Victorious Becker players bounced around with one another at midcourt after rallying to defeat Austin 53-48 in Wednesday’s first Class 3A girls’ basketball state tournament quarterfinal, emotion not typically displayed in the opening round.

But then, both coaches believed this matchup deserved better. They took aim at the seeding process and suggested an overhaul.

How it works: Each head coach casts electronic votes for the other seven qualifying teams. The highest and lowest votes for each team were excluded and the top five teams were awarded seeds. The remaining three teams were placed by blind draw.

That’s how No. 1 seed Becker ended up playing Austin.

“If we vote 1-7, then why don’t we just use that seeding system?” Packers coach Eric Zoske said. “If we’re not seeded 1-5, I feel we should have been a six seed. It’s just a system that needs to be looked at.”

Becker coach Dan Baird said, “For them to be our first-round matchup, I don’t know how that happened or what’s wrong with the process, but they are one of the best teams in Class 3A.”

Zoske added, “The whole system is frustrating. This was not an eight vs. one in the first round; this was a state championship game. There’s no way this should have happened in the first round.”

Run it back

Lakeville North coach Shelly Clemons wasn’t at all resentful that her team was matched up against No. 1-seeded Hopkins in the Class 4A quarterfinals. In fact, she hopes to use the Royals to better her team next season.

“If we got anybody but Hopkins in the first round, I really felt we could make it to the second round. Our goal this year was just to get to state. Next, with these two,” she said, pointing to sophomores Trinity Wilson and Gabby Betton, “we want to get to the dance and win it all. I decided today, I’m going to see if Hopkins wants to play the next two years. As long as I’ve got these two, we’re going to go at it.”

Route to state 

Centennial’s season was teetering on the edge of disappointment in late December after losing six games in a row.

“It seemed like it was the Camille Cummings show. Everybody just wanted to be a part of the Camille show,” coach Jamie Sobilik said. “They’d have an open shot and pass it up and say ‘I’m giving it to Camille.’ ”

Centennial’s savvy guard was averaging around 24 points per game, but the team success wasn’t there.

So the players had a series of meetings designed to make sure everyone was contributing to their team success and their season turned around. They lost just two games after that, both to Maple Grove.

“We had a sleepover at my house, just playing games all night, and it really helped a lot,” Cummings said.

Stopping the star

A big part of Roseville’s ability to shut down Kate Cordes and Shakopee’s long-range shooting was the play of Raiders’ sophomore guard Kendall Barnes.

“We knew [Cordes] was one of their best players so we wanted to keep the ball out of her hands as much as possible.” Roseville coach Tanysha Scott said. “So we had Kendall on her.”

Barnes is also Scott’s daughter. Scott, a former standout at Minnesota Duluth, was asked if that makes Barnes the Raiders’ defensive stopper?

“We’re trying to make her one,” Scott said with a broad smile.

Barnes admitted that she hears that at home all the time: “Yeah. She wants me to be.”

Jim Paulsen, David La Vaque, Patrick Johnson, Heather Rule and Nate Gotlieb contributed to this report.