Goodhue Girls Never Says Die, Heads to Section Final

The Goodhue Wildcats were down by 10 points with two minutes to go against the Lyle/Pacelli Athletics and pulled off a 43-42 win today.

I said on the air the impossible had happened. Obviously it was not impossible, but everything had to fall the Wildcats' way.

Goodhue head coach Josh Wieme told me after the game that Lyle/Pacelli quit playing to win, his team could sense that, seized all the momentum and never panicked.

The Athletics led 28-15 at the half and had a 41-24 lead with 8:38 to go. From that point on they stalled on offense when they didn't turn the ball over and never even looked to score.

Meanwhile, 5-foot-5 junior Megan Ryan hit two monster threes in the second half and had the game-winning free throw with 4 seconds to go. She finished with 10 points.

Five-foot-11 sophomore Sydney Lodermeier scored 14 of her 23 points in the second half and connected on the game-tying basket wit 7.5 seconds to go.

Out of a time out, Lyle/Pacelli needed to go the length of the floor, but the inbounds pass was off the mark and Goodhue's McKenzie Ryan grabbed it and passed it to Ryan, who was fouled with the clock showing 4 seconds.

Ryan missed the first but scored the second, the Athletics inbounded the ball and threw a desperation three-quarter court shot that hit the top left side of the backboard and bounced away.

Five-foot-11 Athletics senior Sarah Holtz had 17 points.

Statistically the free throw line proved to be the difference, with Goodhue going 12 of 18 and Lyle Pacelli 4 of 11.

Goodhue plays the East Subsection champion for a berth into the state tournament Friday at 6PM. Kingsland faces Rushford-Peterson in the East title tilt.