Panthers pick themselves up, keep competing

North recovers quickly from last-second loss at state

A last-second loss in the state girls basketball quarterfinals put Lakeville North in a place the Panthers had seen too many times before and didn’t want to be in again.

Nothing against the Gangelhoff Center and Concordia University in St. Paul, but the Panthers already know their way around the place. In five of the last six years they have headed over there after losing in the Class 4A quarterfinals.

But if a first-round loss at state is the lemon, North sought to make lemonade by winning its final two games of the season at the Gangelhoff Center.

Losing 56-55 to Maple Grove on a basket at the buzzer March 13 meant North wouldn’t stay at Williams Arena to pursue the Class 4A championship. The next morning, however, the Panthers regrouped and bounced White Bear Lake 56-38 in a consolation semifinal game. They beat Rosemount 71-60 on March 15 to win the consolation championship and finish a 26-6 season.

But that first game still stings.

“It was tough. Everybody was feeling a little down,” senior forward Bella DeHaan said. “But we got together, talked as a team and decided we were going to play our best, get the (consolation bracket) win and move on.”

Panthers coach Andy Berkvam said he spent much of the evening before the consolation semifinal game trying to figure out what he was going to say to his players to motivate them. It turned out he didn’t need to say much at all.

“We talked about character – how you either have character or you are a character,” he said. “And they all have character.”

Berkvam was hoping Lakeville North would get to play Rosemount in the consolation final, saying it would be appropriate for the longtime South Suburban Conference rivals to face each other one more time in the final game of the season.

“Just because it’s such a good rivalry,” he said. “It’ll be a great game and a great way to end the season. We have a lot of respect for them.”

After White Bear Lake (21-9) made a three-pointer 31 seconds into the game the Panthers assumed control, outscoring the Bears 22-4 over the next nine minutes. Lakeville North led by double digits the rest of the way and got 16 players into the game.

Senior center Trinity Wilson had 16 points and senior guard Gabby Betton scored 14. Junior guards Elayna Boe and Gracie Winge added 10 and eight points.

North won the deciding game of what turned out to be a best-of-three series against Rosemount. The Panthers never trailed in the consolation final and led by as many as 19 points in the second half. Wilson had 17 points, Boe 15, Aduke Ojullu 14 and Winge and Boe nine each. Boe also had a team-high 11 rebounds.

Lakeville North held the lead for only a few minutes of its game against Maple Grove, but near the end it looked like the Panthers would be ahead when it mattered. Boe’s rebound basket with 27 seconds left gave North a 54-55 lead.

Maple Grove called timeout with 11 seconds remaining, followed by another with two seconds left. Lakeville North then called its own timeout to set up its defense.

Once the strategy sessions were finished, the Crimson ran a play that allowed forward Claire Stern to loop behind a screen and get open for a layup at the buzzer. Bella Hanna made the inbounds pass.

“That was a crushing defeat,” Berkvam said. “Offensively and defensively, we did everything the way we wanted in the second half. We controlled the tempo. We had it, but they made a play at the end.

“I’ll bet we had eight to 10 games that weren’t decided until the final seconds. You have to close. Hopefully our young kids coming back next year can learn from that.”

“I thought we played really well,” DeHaan said. “It came down to one play. It came down to execution, and unfortunately we weren’t able to pull through that.”

Wilson had a double-double with 17 points and 15 rebounds, and also had six assists. Boe and Betton scored 13 points each. Ojullu finished with six points and five rebounds, and the Panthers had a plus-17 point differential when she was on the court.

Lakeville North returns a considerable amount of talent for another postseason run next year. Betton, one of four seniors on the roster (along with Wilson, DeHaan and Isabella Thomas), was asked to look back on her career at Lakeville North and called it “life-changing.

“Whether it was for one year or five, all these girls have impacted me in one way or another,” she said. “I wouldn’t be the player or person I am today without them.

“This program is built on pride, and everybody who’s from here likes to show people what we’re about.”