Eastview girls will be back to defend their state title

Eastview will get a chance to defend its Class 4A title at the girls' basketball state tournament.

The Lightning defeated Rosemount 56-37 in the Class 4A, Section 3 final at Hamline University on Thursday to earn its fourth straight state tournament appearance.

Eastview won despite senior guard Madison Guebert struggling for most of the game. She had a scoreless first half but finished with 14 points.

"Teams are trying to say, 'We're going to stop her,' " Eastview coach Melissa Guebert said. "Our game plan is we have a lot of other kids on our team that are very good scorers. If a team thinks that's what they want to do, they're probably going to be in for a little eye-opener."

That was the case against the Irish.

Senior forward Samantha Trammel scored a game-high 19 points, dominating the first half in the post, and sophomore guard Rachel Ranke added 15 points.

"We were attacking the basket really hard," Trammel said. "They had to go over to help, and I was open on the side."

"My shot was obviously off tonight, and you just have figure out a way to mix it up and do something different," Guebert said. "My teammates were doing a great job setting screens and getting me the ball when I was open."

The Lightning's quest for back-to-back state championships will begin on Tuesday at Target Center.