No. 2 seed Waconia beats Grand Rapids

By David La Vaque, Star Tribune, 03/23/11, 3:55PM CDT

Wildcats ride early lead to the Class 3A semifinals

Waconia's Shelby Moats (34) blocked the layup attempt of Grand Rapids' Alex Illikainen. Marlin Levison, Star Tribune

No. 2 seed Waconia arrived at Williams Arena just in time to see New Prague finish its upset of top 3A seed St. Paul Johnson.

Wildcats coach Pat Hayes turned to star forward Shelby Moats and cautioned, “Keep that in the back of your mind.”

Moats took the message to heart, scoring his team’s first five points as Waconia (22-7) built a double-digit lead within five minutes and held it until late in the second half of the victory over Grand Rapids (19-10).

“We wanted to send a message to their guys that we were coming to play,” Moats said. “Being the No. 2 seed, we’re here for a reason and we want to keep playing.”

The victory was a team effort. Moats had 10 points at the half but only two the rest of the game. No matter, as both Wylie Ferron (16 points) and Alex Schmitt (15) nearly doubled their respective averages.