Looking Ahead to Week #14

Week #14 in girls high school basketball is a week like no other. Five sections begin post-season play. Heck, by later Tuesday night, 3 teams will have completed their 2016-2017 seasons. The rest of Class A and Class AA don’t start until next week, but even some of those teams have completed the regularly scheduled part of the season. Some others may have 1 or 2 or even 3 games remaining. In Class AAA and AAAA, life goes on more or less as usual for another week, with most teams having 2 or 3 games left including decisive games in many conference races. By the end of this week, we will have more insight into the post-season prospects of teams as disparate as Andover, Apple Valley, Champlin Park, Cromwell, DeLaSalle, Eastview, Elk River, Lakeville North, Park Center, Roseville, Rush City, St. Anthony, St. Paul Como and White Bear Lake. Here are some of the highlights. Tuesday February 21 #3A Cromwell (20-3) @ #15AAA St. Paul Como Park (17-7), 6 p.m. What a great match-up. A great tune-up for both teams against a quality opponent, and it should also be a great show for the fans. There should be plenty of pace here, as Cromwell scores 82 points per game, Como 72. Watch for 5-11 forwards Bailey Gronner and Elaina Jones going at it on the inside. Our pick: Como 79 Cromwell 76. #12AAA St. Anthony (17-5) @ #10 Rush City (20-0), 7:30 p.m. A great tuneup for state tournament hopefuls from Class AAA and Class AA. Our pick: Rush City 55 St. Anthony 48. #8AAAA Eastview (19-5) @ #3AAAA Lakeville North (22-2), 7 p.m. No matter what happens here, Lakeville (15-1 in the conference) has all but clinched the South Suburban title. They are not going to lose to Eagan on Friday. But, Eastview (13-3) is fighting for respect and for 2nd place. Having lost at home to Lakeville North and Apple Valley earlier, now they close the regular season with both of them on the road. (Apple Valley is at Farmington tonight and, the way it has been playing the past 2 weeks now, it is a game the Eagles could lose.) But, first Eastview needs a win here for some momentum going into the post-season. Temi Carda will have something to say about that. Our pick: Lakeville North 65 Eastview 61. #5A Maranatha @ #17AAA DeLaSalle, 7 p.m. Another interesting tuneup. DeLaSalle has improved vastly over the course of this year. Our pick: DeLaSalle 71 Maranatha 62. Wabasha Kellogg (4-20) @ Shaeffer Academy (9-16), Hope Lutheran (7-17) at Lanesboro (7-16), and Glenville-Emmons (0-21) @ LeRoy-Ostrander (2-22), all at 7 p.m. in Sections 1A East and 1A West. These are the 1st post-season games. Our picks: Shaeffer 55 Wabasha-Kellogg 47. Lanesboro 45 Hope 40. LeRoy 53 Glenville 40. Wednesday February 22 #2AAAA Elk River (24-0) @ #12AAAA Champlin Park (19-5), 7 p.m. Champlin is coming on strong with 7 straight wins including at Andover, at Anoka and over Centennial 64-60. QRF already has them rated at #1 in Section 5AAAA. Imagine what a win over Elk River might do. And, as for Elk River, well, they’re still undefeated but with several close shaves—by 3 over St. Michael and 5 over Champlin and 2 over Centennial, all at home. The time seems ripe for a loss, and it could just be a loss that relieves some pressure and sends them into the post-season in a more relaxed frame of mind. Our pick: Champlin 64 Elk River 60. Thursday February 23 A full round of 8 games each will be played in Sections 1A, 1AA and 3AA, all at the higher seed, all at 7 p.m. The most competitive game of the night should be Fillmore Central (14-11) at Spring Grove (15-10) in 1A. Our pick: Spring Grove 52 Fillmore Central 49. #5AAAA Wayzata (18-6) @ #19AAAA Mpls. South (22-3), 7 p.m. Wayzata will be able to compete with Morgan and Jade Hill and Solana Cushing on the perimeter better than South will be able to compete with Kallie Theisen and Camryn Hay inside. Our pick: Wayzata 67 South 61. Friday February 24 #8AAAA Eastview (19-5) @ #4AAAA Apple Valley (20-4), 7 p.m. Since beating Eastview 74-63 on January 27, Apple Valley is 4-2. Eastview is 5-1 as Allie Pickrain has refound her form of late last year and earlier this year. Our pick: Eastview 62 Apple Valley 54. #16AAAA Andover (16-8) @ #7AAAA Park Center (19-5). Andover is a better bet to win Section 7AAAA than Park Center is to win 5AAAA. Luck of the draw. Our pick: Park Center 61 Andover 51. #14AAAA White Bear Lake (16-8) @ #9AAAA Roseville (19-5). White Bear coach Jeremy Post’s advice to anybody playing Roseville? “Don’t get behind.” If you do, Roseville will freeze you to death. Our pick: Roseville 55 White Bear 49. Such a result would probably drop the Bears to 3rd in the Suburban East with Roseville sharing 1st, or not, with East Ridge, depending on the Raptors’ success at Woodbury on Wednesday. Saturday February 25 #15AAA St. Paul Como Park (17-7) @ #19AAAA Mpls. South (22-3), Twin City Game, 12 noon Minneapolis wins about 2 out of every 3 Twin City Games, and I’d say South is a 2-to-1 favorite. It’s not just Morgan Hill anymore, as younger sister Jade pushes the pace, protects the ball and slashes to the rim. And, Solana Cushing is a serious threat from the corners. Como is led by winger and sniper Mikayla Van Nett, who had a 43-point game about 10 days ago, and by post-power forward and defensive specialist Elaina Jones. Our pick: South 75 Como 63. A full round of 8 games will be played in Sections 3A and 3AA. In A, the games are all at Montevideo and Worthington. In AA, they’re at the high seed. Our picks in the most competitive days are Edgerton (12-9) 55 Adrian (10-12) 53 in 3A and Montevideo (12-9) 60 Lakeview (12-12) 57 in 3AA.