Goodhue Faces Wheaton/Herman-Norcross in Semifinals

The Goodhue Wildcats play the Warriors of Wheaton/Herman-Norcross in the Semifinals of the Class A Girls State High School Basketball Tournament on Friday.

The battle begins at high noon at The Barn on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis.

KDHL coverage begins at 11:45AM.

The Warriors ended Cromwell-Wright's season with a 70-55 win while Goodhue rolled in a running time 77-46 victory over Sacred Heart of East Grand Forks in the quarterfinal round at Mariucci Arena on Thursday.

The No. 5 seed and No. 10 ranked Warriors are now 29-2 and the No. 1 seed and No. 1 rated Wildcats are 28-4.

Two of Goodhue's four losses were to then-Class 3A No. 2 rated Kasson-Mantorville, by two points during the regular season and by 11 in the overall Hiawatha Valley League championship. Both games were played in Goodhue.

The Wildcats also fell to Lakeville North (in the 4A state tournament) in the Rochester Holiday Tournament and Hayfield by 21 points when the Vikings were on an absolute roll.

Hayfield was state ranked in Class A when they played Goodhue but did not make the Minnesota Basketball News final top 20.

Wheaton/Herman-Norcross lost to just one Minnesota school, Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton, by 11. Their other loss to a North Dakota school came on January 9. The win Thursday was their 19th straight.

The Warriors appeared to me to be a half-court team primarily, and they did have trouble handling the Cromwell press at times (24 turnovers).

No offense to the Cardinals, but the pressure they bring is not the same relentless pressure Goodhue put on display Thursday.

Everyone I talked to along press row was very impressed the tenacity exhibited by the Wildcats.

Goodhue head coach Josh Wieme told KDHL after the game he told his girls at the half he was particularly proud of the way they played defensively saying, "It looked like we had seven players on the floor."

A couple of the ball handlers for the Warriors appeared to me to predominately dribble with one hand, and that could spell doom for them against the Wildcat pressure.

The star for Wheaton/Herman-Norcross in the win over Cromwell was 5-foot-11 sophomore post player Briona Edwards. She had 21 points, 17 of them in the first half when her team was up 38-26.

Nearly all her points came right under the basket and she had just one rebound in the game in 20 minutes and no assists. I checked and coming into the game Edwards averaged eight points and four rebounds per game.

The starting post is 5-foot-10 senior Samantha Lupkes with an average of 9.6 points and 5.3 points per contest.

Two Warriors average in double figures -- 5-foot-8 senior Jordan Stafford 11.3 (had 11 in the Cromwell game) and 5-foot-8 sophomore Emma Schmidt 11.1 (also had 11 in Thursday's game).

Rebounds could be key in the game Friday because Wheaton/Herman-Norcross scored 15 points off 14 offensive rebounds.

Goodhue gave up 14 offensive boards to Sacred Heart on Thursday.

The Warriors do not shoot a lot of threes if one game is any indication. They attempted just three and made one. Five-foot-11 junior Hannah Gail is their best outside shooter, with 42 on the season, but was 0 for 2 from long range against Cromwell.

The Warriors had 17 assists in their opening game and that is normal for them. They have two players with more than 100 assists on the season.

Wheaton averages 15 turnovers a game and their length presents some problems for teams, as evidenced by opponents shooting just 31 percent from the field against them.

If Goodhue can have a primarily up-tempo game, they should be in good shape, but if the Warriors can get the game into a half-court affair, look out.

Boxing out could be the key for Goodhue to win and advance to a state title game on Saturday.

On the other side of the Class A bracket, No. 2 seed and ranked Mountain Iron-Buhl Crushed Sleepy Eye 70-37 and No. 3 seed and No. 4 rated Maranatha Christian Academy of Brooklyn Park outscored Southwest Minnesota Christian of Edgerton 91-79.