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Eden Prairie upends defending champs

By Brian Stensaas, Star Tribune, 03/17/11, 10:10PM CDT

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Lakeville North comes up short, Eagles advance to Class 4A championship


Jeff Wheeler, Star Tribune

First-year Eden Prairie coach Chris Carr twisted on one leg down to the Target Center court. The move came as Eagles junior guard Shayne Mullaney scored the last of her eight straight points to open the second half against Lakeville North on Thursday.

And that one motion was enough to tell everyone in attendance the momentum had shifted.

“I’m not hard to excite when it comes to basketball,” Carr said. “[And] whenever you work and prepare as hard as these girls have — all the days of practice and sprints and defensive drills — you know what, you get excited whenever you see a plan of action come together.”

Those eight points, the first of Mullaney’s eventual game-high 14, fueled a 49-32 come-from-behind victory over the defending Class 4A champion Panthers. It gives No. 2 seed Eden Prairie a berth in its first-ever state championship game.

“We definitely were on fire a little bit,” Mullaney said.

Morgan VanRiper-Rose brought Eden Prairie some much needed energy going into the second half when she drained a three-pointer from just right of the circle at the halftime horn, cutting Lakeville North’s lead — which was as many as nine with 1:34 left — to 22-19. It was just the Eagles’ fourth field goal.

The Panthers then missed a shot eight seconds into the second half before Mullaney began her run.

Lakeville North, the No. 3 seed, missed 23 of 27 shots in the second half.

“The name of the game,” Panthers coach Andy Berkvam said. “We didn’t shoot the ball well.”

Lakeville North scored just four points in the first 14 minutes of the second half, of which Star Tribune Metro Player of the Year Rachel Banham spent a four-minute chunk on the bench with four fouls.

Section Playoffs Leaders