The third Class AA quarterfinal matchup featured Section AA champ Fairmont going up against Section 1AA champ and #2 seed Dover-Eyota. Again, two teams that I know little about but was very interested nonetheless to see how this game would develop.
Dover-Eyota was able to build a 12-6 lead by the 13:01 mark fueled in part by two early scores by senior guard Brandi Blattner and two free throws by junior post Megan Hintz and the Eagles maintained that six-point edge when Blattner knocked down one charity stripe shot at the 10:49 mark for a 14-8 Dover-Eyota lead. A Blattner jumper along the left baseline at the 10:07 mark extended the lead to 16-8 and a lay-up by Hintz with 8:46 left and a score in the paint by junior guard Madison Nelson doubled-up Fairmont at 20-10 with 7:49 left in the first half. Fairmont was able to shave the Eagles lead down to seven at 27-20 when reserve junior post Courtney Mosloski scored in the paint with 4:16 left and another score in the paint by senior forward Alex Christianson kept the deficit at seven trailing 29-22 but a 4-0 flurry by Dover-Eyota capped by a score in the paint by Blattner enabled the Eagles to take a ten-point 33-23 lead into the locker room at the half.
Dover-Eyota gradually extended that lead to sixteen points at 47-31 by the 11:00 mark and Fairmont had ample opportunities to keep the game relatively closed but blew several missed easy "bunny" shots but, at the same time, some of the credit had to go to the Eagles on defense as they forced Fairmont into some bad shots as well. With 9:24 left, Nelson took an inbounds pass and connected with a short jumper off the glass to make it a 51-31 game and Fairmont Head Coach Don Waletich saw this one slipping away and called a timeout to try and stave off the seemingly inevitable. Fairmont sliced the Eagle advantage down to 51-35 with 7:50 left but when Mosloski knocked down two freebies with 7:26 left and when senior guard Emily Kim drained a "3" from the left wing with 7:15 left, that nice cushy twenty-point lead that Dover-Eyota had was suddenly reduced to eleven at 51-40. As time started becoming more and more of a factor, the Eagles were still not completely out of the woods as Fairmont's Christianson snared an offensive rebound for a putback with 4:01 left and a steal and lay-up the other way by senior guard Sierra Schultz reduced Dover-Eyota's lead to nine at 55-46. The Cardinals threw one last scare into Dover-Eyota when Christianson connected on a lay-up in transition with 1:35 left that cut the Eagle lead down to six at 57-51. One free throw by senior forward Danielle Higgins with 1:27 left and a big lay-up in transition by Nelson with :53.8 left ended the Fairmont threat and insurance free throws in the final minute saved the day for Dover-Eyota as they held on to win 62-53.
Dover-Eyota Head Coach Brian Harris had nothing but praise for their opponent on this night saying that "They're a very good team.....Maybe we got a little lackadaisical when we had that twenty-point lead." At the same time, however, Harris never felt any panic setting in from his perspective when the Cardinals chopped the Dover-Eyota lead down to seven late in the game. At the same time, he had nothing but praise for his senior, Blattner. "She runs our team" he said. "She's our team leader, our point guard and best defender.....She was able to calm the rest of the team down when things got a little tight." Blattner herself admitted that there "may have been a little panic but we knew we had it". About this win and going forward? "We're excited" she said enthusiastically. "It's fun to be in and we want to accomplish what we set out to do." Indeed Blattner's 19 points paced the Eagles in this outing while Nelson also had 16 points. Schultz' 22 points led Fairmont in their losing effort as the Cardinals complete a fine season at 21-7.
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