A Final Look at the Sections, Part 5

<p>There are lots of competitive sections in AAAA. Hopkins and Lakeville North are the only easy picks. Everything else is very competitive.</p> <p><strong>Section 1AAAA</strong></p> <p>Lakeville North may not be rated #2, but they are the 2nd heaviest favorite after #1 Hopkins. Who, after the Panthers, is really a threat to win this section? The answer is, nobody. Of course, Rochester Mayo has surprised the Panthers, and us, and all of you, in recent years, and your favorite sandwich spread (Mayo, get it?) is rounding into form with the return of Liv Korngable from her knee injury.</p> <p>But if you want to talk about teams rounding into form, how about North? They lost to Apple Valley by seven in December. In January, they beat the Eagles by 28. They won at Eastview, then rallied to beat Eastview by 5 in OT. Temi Carda is Temi Carda, but now Caitlyn Peterson is playing the best ball of her life, and Taylor Brown and Ke James are tough inside. Mayo doesn’t have that kind of firepower.</p> <p>Owatonna has the firepower on offense—specifically, Syd Schultz—but it doesn’t have the defensive chops to slow Lakeville down. Maizie Deihl is just back from injury again for New Prague, and the Trojans could only score 48 against Delano. That doesn’t bode well.</p> <p><strong>Our pick: Lakeville North 57 Rochester Mayo 47.</strong></p> <p><strong>Section 2AAAA</strong></p> <p>This one is a little more wide open. Neither Edina nor Minnetonka has taken charge. Tonka is 13-12 and 4-4 in the Lake, but after losing 7 straight they’ve now won 3 of 4. No, they weren’t playing or beating Hopkins or St. Michael or Eastview, but they did beat Edina 60-50. Edina is 17-9 but just 2-6 in the Lake.</p> <p>Maybe that creates an opening for underdogs Shakopee and Prior Lake, or more specifically for Shakopee who finished 4th in the South Suburban at 12-6 while Prior Lake sank to 8-10. Shakopee finished 5-1 with a 59-50 win over Prior Lake. The Lakers finished 2-3 and 4-9. Not good. But neither has a win over Minnetonka or Edina. The Lakers lost to Tonka 79-74 and Shakopee lost to Edina 44-38. To win the section, Shakopee or Prior Lake would probably have to beat both Edina and Minnetonka. But</p> <p><strong>Our pick: Minnetonka 57 Shakopee 55.</strong></p> <p><strong>Section 3AAAA</strong></p> <p>Will the real Apple Valley Eagles please stand up? They were world-beaters against St. Michael, Centennial, Minnetonka, Lakeville North and Eastview, but then they lost to Lakeville North and even to Prior Lake and Farmington, and finished with a dismal 70-49 loss to Eastview at home. Pretty clearly a very serious case of senioritis, and I don’t know if there is a cure for that.</p> <p><strong>Our pick: Eastview 69 Rosemount 51.</strong></p> <p><strong>Section 4AAAA</strong></p> <p>This one is wide open. Everybody has been up and down. How else do you get a 4-way tie atop the Suburban East. One of the four the Roseville but the other three—Cretin, East Ridge and White Bear—are all in Section 4AAAA. The seeds went to 1) East Ridge, 2) White Bear, 3) Cretin, 4) Woodbury.</p> <p>East Ridge finished 2-2 with a 43-42 loss to Woodbury. Woodbury finished 1-3. Advantage East Ridge. Cretin finished 3-1 with a win over Woodbury and the loss to White Bear. The Bears finished 2-2 with a win against Cretin but losses to East Ridge and Roseville. <strong>Our pick: East Ridge 47 White Bear 45.</strong></p> <p><strong>Seeds</strong></p> <p>Among these 4 it would be 1) Lakeville North, 2) Eastview, 3) East Ridge and 4) Minnetonka. If this were a bracket, and it’s not, but if it were, Lakeville North and Eastview would be your semi-finalists.</p>