Even with 2010 Ms. Basketball winner Cassie Rochel gone from this year’s lineup, Lakeville North girls basketball coach Andy Berkvam thought the Panthers would again have the pieces to be a high-octane offensive team.

And even with his starters getting plenty of rest last week in the season-opening Hamline tournament, that proved to be correct.

Using a mix of second- and third-teamers after Berkvam elected to sit his starting five after seven minutes, Lakeville North cruised to an 88-12 victory over Minneapolis North at Hamline last Friday. The Panthers then rounded out the tournament with a 68-47 victory over Osseo on Saturday.

“Lots of kids with tons of minutes,” Berkvam said. “In a tournament like that, right after a break, you want kids to run around and get work. This was good.”

The defending Class 4A champion Panthers have not lost since the 2009 Section 3 championship game against Eastview. The mark is now 27 games in a row heading into Thursday night’s match-up with Class 3A power DeLaSalle.

“I think the kids are more worried about that [streak] than I am,” Berkvam said. “The whole season isn’t dependent on [this] week. I just want us to be playing our best basketball through the conference and sections, and then win state again.”

Despite the loss of Rochel, who averaged 15.4 points per game and is now a freshman at Wisconsin, Lakeville North still has many viable options.

It starts with future Gopher Rachel Banham, who along with Rochel was the Star Tribune Co-Metro Player of the Year last spring.

“Rachel is a phenomenal player, and we’ve kind of built our team around her,” Berkvam said of the 5-10 senior point guard who averaged 14.8 points per game last season.

She joins Apiew Ojulu, a 6-3 power forward who recently signed to play for Marquette, as a formidable 1-2 punch for the Panthers. But the praise doesn’t end there.

“Our team is going to go as far as our role players take us,” Berkvam said. “And those are some very good players.”

Senior wing Jaya Perkins is headed to Crookston, while sophomore Taylor Stewart is back at shooting guard after starting as a freshman. Junior post McKenzie Hoelmenn rounds out the starting lineup.

“I really believe that if we can get all the kids to contribute, we will have a really good team again,” Berkvam said.