The nightcap on Friday night at Williams Arena was the other Class AA semifinal matchup featuring Dover-Eyota going up against upstart Roseau which had pulled off the upset on Wednesday night when they beat Esko. On paper anyway, the Eagles looked like prohibitive favorites but in these kinds of settings - and considering that Roseau had already pulled off one upset anyway - you just never knew for sure.
Early on though, one thing that was apparent was that Dover-Eyota definitely did have a big advantage in the rebounding department and a game-opening 8-0 spurt had the Rams on their heels early on. Roseau 8th grade guard Kacie Borowicz tried to cut into that deficit with her short jumper at the 15:07 mark and one freebie by older sister and sophomore guard Kylie Borowicz at the 15:00 mark trimmed the Eagles lead down to 8-3 but a "3" from the right top area by junior guard Madison Nelson at the 14:37 mark and an offensive rebound and putback by junior post Megan Hintz at the 13:38 mark helped extend the Dover-Eyota lead to 15-6. A lay-up by senior forward Danielle Higgins at the 12:50 mark gave the Eagles an 18-8 lead and an offensive rebound and putback by versatile senior guard Brandi Blattner at the 11:33 lead gave Dover-Eyota a fourteen-point cushion at 22-8 and Roseau Head Coach Kelsey Didrikson wasted little time in calling a halt to the action to get her squad calmed down. To their credit, though, the Rams slowly battled their way back into the thick of things and it was not surprisingly the Borowicz sisters who had a large part in the comeback bid for Roseau. And one positive already for the Rams is that they got into the bonus with 6:31 left as well. Kacie Borowicz got a lay-up in transition with 6:03 left that cut the Dover-Eyota lead down to fourteen at 32-18 and with 4:47 left, Kylie Borowicz launched a "3" from the left wing area to keep the Roseau momentum going. With 4:06 left Kylie Borowicz went coast to coast for a lay-up and then struck again with 3:29 left as she got a lay-up in transition and got fouled in the process as well and her freebie shrunk the Eagle lead further. A Kylie Borowicz drive into the lane and finish with 2:54 left now cut Dover-Eyota's lead down to 38-28 and a Kacie Borowicz jumper from the right elbow area with 2:17 left now had the Rams within single digits trailing 38-30. Kylie Borowicz' "3" from the right corner with 1:34 left cut the Eagles lead further as it was now a 40-33 game but fortunately for Dover-Eyota, they recovered just enough to take a 46-35 lead into the locker room at the half. Nelson's 16 points paced the Eagle attack while Kylie Borowicz seemingly did it all for the Rams in the first half with her 18 points. More importantly, you had to think that the late Roseau run awoke Dover-Eyota and Head Coach Brian Harris.
The Eagles as expected came out wide awake once the second half started and quickly put distance between themselves and their opponent. A Blattner score in the paint at the 17:50 mark and a Nelson lay-up in transition at the 16:09 mark sparked an 11-4 run that made it a 2 57-39 game after Hintz' offensive rebound for a putback at the 16:08 mark. But Dover-Eyota was just beginning to put the pedal to the metal. The lead bulged to twenty at 66-46 on Blattner's drive and finish in the lane off the glass at the 12:15 mark and a Nelson lay-up at the 10:09 mark now made it 70-46 Eagles and there would be no miracle comeback or Borowicz sisters heroics that could save Roseau now. With the Eagles' transition game in full bore, Blattner connected with a lay-up in transition that now made it a thirty-point game with 8:46 left at 76-46. With the issue already decided at this point, both Dover-Eyota's Harris and Roseau's Didrikson sent in their reserves for clean-up duty down the stretch and the Eagles closed out the deal with a resounding 94-61 victory that sends them into Saturday's championship game against Sauk Centre.
Harris felt afterward that his team had to get it together in the locker room at the half. "We got regrouped at halftime and we wanted to wear them out." On the upcoming championship game with Sauk Centre Harris said "The tough thing is that they play a lot like us - up and down......They have guards that can shoot '3's' and we'll have to get defensive rebounds against them (Sauk Centre)." Blattner, who finished this game with 22 points, said that "We'll have to pressure the ball and pound it inside....We've got to 'move it'!" She also pointed out that it'll be important for her and her teammates to "relax a little bit" and noted that, despite tonight's big win, "There's always room for improvement."
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