Lakeville North Faces Eastview in State Semis

The Lakeville North Panthers escaped with a 68-66 overtime win over Maple Grove in the State Class AAAA opener at Target Center today.  Fellow South Suburban Conference member Eastview rolled over Prior Lake 78-44.  The #5 seed Crimson led the #4 seed Panthers most of the game with five ties and nine lead changes.

The H&R Block stat of the game was Lakeville North’s 20 offensive rebounds that resulted in 25 second chance points.  Maple Grove had 4 put back points. 5’9 Panther sophomore Lauren Jensen hit two free throws with three tenths of a second left in OT to lift Lakeville North into the semifinals.

Listen to the game audio from Wednesday's game below.

Jensen scored 31 points and had 6 of the Panthers 8 overtime points.  6’2 senior Ke James added 20 points and 10 rebounds and fouled out with 1:59 to go in regulation.  Lakeville North had no points scored by their bench.

Maple Grove led 32-27 at the half.

With the ball and up 58-54 with 2:24 to go in regulation the Panthers missed a shot and fouled allowing Crimson freshman Jordyn Lamker to sink two free throws.  Next Lakeville possession the same thing happened.  Just 8 seconds ticked off the clock and Maple Grove was back to within a point.

Eastview ran away with their game to remain undefeated.  6’2 senior Megan Walsrptad had 21 points and 10 rebounds, 5’10 senior MRiah Alipate had 20 points, 6’0 Andrea Abrams tallied 12 points and 6’0 freshman Cassidy Carson had 11 points off the bench for the Lightning.

5’3 junior McKenna Hofschild led the Lakers with 27 points.  Prior Lake lost for the third time this season to Eastview because they are also a South Suburban Conference team.

The Lakers are 17-13 now and play 10:00 a.m. Thursday against Maple Grove at Concordia University in St. Paul.

The Panthers lost to Eastview on December 12 in Apple Valley 62-59 in overtime and fell January 26 in Lakeville 68-59.

Lakeville North and Eastview collide at 6:00 p.m. Thursday night on KDHL at Target

Center.