Girls' basketball, Class 1A quarterfinals: Defending champs, No. 1 team fall

Ada-Borup stunned two-time defending Class 1A champions Maranatha Christian Academy 70-53 on Thursday at Williams Arena.

The Cougars (27-3) slowly built their lead to 37-27 at halftime.

"I'd love to say part of our game plan was to get out to a 10-point lead, but we were just hoping to get it to a two-point lead," Ada-Borup coach David Smart said. "The girls just played well."

The Mustangs (26-5) struggled to catch up, playing significant minutes without two leading scorers in foul trouble. Senior center Onye Osemenam played only 13 minutes, fouling out with 5:06 remaining.

"Honestly, I do feel like it was kind of unfair, but we can't blame everything on the refs," Osemenam said. "We didn't play as well as we could have."

Mustangs coach Jim Hammond said he hadn't figured out what went wrong.

"We didn't play like we'd been there," Hammond said. "But I told the girls, you're trying to win three in a row. … You have not failed."

"After the game, we all talked about how now we have a chance to actually get into the state [championship] that we've dreamed about since we were little," Kolness said.

MEGAN RYAN

Minneota 60, Mountain Iron-Buhl 53: The Minnesota State High School League does not seed Classes 1A and 2A of the girls' basketball state tournament, in part because the great distances between schools means fewer common opponents and more difficulty establishing a pecking order.

But Mountain Iron-Buhl and Minneota, more than 325 miles apart, gained familiarity with each other at a summer tournament. Minneota junior forward Molly Hennen said her team won by double digits, giving the Vikings hope in Thursday's Class 1A quarterfinal rematch.

Hennen hit two clutch free throws in the game's final minute as Minneota, ranked No. 4 in the final Minnesota Basketball News poll, upset No. 1-ranked Mountain Iron-Buhl.

Minneota coach Chad Johnston worried his team's poor free-throw shooting — the Vikings (28-2) were 0-for-4 in the first half — would spell trouble.

"That's the kind of stuff you can't have when you get to the state tournament," Johnston said.

Hennen hit two free throws with 55 seconds remaining to build a seven-point lead the Vikings would not relinquish.

"We weren't doing that well with our free throws, so I knew I had to step up," Hennen said.

Vikings sophomore guard Taylor Reiss led all scorers with 21 points and also had 11 rebounds.

Bethlehem Academy 66, Upsala 51: A 13-0 run to start the second half fueled Bethlehem Academy of Faribault's victory against Upsala.

Bethlehem Academy (25-4), ranked No. 3 in the final Minnesota Basketball News poll, led only 30-28 at halftime. But with the run, Bethlehem Academy never looked back against ninth-ranked Upsala (26-5).

"I thought it would be a close game all the way through, so I'm really proud of the girls for coming out and executing that way," Bethlehem Academy coach Tammy Filzen said. "We didn't make a lot of adjustments at halftime, but enough to get us solid in what we wanted defensively."

Said Upsala coach Paul Pelzer: "Falling behind to a team with that much talent is tough to get back."

A stout defense forced 12 steals, leading to a 21-7 edge in points off turnovers. Bethlehem Academy also dominated inside, outscoring Upsala 36-6 in the paint. Senior center Hana Palmer scored 22 points on nine-of-10 shooting from the field.

Upsala's Kaelin Smieja led all scorers with 23 points and tied a state tournament record with seven three-pointers.

DAVID La VAQUE

Win-E-Mac 59, Mankato Loyola 49: None of the current players were born when the Patriots last went to the state tournament.

"It's been 24 years now [since Win-E-Mac's 1989 tournament appearance], so coming out here and showing that we can beat bigger schools, it's a good win for us," freshman guard Madison McKeever said.

McKeever and Patriots forward Shelby Kaster each had 23 points, and Kaster added 16 rebounds. "Those two, they're our leading scorers the last two seasons, so we expect that from them," coach Ian Hanson said. "We just expect the rest of the girls to chip in a few every now and then when they can get them."

Win-E-Mac made more free throws (25) than Mankato Loyola attempted (23), but only shot 58 percent from the foul line.

Hanson said he stressed the importance of rebounding and free-throw shooting to his girls before the game. "We told the girls coming into the game we had to control the rebounds and we did that from the get-go," Hanson said. "That, and I told them free-throw shooting. We didn't do a good job on that, but at least the rebounds were enough for us."

The Patriots (27-2) will play Ada-Borup in Friday's semis at Target Center.

DEREK WETMORE