Owatonna Girls will open Basketball Playoffs at John Marshall Wednesday

The girls basketball playoffs begin Wednesday for the Huskies, the No. 5 seed, as they go to the No. 4 seed Rockets at 7PM with the coverage on Kat Kountry 105FM.

Owatonna enters the playoffs with a 14-12 record, but has lost three in a row. JM has won 14 of their last 15 games and finished one game behind Rochester Mayo for the Big Nine title. The Rockets swept the Huskies during the season 53-30 and 66-57. Owatonna has four players averaging nine points or more. JM is led by Jamie Ruden, who has committed to play at Arizona State University.

OHS has lost four straight to JM. The Huskies' last win was in the 2014 playoffs on their way to a Section 1AAAA runner-up finish behind Lakeville North. The Rockets were second in the section last winter, losing to Mayo in the final in overtime.

No. 6-ranked Lakeville North is the top seed on the Minnesota State High School League bracket for Section 1AAAA and hosts Farmington on Wednesday at 7PM. The other quarterfinal games are New Prague at Lakeville South and Rochester Century at Rochester Mayo.

Winners advance to the semifinals Saturday, March 5, at the Mayo Civic Arena at 1PM and 2:45PM. The final is Thursday, March 10, in the arena.

Section 1AAA girls basketball begins Wednesday, too. Albert Lea is at top seed Winona, Bryon plays at Austin, Red Wing goes to longtime rival Northfield and Stewartville faces fellow-HVL team Kasson-Mantorville. The Winhawks and Komets are both top 10 ranked.

Section 2AAA girls basketball features top seed Marshall hosting Worthington on Wednesday. New Ulm travels to Mankato West, Jordan is at Faribault on KDHL radio AM 920 and Waseca rolls over to Mankato East in a bracket that is pretty friendly to the travel budget. Marshall is the defending section champ and ranked No. 8 in the Minnesota Basketball News poll.