Girls state basketball: Goodhue buries Eagles in quarterfinals

MINNEAPOLIS – Goodhue is the No. 1-ranked girls basketball in the state in Class A.

Thursday in the quarterfinal round of the state tournament at Mariucci Arena, the Wildcats absolutely looked the part.

Goodhue dominated Sacred Heart (East Grand Forks) from start to finish and ran off with a 77-46 win. It puts it in Friday's noon semifinals at Williams Arena where it will face No. 5 seed Wheaton/Herman-Norcross.

Goodhue was too everything for the Eagles, who were unseeded but lost for just the second time this season. Too fast, too strong, too skilled, too intense.

All of that led to an immediate Wildcats knockout punch. Before the Eagles knew it, they were on the deck, dazed and confused, looking with blurry eyes at a 14-0 deficit.

"I didn't think that (Sacred Heart) had seen the kind of pressure this season that we put on teams," said Goodhue coach Josh Wieme, whose Class A team plays in a Hiawatha Valley League that is filled AA teams, with a couple of AAA schools to boot.

"We've played against strong, physical teams all season, and our pressure has worked against them, too. I thought we could do something like we did to Sacred Heart."

Then Wieme smiled, and offered, "But I wasn't necessarily predicting a 14-0 start."

Goodhue finished the game having forced 28 Sacred Heart turnovers. It did it with a press that is unrelenting and comes at teams with as deep a bench as you could hope for, with seemingly 10 players all gifted with speed and strength.

"We play fast and we play hard," said Goodhue senior guard Taylor Larson, who finished with 11 points and five assists . "And all of the depth we have helps so much. If one of us is having a bad game, you know that someone else is going to pick us up. I mean, today we had (five) different players hit 3-pointers."

The 3's were nice, but the 'D' was the difference.

Sacred Heart finished with 28 turnovers. But the ones that hit the Eagles hardest happened in the first half. That's when they committed a game-changing 16 of them, as Goodhue trapped and poked, and jumped passing lanes so often that it left Sacred Heart hopeless.

"I think we got in their heads, because our pressure was so good," Goodhue guard Maddy Miller said.

All of those takeaways also frequently left the Wildcats screaming to the basket for layups. The best at that in the first half was Miller. The fast 5-foot-8 junior had five steals in the first 18 minutes when she scored 15 of her team-high 17 points.

And even when Sacred Heart did safely get the ball up court, there was rarely anything comfortably available for them. The Eagles were harassed into 4-for-22 shooting that first half, when they were also outrebounded by four. Goodhue was 19-for-34 from the field in the first half.

It all led to a whopping 47-18 Goodhue intermission lead. And it brought to reality Sacred Heart coach Joann Remer's worst fear.

"Yeah, we were worried that that kind of a start might happen, but we didn't tell our players that," said Remer, whose team was led by her 6-foot senior daughter Michele Remer with a game-high 23 points. "(Goodhue's) press is very physical, quick and good. Plus, with their depth, they can just keep coming at you."

And that's what the Wildcats did in the second half. After Larson scored seven straight points early in the frame, including hitting a 3-pointers, Goodhue led 58-24 with just under 13 minutes left.

The Wildcats, who had 12 players score, would clear their bench soon after.

Goodhue 77, Sacred Heart 46

SACRED HEART (46)

Anya Edwards 4 P, 4 R; Jessica Remer 4 P; Michele Remer 23 P, 8 R, 3 3-PT; Jocelyn Adolphson 3 P, 1 3-PT; Abby Smidt 7 P, 2 3-PT; Ivy Edwards 3 P; Lily Bergman 2 P.

GOODHUE (77)

Haley Lexvold 6 P; Megan Ryan 6 P, 2 3-PT; Maddy Miller 17 P, 8 R; McKenzie Ryan 5 P, 1 3-PT; Emily Benrud 4 P; Michelle Hadler 3 P, 1 R; Kalley Diercks 1 P; Sydney Lodermeier 10 P, 5 R; Taylor Larson 11 P, 1 3-PT; Mariah Tipcke 5 P, 1 3-PT; Kate Stehr 3 P; Lexie Lodermeier 6 P, 4 R.

Halftime:GOOD 47, SH 18.

Free throws:SH 12-18, GOOD 11-15.

Field-goal shooting: SH 14-51, GOOD 30-56.

Three-point goals:SH 6-27, GOOD 6-16.

Rebounds: SH 32, GOOD 37.

Turnovers:SH 28, GOOD 19.