2019 Minnesota Girl's State Tournament - Class AA Semifinal Game Recap - Roseau vs Caledonia 3-15-19

The first game on tap on this Friday night at the Barn would be an intriguing one to say the least with top-seeded Roseau taking on fourth-seeded Caledonia.  Both of these programs have had success at the State Tournament level before and I expected a pretty good contest to ensue.

Roseau started this game off in a 2-1-2 zone defense and that may have been one of the reasons as to why the Rams got off to a 6-3 lead early on in this one.  Then again, when you have the Borowicz sisters in senior Kacie and sophomore Katie, good things can happen.  Still, Caledonia was resourceful enough to close the gap to one point by the 15:00 mark and by the 13:18 mark, Warrior senior guard Heidi Bolduan's drive into the lane for a finish had Caledonia up 11-8.  But some timely three-point shooting by Roseau's Katie Borowicz made sure that that lead didn't last long and one Katie Borowicz freebie at the 11:16 mark had this one tied at 14 a piece.  The Warriors managed to go dry on a couple of possessions; missing two easy lay-ups and by the 8:45 mark, Roseau held an 18-15 lead.  And a "3" by Kacie Borowicz with 8:25 left expanded the Ram lead to 21-15 and younger sister Katie would strike with a jumper of her own with 8:00 left to grow the Roseau lead to 23-16.  Caledonia would finally get a big boost when senior guard Katie Tornstrom nailed a "3" from the right corner with 6:30 left to get the Warriors back to within a single possession down 24-21 but then Roseau's Borowicz Sisters went to work again.  Kacie would nail a jumper from the top and then with 4:10 left, Katie would get a lay-up and get fouled in the process and her "and one" got the Rams safety net back to eight at 29-21 and two more scores by Kacie allowed Roseau to take a 33-25 lead into the locker room at the half.  When I look at the first half box score, two stats jump out at me.  (1) Roseau owned the boards thus far by a 22-16 count and (2) Caledonia thus far was having a miserable time shooting the ball from downtown; going 4-16 for 25%.  I thought that they were settling for way too many three-point shot attempts.  It's one thing when you can up that to say, 40-45% but that wasn't happening.  Throw in the fact that Roseau was also getting several second- and third-chances on offense, you can see why Warriors Head Coach Scott Sorenson and his staff likely were going to half to make some adjustments during the halftime break. 

Caledonia's Bolduan got her team on the right track with a drive and finish early in the second half and two free throws by senior guard Kaitlin Conniff at the 16:46 mark had the deficit down to six points at 35-29.  But Roseau sophomore forward Julia Braaten would nail a killer "3" shortly before the 15:00 mark to up the Ram lead to nine at 38-29 and a pretty reverse lay-up by Roseau's Kacie Borowicz at the 14:34 mark had the Rams up double digits at 40-29.  Caledonia got a second lease on life when eighth-grade sparkplug reserve guard Alexis Schroeder nailed a "3" from the right wing area at the 11:08 mark that pulled the Warriors back to within striking distance down 43-38 and a Bolduan lay-up at the 10:18 mark now had Caledonia back within a single possession down 43-40 and hope abounded now for the group from the southeastern part of the state.  Conniff would snare a steal for a lay-up the other way at the 9:30 mark and suddenly the deficit was at one point at 43-42.  Bolduan would get sent to the charity stripe at the 9:00 mark and her two free throws now had the Warriors up 44-43.  Senior guard Ashley Schroeder's lay-up at the 8:23 mark had the Warriors up 46-43 and Caledonia was still clinging to that three-point lead with 6:48 left.  Roseau's Kacie Borowicz would get this one tied at 46 at the 6:38 mark with her three-point bomb from the right top area but then the Rams would commit an egregious error by fouling Caledonia's Ashley Schroeder behind the arc with 5:53 left and Schroeder would get two free throws out of the three-freebie attempts to push the Warriors back on top 48-46 and a score by Bolduan with 5:11 left upped the lead to four at 50-46 and a Tornstrom "3" with 4:15 left now had the lead at five at 53-48.  A Conniff lay-up with 3:00 left had the Warriors safety net at five points still at 55-50 and Conniff would strike again with 2:30 left with another pretty drive and finish to make it 57-53.  Roseau's Braaten would get to the charity stripe with 1:46 left and her two freebies had the deficit down to two points at 57-55.  But Caledonia's  Ashley Schroeder would soon follow with two free throws of her own and the lead was back at four at 59-55.  Still plenty of time for Roseau, of course, but when the Rams needed the magic of the Borowicz Sisters, it simply wasn't there this time.  With :25.7 left, Caledonia's Tornstrom would get fouled and her two free throws helped pave the way to ultimate victory as the Warriors pulled off the huge upset with a shocking 65-55 victory. 


