Top seeds all win in Sub-Section 6AA-East and Section 6A-South girls basketball playoffs

Hancock, Parkers Prairie, Sauk Centre, and New London-Spicer all won tonight in girls basketball playoff action.

Section 6A girls basketball playoffs:
Hancock 48, Brandon-Evansville 44
New York Mills 53, Ada-Borup 42
Parkers Prairie 57, Battle Lake 37

Out in Sub-Section 6AA-West... Benson is leading West Central Area 69-61 with 1:15 left in overtime! What a game, out at the University of Minnesota-Morris.

Benson led 57-55 with 3:49 remaining in regulation, which ended with the game tied at 60-60. Benson gained an early 63-60 lead in overtime and then led 69-61 with 75 seconds on the clock.

Final score: Benson 72, West Central Area 65 OT.

I heard that Benson shot under 50% from the free throw line with over 30 attempts and also had 27 turnovers. That's called winning ugly!

Section 6AA girls basketball playoff scores:
Benson 72, West Central Area 65 OT
New London-Spicer 43, Pierz 22
Sauk Centre 78, Holdingford 42
Staples-Motley 65, Long Prairie-Grey Eagle 32

Section 5AA girls basketball playoff scores:
Eden Valley-Watkins 51, Kimball Area 39
Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted 38, Providence Academy 35 OT
St. Cloud Cathedral 55, Zimmerman 30
Watertown-Mayer 63, Rockford 47

Section 5A girls basketball playoff results:
Barnum 76, Isle 40
Bertha-Hewitt 62, Pine River-Backus 37
Northland 51, East Central 49
Sebeka 82, Upsala 59

Eden Valley-Watkins takes a 12-14 record into the Sub-Section 5AA-North championship game. Their sub-section is very weak this season, but nevertheless they are in the sub-section title game for the eighth straight year! (The Eagles were in the sub-section final as a member of Section 3A in 2003 when they lost to Wabasso, then lost in the sub-section final to New London-Spicer in 2004 after moving to Section 5AA.)

Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted, the 2009-2010 Central Minnesota Conference girls basketball champions, will play in a sub-section championship for the 5th straight season. They lost in 2006 and 2007 to Eden Valley-Watkins, and have since then won two sub-section titles along with two straight trips to the Class AA state tournament.

Out west on Saturday afternoon, number-three seed Hancock defeated number-two seed Brandon-Evansville 48-44, coming back from a deficit to earn their third sub-section championship berth in the last four seasons. They had a six-point lead in the final minute and were able to overcome ill-timed turnovers down the stretch. They'll take on state-ranked and top-seeded Parkers Prairie in the Sub-Section 6A-South championship game next Tuesday night at the University of Minnesota-Morris.

March Madness is heating up! Gotta love it.

Some late notes on the Pierz vs. Albany girls basketball game from Little Falls radio sports broadcaster Rick Grammond = "Simply put, every Pierz player probably played their best game of the season. Pierz had lost by 51 to Braham and 30 to Rockford in their last 2 games prior to the Albany game. The Pioneers led by 12 (33-21) at halftime, saw Albany make a mini-run to get the lead down to 8 midway through the 2nd half, but then back-to-back 3's on consecutive Pierz possessions pushed the lead back to 14. Pierz had their biggest lead of 18 at one point, and Albany was just never able to mount a serious comeback. Congrats to Coach Rick Sczublewski, who earned his 400th career win with the victory."

More updates is coming on Sunday.