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Four Wright County Conference teams reach boys' basketball tourney

By JIM PAULSEN, Star Tribune, 03/11/14, 9:30PM CDT

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Here comes the Wright County Conference again.

Here comes the Wright County Conference again.

For years the league has been known as a football battleground, where teams steel themselves during the regular season to prepare for an often inferior section playoff foe.

It’s time to look at the Wright County as a basketball league as well. Four conference teams — Orono and Holy Family in Class 3A, Annandale and New London-Spicer in Class 2A — will play in the boys’ basketball state tournament, which begins Wednesday at Target Center and Williams Arena.

In the past five years, the conference has sent 12 teams to the state tournament. This year’s foursome is the largest in that span, but none of the teams is a newcomer to the big stage. Orono won the Class 3A championship in 2011 and Holy Family took home the title in 2007. New London-Spicer was Class 2A champ in 2008 and 2010, and Annandale, the No. 1 seed in 2A this year, finished third last year.

Not enough? Both Orono and Holy Family defeated conference rivals in the section finals.

Orono beat Delano in what has become an intense rivalry in a relatively short period of time, and Holy Family got past Waconia.

Coughlin bows out

Fans of University of Minnesota women’s basketball lost out on a chance to see future Gophers point guard Grace Coughlin in a state tournament setting when her Benilde-St. Margaret’s team lost to Holy Family 66-61 in the Class 3A, Section 6 semifinals. Coughlin, who scored 32 points in three games in her only state tournament appearance as a freshman in 2011, did all she could to elevate the Red Knights in the playoffs, averaging 28.5 points in two games, 12 points higher than her season average.

Odds and ends

• Both the Buffalo and Holy Family boys’ basketball teams are hoping for a repeat of history. Both are making their first state tournament appearances since 2007, when each ended up winning its only state championship.

• Two top post players in the metro face off Thursday in the Class 3A, Section 6 girls’ basketball championship game when University of Iowa recruit Chase Coley leads No. 1-seeded Minneapolis Washburn against No. 2 seed Holy Family. The Fire is led by 6-1 forward Michaela Rasmussen, a University of Toledo recruit.

 

Jim Paulsen • 612-673-7737

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