Roseau, Sauk Centre charge into Class 2A final

Roseau junior Kacie Borowicz scored a season-high 40 points, leading the Rams to a 78-66 victory over Maranath Christian on Friday and putting them one victory away from back-to-back Class 2A championships.

The No. 3-ranked Rams (25-5) defeated No. 2-ranked Maranatha Christian Academy 78-66 at Target Center.

"You could just feel that she was going to have a big game today," Roseau coach Kelsey Didrikson said of Borowicz, who scored just 15 points in the quarterfinal. "Wednesday's game wasn't going to define her tournament."

The Rams held a seven-point lead with 4:59 to play in the first half when a fast-break layup from Borowicz bumped the score to 31-24. But it was the Rams' last field goal of the half.

Meanwhile, the second-ranked Mustangs used a 14-2 run to go up 38-33 at the break.

The second half started slowly, with 4 minutes, 31 seconds elapsing before the first field goal.

"In the second half, it took a while to get into it, and they just kept getting on runs," Maranatha senior Jaclyn Jarnot said. "They just kept getting on runs, and we couldn't catch up."

The Rams took the lead back with 6:45 to play on a three-pointer from Borowicz. They rolled from there, with a lot of points from Borowicz on layups and at the free throw line.

She remembered a play on which things turned around in the second half.

"I got a charge, and it was right under our basket," Borowicz said. "I don't know, it just changed the whole momentum of the game."

Jarnot led Maranatha Christian (27-5) with 25 points and 12 rebounds.

Sauk Centre 54, Northwood Young America 45: Sauk Centre sophomore Tori Peschel stole the ball and was fouled. She got up from the floor and gave a "let's go!" shout.

"Well, we knew coming into the game that we'd definitely be smaller, especially down in the post area, so when you get those fouls down there and draw contact … it benefits us," said Peschel, who finished with a team-high 18 points and 11 rebounds.

That play was near the start of a 16-2 run for the Mainstreeters (32-0) in the second half on their way to victory over No. 6-ranked Norwood Young America.

Sauk Centre coach Scott Bergman said it was similar to the quarterfinal against Byron, when his team erased a nine-point halftime deficit with a 21-2 run. On Friday, the teams were tied 23-23 at halftime.

"It just did not seem like we were scoring in transition like we're used to in that first half, for whatever reason," Bergman said. "It just wasn't working, and then early in that second half, we got a couple run-outs. Those are just momentum builders for us."

Senior Kelsey Peschel, who scored all of her 13 points in the second half, was part of the spark. "Second half was all ours, so I was just super excited to get those in," she said.

Senior center Bren Fox led the Raiders (28-4) with 18 points and 15 rebounds.

"They picked up their defense the second half, which caused us to get out of sync on our offense," Raiders coach Gary Lembcke said. "Unfortunately, they capitalized and took advantage of some mistakes we made."