A check of the final box score shows that rebounds were about even with Caledonia holding a 40-38 edge on that front.  The big difference was that Roseau was guilty of 20 turnovers in this contest with a bulk of them coming in that critical second half.  The other thing was the Warriors defense as Roseau's shooting percentage slumped in the second half as the finished going 20-57 from FG range for 35.1% and 7-25 from behind the arc for 28%.  Kacie Borowicz easily led all scorers with her 28 points to pace Roseau but nobody else was in double figures.  A much, much different story on the Caledonia front with a very balanced scoring attack with Bolduan's 24 points leading the way followed by Tornstrom's 13 points.  Schroeder finished with 12 points and Conniff had 11 points.  Roseau Head Coach Kelsey Didrikson attributed the grittiness and toughness of Caledonia coming down the stretch were some of the things that ultimately did her team in.  "Their aggressiveness, grit on defense.....Just the way they tie you up and get their hands on everything....Strong with the ball and I think that's where the tide turned in the second half......We just weren't strong with the ball and they tied us up; forced us out of bounds; forced us to turn it over.....Their just absolute grittiness on defense and they really turned that up in the second half."  Didrikson also said that her squad tends to struggle against zone defenses and they're just not as proficient on the offensive end when they go up against a zone defense - such as what Caledonia used on this day with their 2-3 zone.  The Roseau press conference was also attended by the Borowicz sisters - senior Kacie and sophomore Katie and it was evident how much pain and disappointment that Kacie in particular was feeling on this day as she was fighting back tears the whole time.  Perhaps the most tender moment of this press conference was when I asked Kacie about how special her time at Roseau has been and, as soon as I asked the question, I regretted it as soon as I did and wanted to kick myself for asking it in the first place.  Fighting back tears and sobs; after a lengthy pause, she said "The best years of my life....It's just so hard, I'm sorry."  My heart just broke in half and sank like the Titanic during those agonizing seconds which must've seemed like hours to Kacie.  I was able to mouth to her after the conference was over that "I'm sorry" and, being the absolute classy person that she is, she said it was okay.  Caledonia's Sorenson:  "A lot of hard fought and determination and grit.....But when they (his team) started pickin' at it and chippin' at it and getting to the rim they way they wanted to, things started to change a little bit for us.......These guys; their determination tonight."  I mentioned to Sorenson that I thought the big turning point for his team was when eighth-grader Alexis Schroeder hit that big "3" right before the 11:00 mark and how it was such a shot in the arm in terms of momentum and energy for his team.  "Oh, right on.....I think she took the first one from NBA range but what I like about her is that she's got that grit and she's not afraid to take it.......We talk about that all the time in practice; if you think you've got a shot, take it....We never discourage our kids.....She's a very good shooter and I'm glad I've got her for four more years."  I also mentioned to Sorenson that I thought his squad was a bit too tied to the three-point shot in the first half and in the second half, they showed a willingness to drive into the lane and penetrate.  "Oh absolutely.....It (driving into the lane) picked up a few fouls.....We were attacking to get to the line.  For us, if we're giving up lay-ups, it's demoralizing to our defense and we needed to step up and felt that Kaitlin (Conniff) had a couple there in the second half and we ran that out of bounds play and our seniors' ability and all of our kids ability to just make plays and to hold a team that usually make 75 points a game and to hold them to 55 in this game; I mean, that's getting it done."