On the road again – Fairmont's Briley Miller (0) passes Luverne's Sara Stegenga (10) and Keely Smith (left) to score during a regular season basketball game at Fairmont. decided. Luverne and Fairmont will meet in the Class 3AA quarterfinals Thursday night at 6 p.m. at Worthington High School. (Photo by Greg Abel)
FAIRMONT — Three wins away from the Minnesota girls basketball state tournament quarterfinals, which will be played March 13 at Williams Arena and Maturi Pavilion in Minneapolis.
A four-story Big South Conference program will roll into Worthington High School Thursday night for a spot in the Section 3AA semifinals.
Meanwhile, three Valley Conference teams and one Tomahawk team will square off Thursday night at St. Peter High School for the right to advance to the Section 2A semifinals.
“Survive and advance is the name of the game.” said Martin County West's Cliff Anderson, who has successfully transitioned from coaching prep school boys to high school girls this season. “We played two of the three teams left in the South subsection, but tied with Springfield, who we didn’t play this winter, in the next round.”
The second-seeded Martin County West Mavericks (19-6) will play the third-seeded Springfield Tigers (15-11) in the Section 2A quarterfinals Thursday at 7:45 p.m. in St. Peter. They will compete in the finals.
Emily Anderson, a 5-foot-11 junior point post, averages 20.6 points and 8.7 rebounds per game, leading the Mavericks' lineup for her father and mentor.
Senior post player Liv Borchardt, returning from a foot injury, averaged 8.3 points and 7.0 rebounds for MCW against Springfield, while senior forward Ella Carlson averaged 6.7 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. did.
The Mavericks have acquired Brooklyn Sturm, a 5-9 senior forward who posted a double-double with 26 points and 15 rebounds in the Tigers' 75-58 first-round win over Mountain Lake Area/Comfrey. We will aim to
Marissa Pabst, a 5-9 junior, contributed 14 points and eight boards in Springfield's victory, and junior guard Emma Hauger added 13 points. Junior Jasmine Novotny and 5-2 freshman guard Jada Reese contributed to the early win with 11 and nine points, respectively.
The winners of Springfield and Martin County West will be the top-seeded Granada-Huntley East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther Jaguars (20-6) and the fourth-seeded Mankato Loyola Crusaders (15-0). He will fight the winner of 2 losses). 12).
The Jaguars and Crusaders will preview Section 2A hardwood action at St. Peter on Thursday night at 6 p.m.
Granada-Huntley East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther coach TJ Pitreski said his team needed a balanced scoring attack to advance to the next round as it dominated Loyola in two regular season games. It will depend on.
Senior guard McKenna Benk scored 13.3 points to complement Pitreski's 3.6 steals and 3.1 assists per game, and sophomore Kyra Benk scored 10.4 points per game.
Olivia Mattson, a 5-10 senior forward, led the Jaguars with an 8.4 rebound and 4.0 assist clip and scored 10.4 points per outing.
Head coach Sarah Junckermeier's lineup of top-seeded Fairmont (15-11) will face longtime rival No. 5 seed Luverne (11-14) in the Class 3AA quarterfinals Thursday night at Worthington High School. (lost) in the opening match.at 6 p.m.
Fairmont defeated Luverne 61-52 in two sets on Feb. 1 in the Cardinals' only match of the 2023-24 season.
Briley Miller, a 5-10 sophomore guard, had 25 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in Fairmont's win over Luverne four weeks ago.
Miller tops Fairmont University's statistical charts with 16.3 points and 8.5 rebounds per game, while 5-11 senior post player Nevaeh Rahm dominates the low block with a 14.3 points and 6.9 rebounds clip. He has a strong physical presence.
Fairmont's Grace Pendergast, a 5-11 senior guard/forward, is also on double-digit scoring pace (10.8 points) heading into Thursday night's sectional quarterfinals.
Fairmont will have to contend with the towering low-post tandem of 6-1 senior center Keithley Smith and 5-11 senior forward Kira John in a rematch of two Big South teams.
Smith had a double-double performance with 16 points and 12 rebounds, including six blocked shots, in Luverne's nine-point regular season loss to Fairmont.
John, a longtime varsity veteran, scored 16 points in the game between the Cardinals, while senior guard Sarah Stegenga hit two 3-pointers and Luverne scored 12 points.
The winner of Fairmont vs. Luverne will face either the second-seeded Windham Area Eagles (20-7) or the third-seeded Jackson County Central Huskies (17-9).
Windham Area, which won a two-game sweep from Luverne and split with Fairmont during the regular season, will be led by high-scoring junior guard Riley Coser in a sectional quarterfinal game Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. in Worthington. against the Huskies.
Ironically, Jackson County Central swept the Windham area during the regular schedule, and the 5-10 Coser was hoping to maintain his 31-point performance in the postseason berth.
Kylie Wenzel, a 5-8 junior guard, will try to take some of the offensive load off Coser, who scored 14 points in JCC's 71-58 win over St. James Area.
The Huskies will be looking to slow down Windham Area's ultra-fast guard tandem of 5-6 sophomore Haidyn Sammons and 5-6 junior Hadley Sammons. Haidyn Sammons scored 18 points and Hadley Sammons added 14 points in Windham Area's opening section win.
Post player Tristin Maras contributed a double-double with 12 points and 14 rebounds in Windham Area's 81-61 win over Pipestone Area, and 5-11 junior guard Hannah Dauer had 24 rebounds. He was active in scoring and had 13 rebounds.
The winner of Fairmont vs. Luverne will face the winner of JCC vs. Windham Area in the Section 3AA semifinals on Tuesday, March 5th at 8:05 p.m., at a neutral site.
The winner of Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther-Mankato Loyola will play the winner of Springfield-Martin County West at 7:45 p.m. Monday, March 4, at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter.
