The evening session at Williams Arena saw the focus shift back to the Class AAA field and the first game on tap for this evening would be #1 seed Eastview taking on upstart #4 seed Eden Prairie. The Lightning survived their quarterfinal clash with St. Paul Central while the Eagles were able to hold off Anoka in their quarterfinal game. Eastview as the #1 seed would undoubtedly be the favorite in this contest but, as I said before, once you get here you can never, EVER take anything for granted.
Both teams started this one off on something of a hot note but Eden Prairie was able to gain an 8-5 advantage by the 14:00 mark and Eden Prairie Head Coach Chris Carr; looking snappy and dapper in his shirt and tie, had his squad prepared well. The Lightning though, did not pay much attention to Carr's wardrobe and a "3" from the right wing by Eastview sophomore guard Erika Schlosser had the Lightning up 11-10 by the 12:59 mark. Eden Prairie sophomore reserve guard Esabelle Levine had no fears about being out on the floor on this one and at the 11:02 mark she uncorked her own "3" from the left wing to put the Eagles back out in front 13-11. Eastview would soon have things deadlocked at 13 a piece and, at the moment anyway, it definitely looked like we had a game on our hands to go with the ones we had in the afternoon.
The Lightning were finally able to open up a bit of wiggle room and get a 17-13 advantage after senior guard Kari Opatz knocked down two freebies after being fouled and junior forward Hana Metoxen got one charity stripe to go down with 5:52 left and senior forward Emee Udo got two freebies to go down with 4:44 left and suddenly Eastview had established a 22-15 lead. Two more charity stripe shots by the Lightning's senior reserve guard Megan Boehm upped the ante to 25-17 with 2:21 left. Eden Prairie could only cut into that deficit incrementally and by the half Eastview had a 25-19 advantage going into the locker room at the half. Surprisingly, Eastview's junior star guard Madison Guebert was held scoreless in the first half and it was Opatz' nine points pacing the Lightning in the first half. Boehm led the way for Eden Prairie in the first half with her ten points. Rebounding was very even with Eastview holding a 13-12 advantage in that department but the big disparity in this one so far was that the Lightning were sent to the charity stripe way more often than Eden Prairie and you can bet that Carr was not happy about that one.
The Eagles seemed to catch that much-needed second wind once the second half got underway as a score in the paint by junior post Rachel Platt at the 17:11 mark and a jumper from the right wing by junior reserve guard Andrea Jirele drew Eden Prairie to within two trailing 25-23 by the 16:42 mark. Eastview's Schlosser tried to stem the tide with her "3" from the left wing at the 16:08 mark but two free throws by senior guard Jayla Mayes-Jackson had the Eagles back in the thick of things trailing 28-25 at the 15:40 mark. Two more scores by Eden Prairie including free throws by Jirele at the 14:05 mark gave the Eagles their first lead since the early moments of the first half at 30-29 and a steal and lay-up the other way by junior forward Marth Kuderer that drew a foul and allowed her to sink the obligatory charity stripe shot suddenly had Eden Prairie up 33-29 at the 13:54 mark and the complexion of this one had changed immensely.
Eastview would recover and two free throws by Opatz had the Lightning back up 35-33 at the 11:02 mark to complete a 6-0 Lightning burst. Things would stay tight over the next five minutes with Eden Prairie holding precarious two point leads that they could never extend. With 6:35 left, the Lightning were in the double-bonus and Eastview's Metoxen was able to get one freebie to go in with 6:34 left after she got fouled again to knot things up at 42 a piece. Both sides would trade one-point leads that made things nerve-wracking for everybody over the next two and a half minutes. Eastview's Guebert was able to give her squad a three-point 48-45 advantage with her shots at the charity stripe with 4:02 left but the issue was still far, far from decided. Two more free throws by Guebert with 2:36 left and a lay-up by Udo with 2:15 left kept the margin at three with the Eastview lead at 52-49. With 1:15 left, Eastview's Opatz snuck into the paint and snared a pass from Guebert for an easy score and now the Lightning were up 54-49. Eden Prairies fortunes appeared to sink further when the Eagles failed to score on their ensuing possession and to make matters worse, Mayes-Jackson was shaken up in a scramble for a loose ball and had to be helped off the court with 1:15 left. Opatz and Udo made charity stripe shots in the final minute and Eastview avoided a huge upset with a 62-51 win to advance to the championship game on Saturday night.
A happy and relieved Eastview Head Coach Melissa Guebert was "just happy to be able to take a breath" afterward and underscored how proud she was of her team for hanging tough when the tough got going. During those uncertain moments, she kept reminding her squad of where they wanted to be this time. She admitted that "they would have been so disappointed not to get to the championship game this time around." She also said that they're very excited to get to the championship game "but we want to win it as well." She also called Udo the team's "unsung heroine" and couldn't praise her enough. I also asked Guebbert about Metoxen. "Great rebounder....she's so strong with the ball." I also got to ask Opatz about what it was like in the second half when the outcome was still very uncertain. She said that Guebbert told the squad "Stay under control....If we do what we need to do on defense our offense will come to us." Udo led Eastview on this night pacing the Lightning with 17 points while Boehm's 22 points led the Eden Prairie attack in a losing effort.
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