Looking Ahead to Week #15

According to the Hub, there are 3 more regular season games to go. But, seriously, can we just say that Week #15 is wall-to-wall playoffs? It’s what we’ve been waiting for, what everybody has been working toward, when everybody wants to be peaking. So, now, we get to find out who is, and who isn't. Now, it’s true, some (in Class A and AA) started last week. Some are a little further along, or they’ll move it along a little faster right out of the gate. Others are starting more slowly, with maybe one round of play this week and everything else the next. What I’m saying is, the really great matchups are going to be relatively few this week. But, here we go. Monday February 27 Section 1AA Quarter-Final: Rochester Lourdes (18-8) vs. Caledonia (20-7) 7:30 p.m. at Rochester Mayo Civic Auditorium. This one is of interest because, well, besides the fact that these are a couple of good teams, there’s also the fact that Caledonia is on a 10-game winning streak and they’ve scored at least 68 points every time and 70+ 6 straight times now. Of course, Lourdes has already beaten Cal 69-39 at Cal, but that was more than a month ago when Cal was struggling. They’re not struggling now, and neither is Lourdes, beating Byron by 15 and Pine Island by 46 and losing to Kasson-Mantorville by 2 this month. Cal has done it against a schedule that is not quite so formidable, so our pick: Lourdes 66 Cal 65. Tuesday February 28 Section 3A Quarter-Final: #8A Southwest Minnesota Christian (22-3) vs. Hills-Beaver Creek (20-5) 7:30 p.m. at Worthington. OK, it’s not 2 ranked teams, which is what we have normally featured here, but it is the 1st playoff matchup of 2 teams with 20 wins. SW beat Hills twice 88-59 and 77-68. Hills isn’t going to improve by another 20. Our pick: SWC 72 Hills-BC 66. Section 2AA Quarter-Final: Tri-City United (18-8) at Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop (18-7). 2 18-win teams in the #4 vs. #5 North sub-section game. Halley Busse vs. Joslyn Vargo. One of their high school careers will come to an end. GFW beat TCU 84-72 on the same floor just 2 weeks ago. Our pick: GFW 62 TCU 57. Section 3AA Quarter-Final: #14AA Pipestone (25-1) vs. Minneota (22-6) 7:30 p.m. at Windom. 2 surprises. Pipestone has proven that it’s for real, while Minneota sophomore center Lydia Sussner is absolutely for real. Pipestone beat Minneota 51-48 in January, but Minneota has been averaging 74 ppg since then, Pipestone 55. Of course, the Arrows are a superb defensive team. Our pick: Minneota 57 Pipestone 56. Section 8AAA Quarter-Final: Detroit Lakes (12-14) at Fergus Falls (14-12) 7 p.m. With the injury to Macy Hatlestad, the winner of this one might have a tiny little window to crawl through and to a win over Alexandria in the next round. But, which one? The 2 teams split a pair of regular season games, each winning on the road. But, Fergus plays a much tougher schedule in the Central Lakes than than DL in the Mid-State. Our pick: Fergus 56 DL 55. Wednesday March 1 Section 1AAA Quarter-Final: Austin (10-12) at #7AAA Northfield (20-6) 7 p.m. #6 seed at #3 seed. Slam dunk, right? Wrong. Austin is vastly improved with freshman guard Colie Justice (16 ppg). Northfield beat Austin 57-56 at home, and lost 51-48 at Austin. But, obviously Austin has been up and down. But, just as obviously, they were up for Northfield. Our pick: Northfield 55 Austin 48. Section 3AAAA Quarter-Final: Sibley (14-12) at #4AAAA Apple Valley (20-6). No team has had the peaks (St. Michael-Albertville 68-47, Centennial 81-67, Eastview 74-63) and valleys (Prior Lake 72-78, Farmington 62-67) that Apple Valley has had. And, the valleys are very recent—the Farmington loss followed by a 70-49 shellacking from Eastview, a 32-point turnaround from their 1st meeting. Sibley cannot possibly win this game, but Apple Valley has shown that it can lose. (That #4 ranking was before the Farmington and Eastview losses.) Our pick: Apple Valley 55 Sibley 54. Thursday March 2 Section 3AA Semi-Finals: The matchups depend on Tuesday’s quarters, of course, but we’re anticipating a couple of great games—New London-Spicer (23-3) vs. Minnewaska (20-7) and Tracy-Milroy-Balaton (24-3) vs. Minneota (22-6). We’ve already talked about Minneota. You know about NLS. TMB gave Pipestone its only regular season loss. Big things were expected from Minnewaska. They started 2-5. Since then, they’re 18-2. And, of course, there’s a 50-50 (or, maybe 51-49) chance that Pipestone will be here, too. This will be an awesome double-header either way, at 6 and 8 p.m. at Southwest State. Our picks: Minnewaska 54 New London-Spicer 53 and Minneota 60 TMB 59. Friday March 3 Section 2A Quarter-Finals: Mankato Loyola (23-2) vs. Springfield (15-9) at Lake Crystal 6 p.m. This of course depends on the 2 teams winning their first round games on Tuesday. It matches the 2014 and 2015 section champs. Loyola has a 20-point win over Springfield this year, and the Tigers are just 3-4 in February. Still, Lindsey Theuninck vs. Vishe Rabb is worth a look. Our pick: Loyola 62 Springfield 57. Section 2AA North Semi-Finals at Prior Lake: Depending on earlier results, this doubleheader could feature Norwood Young America (24-1) vs. Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop (18-7) and Glencoe-Silver Lake (13-11) vs. St. Peter (21-4) at 6 and 7:45 p.m. The big question here is an injury to St. Peter guard Olivia McCabe. The Saints will of course need her against Maddie, McKenna and Miah Monahan. But, St. Pete defeated Glencoe 74-59 earlier. NYA will have too many weapons for GFW and Halley Busse, as Abby Mackenthun emerges as a threat alongside Bren Fox and Kali Grimm. Our picks: NYA 66 GFW 54 and St. Peter 58 Glencoe 55. Saturday March 4 We’re going to leave it there because there are dozens of games on Saturday. Suffice it to say you’ll have all 8 AAAA section semi-finals, all 8 AAA semi-finals, and quarter-finals in most AA and A sections. We’ll recap the week’s action and preview Saturday later in the week.