Lyle-Pacelli Upends Goodhue For Subsection Crown

The Lyle-Pacelli Athletics lost 61-45 to the Goodhue Wildcats in Goodhue on Jan. 17. On Saturday night they avenged that loss with a 61-47 win for the West Subsection Class A championship in Rochester.

The Athletics were impressive, no doubt about it. Goodhue had their chances and couldn't convert. The Wildcats just picked the wrong time to have a bad shooting day. They couldn't hit the broad side of a airplane hangar door. The defending section champs got many good looks right under the basket that wouldn't go down and some of their long range jumpers rimmed out.

It wasn't just one or two players with off nights, the whole team had a poor shooting game, and they took it to the free throw line, too, going 14 of 29 while Lyle/Austin Pacelli was 22 of 29.

Lyle-Pacelli led 30-20 at the half and Goodhue came within seven points with about five minutes to go. After a five-second call on the Athletics it looked like Goodhue may grab some momentum. But Goodhue didn't score on the possession and Lyle-Pacelli got three points on the other end of the floor to punch in back up to 10 and that seemed to seal the deal.

The Athletics had starters foul out with 7:42 and 12:35 to go in the game, but it didn't matter. They had just nine field goals the entire second half, but Goodhue had only eight. Junior Sarah Holtz took the A's on her back in the second half, scoring six of those field goals, and finished with 22 points. Freshman guard Brooke Walter also had 18 and freshman reserve Kendal Truckenmiller collected nine.

Goodhue was led by freshman Sydney Lodermeier's 10 points, senior Shelby Hinsch and sophomore Maddy Miller each had nine. The No. 5-rated Goodhue Wildcats finished their season 23-6. No. 9-ranked Lyle-Pacelli is 24-3 and plays Fillmore Central next Friday for the section title and a trip to state.

The Falcons bested Rushford-Peterson 50-45 in the East Subsection title game. The only Hiawatha Valley League team still in the hunt for a state trip is Kasson-Mantorville. The Komets defeated Austin 62-51 in the Class AAA semifinals Saturday. The Komets will play the Waseca Bluejays in the final next Thursday in Rochester at 6 p.m. Waseca upset second-seed Winona 31-25 in the other semifinal game. The score was 10-8 at the half as Waseca played very disciplined basketball.

In Class AAAA, it'll be an all-Rochester final with No. 6-rated John Marshall running away from Hastings 72-45 and Rochester Mayo having their way against injury-plagued Lakeville North 51-30. The Big Nine Conference champion Rockets defeated Mayo the two times they've played this season, 42-33 and 43-39.