South metro notebook: Battle for Apple Valley basketball supremacy brings out sharpshooters

Rivalries have a tendency to bring out the best in teams, especially when the two schools try and coexist in the same community.

Apple Valley, ranked No. 2 in the Class 4A boys' basketball ranks, saw its 51-game conference winning streak come to an end Feb. 6 at the hands of rival Eastview 73-70. The Lightning is ranked No. 11.

Eastview shot the ball extremely well from three-point range (54 percent) and the free-throw line (95 percent) in the victory. It made 14 of 26 three-pointers and shot 19-for-20 from the free-throw line.

The Eagles' last South Suburban Conference loss was at Lakeville North 76-68 on Feb. 24, 2012. They lost four conference games that season — two to Lakeville North and two to Eastview.

Apple Valley bounced back last week to defeat Burnsville 83-44 and Shakopee 67-56, both on the road, to win their third consecutive conference championship.

The Eagles' Brock Bertram, a 7-foot junior center who is a Division I recruit, eclipsed 1,000 career points in the Burnsville victory.

Belle Plaine sophomore forward Mariena Hayden became the eighth girls' basketball player in school history to reach 1,000 career points.

It capped a six-game stretch where Hayden netted 160 points, (26.7 average). Her lowest output during the span was a 23-point effort against Nicollet.

Chelsea Fogarty, a 2009 graduate, is the girls' all-time leading scorer in school history with 1,784 career points.

Hayden is also a standout on the volleyball squad, which finished third in the Class 2A state tournament. She was selected to the all-tournament team.

• Northfield sophomore Elliott Boman won the boys' individual Alpine ski championship at Giants Ridge in Biwabik. It was his first state meet after rebounding from a broken leg suffered before the start of last season.

Boman finished with a time of 1 minute, 10.19 seconds for his two runs — one each on the Helsinki and Innsbruck courses.