Huskies to Open Playoffs at No. 4 Lakeville North Wednesday

The Owatonna High School boys basketball team opens the Section 1AAAA playoffs Wednesday night at top seed and No. 4 rated Lakeville North. The writing was on the wall for this match-up long before Saturday's seedings were announced.

The Huskies (7-19) have ended the season with a bit of an upswing. While being just 3-8 over their last eleven games, three of the other games have been decided by less than ten points and one went to overtime. OHS was tight with Northfield through the first half in last Friday's regular-season finale.

Coach Josh Williams said on Saturday's high school coach show, "Really over the course of the last seven or eight games, I think the only poor game we played was against Austin on Thursday night (February 28, a 69-43 loss). The other games we've played in the last month have been really, really good."

Lakeville North (22-4) is on a ten-game winning streak and reached 100 points in a win over Burnsville. North played two Big Nine teams this season, beating Century 85-66 early in the season and topping Big Nine co-champ Austin 84-64 during a holiday tournament. The Huskies got swept by Austin and split with Century. Owatonna did not play a South Suburban Conference team this season. North won the conference title.

Regarding the Panthers, Williams said, "As physical a game as it was against Northfield, you can quadruple that...They've had a Division I player for about eight years running now...They're extremely deep and talented. They have a whole bunch of guys that play a lot of basketball...They do a lot of things really, really well."

The Panthers are led by Wisconsin-bound 6-foot-7 senior Tyler Wahl who averages 19 points per game. Jack Rusch, Tommy Jensen and Tate Staloch also average double figures.

Keep track of the area high school scores on the new, updated KRFO online scoreboard. Check it out!

Section 1AAAA schedule
Wednesday, March 6 quarterfinals, 7 pm
No. 8 Owatonna at No. 1 Lakeville North on KRFO AM 1390
No. 5 Farmington at No. 4 Lakeville South
No. 6 Rochester Mayo at No. 3 New Prague
No. 7 Rochester Century at No. 2 Rochester John Marshall
Saturday, March 9
semifinals at Mayo Civic Center in Rochester, 6:30 pm and 8:15 pm
Friday, March 15
finals at Mayo Civic Center, 8 pm

Section 1AAA
Wednesday, March 6 quarterfinals, 7 pm
No. 1 Austin (bye)
No. 5 Red Wing at No. 4 Simley
No. 6 Albert Lea at No. 3 Winona
No. 7 Kasson-Mantorville at No. 2 Northfield
Saturday, March 9
semifinals at Mayo Civic Center, 1 pm and 2:45 pm
Friday, March 15
finals at Mayo Civic Center, 6 pm