake is. No matter who it is, you got a battle on your hands.”

St. Michael-Albertville has eight losses; seven were to Lake Confererence teams.

Knights coach Kent Hamre, whose team had been to back-to-back state championship games (both times against Lake Conference rival Hopkins) before Thursday’s 67-49 loss to Minnetonka in the semifinals, said playing in the Lake elevated his team’s level of play.

“Against the top five teams in the league, it could go either way on any night,” Hamre said. “When we were in the Mississippi 8 [conference], it felt like we had a month off at the end of the season because we weren’t playing good competition. We’re fortunate to be in the Lake. We’re battle-tested.”

JIM PAULSEN

. . .

10:54 a.m.

The four heavyweights in the two largest classes — Hopkins (27-3) and Minnetonka (28-2) in Class 4A and Benilde-St. Margaret’s (26-5) and DeLaSalle (27-3) in Class 3A — have advanced to the finals.

Can the top quartet in the two smallest classes — Providence Academy (26-4) and Albany (29-1) in Class 2A and Goodhue (26-5) and Mountain Iron-Buhl (28-3) in Class 1A — do likewise Friday afternoon? If so, it sets up a Super Saturday Showdown Spectacular.

Day 3 of the girls basketball state tournament at Williams Arena will provide the final answers. Large contingents will file into The Barn from rural Minnesota as well as strong followings from two Twin Cities private schools. It will all get under way at noon.

Class 1A will get the day started with Goodhue, ranked No. by Minnesota Basketball News, taking on undersized Underwood (28-3), ranked seventh. The Rockets will have a tough time shooting three-pointers over Goodhue’s taller players; they went 11-for-23 on three-pointers their their semifinal win.

Defending state champion and No. 3-ranked Mountain Iron-Buhl will face No. 4 Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart (28-3) in the second semifinal. It will be a rematch of an early December game that the Rangers won 65-43. It won’t be as easy this time around.

Class 2A will take to the court for the night session. The marquee matchup of the day, featuring the two best sophomores in the state — Maddyn Greenway of top-ranked Providence Academy and Tori Oehrlein of No. 5 Crosby-Ironton — will get the evening started at 6 p.m. Oehrlein doesn’t have quite the supporting cast with the Rangers (25-6) that Greenway has around her and will be counted on all over the court. The teams met at the end of January, a 93-75 Providence Academy victory. The Rangers must be better defensively and keep pace with the electric Greenway to avenge that loss.

The day will be capped by No. 2-ranked Minnehaha Academy (27-3) taking on No. 3 Albany. Albany, which lost to Providence Academy in the championship game last season, defeat Providence Academy 72-70 during the regular season. That’s something Minnehaha Academy hasn’t achieved; it has lost two close games to the Lions this season. It should be a high-scoring affair and a fun cap to another day of watching the state’s best.

We are about an hour from tipoff. The fun nears.

RON HAGGSTROM