Girls Basketball: Wildcats fall in subsection finals

The top-seeded Goodhue girls basketball team led by six points with six minutes left against second-seeded Bethlehem Academy but let the lead slip away in a 57-51 loss Friday in the Section 1A West Subsection final at the Mayo Civic Auditorium in Rochester.

The Wildcats gave up a four-point play late in the game by Bethlehem Academy’s Megan Hoisington and were unable to recover. Hoisington was fouled while making a layup, missed the ensuing free throw and scored on the rebound to tie the game at 47 in the final four minutes.

“We had a six-point lead late in the game, we should have been able to close it out,” Goodhue head coach Josh Wieme said. “We just fell apart I guess.”

Sophomore Mikayla Miller led the second-ranked Wildcats with 21 points and 13 rebounds. Sophomore Mikayla Tipcke scored 13 points and sophomore Kali Ryan had nine points and six rebounds in the loss.

Jessie Mathews and Maria Palmer each scored 16 points to lead Bethlehem Academy.

Bethlehem Academy jumped out to an early 26-9 lead with Mathews controlling play, Wieme said.

“During that spurt in the first half, she was kind of doing everything,” he said. “Mathews had a really nice game. She’s a very good player.”

But the Wildcats responded, cutting the lead to 30-28 at halftime and using a full-court press to infuse some energy into the offense, Wieme said.

“We said, ‘We got to get aggressive, we got to get some momentum going,’” he said. “In the first half, we had a ton of success with it.”

Bethlehem made adjustments after halftime and were able to break the press, Wieme said.

Goodhue shot well from the free-throw line, making 23 of 29 attempts but the Wildcats shot just 26 percent from the field. The only time Goodhue found a rhythm on offense was in transition, Wieme said.

“Unfortunately, too much of the game was played in the half court,” he said. “When we got in the half court, we could never really do anything. We never got comfortable.”

Bethlehem Academy made 22 of 39 shots for 56 percent but committed 17 turnovers.

“I give my kids credit with coming back,” Wieme said. “But we should have closed it out. We’re all to blame for that.”

Tags: girls basketball, sports, prep, goodhue