Photo by Jake McNeill: Lakeview forward Aleiah Rosenau attempts a jump shot over the Canby defense during a prep girls basketball game in the 3A North subsection quarterfinals at Montevideo High School on Saturday afternoon.

MONTEVIDEO — In what was a fast-paced game from the jump, the fourth-seeded Lakeview girls basketball team pulled away early in the first half to take down No. 5 Canby in the 3A North subsection quarterfinals on Saturday afternoon. The Lakers scored each of the final 6 points of the first half and quickly expanded their lead from there to claim a 63-52 victory, sending Lakeview to the subsection semifinals for the second consecutive season. 

“We’ve had great team chemistry over these past few years. These girls just really get along and want to do it for each other,” Lakeview senior Aubreigh Rausch said. “All five of us seniors play, and then the juniors are out there to make sure we get to keep playing this season, it’s just been great to see us go from the bottom to climbing up here.”

Coming out of the huddle six minutes into the half and facing a 4-point deficit, Lakeview looked energized. Savanna Louwagie hit a layup, Megan Schwartz got a putback basket, and a Brook Gunlogson midrange jumper and Anah Schmidt free throw quickly gave the Lakers an 11-8 lead. 

“It’s kind of a blur now that you bring it up,” Rausch said with a laugh when asked about the Lakers’ surge ahead. “One great thing about this team is that when one person does something good, it just bounces off of each other and really carries over. All week in practice, we’ve been talking about getting off to a hot start right away… so I think we maybe were a little nervous at the beginning, but after that timeout we settled down and started playing our way.”

The two teams remained locked in a scoreless stalemate for three minutes, with Canby relying primarily on 3-point attempts in an effort to tie the game. 

Emily Nelson finally got one to go down and tie up the game at 11 points apiece, and Ava Danielson gave Canby the lead back, but Louwagie got a tying bucket for the Lakers and Brynn Stensrud ripped her way to the free throw line for a pair of go-ahead free throws. 

Stensrud finished as Lakeview’s leading scorer in the game, scoring 20 points on 5 of 17 shooting, while Gunlogson added 16 points on 6 of 11 shooting and Schmidt contributed another 16. Stensrud also had a major defensive impact, with her five steals trailing only Louwagie’s six.

Danielson, meanwhile, led Canby with 17 points while Kockelman added another 16. The two were also the game’s leading rebounders, finishing with 11 and 10 rebounds respectively, though Canby fell behind 39-36 on the glass. Regan Bossuyt and Carmen Varpness led Lakeview with seven rebounds each.

The Lakers continued to get Canby in foul trouble as Stensrud hit another shot from the charity stripe on her next trip down the court. Gunlogson followed up with a layup through contact and, while she wasn’t able to get the free throw to go down, Stensrud came up with another and-1 on the next possession to bring Lakeview’s lead up to 21-13.

While the Lakers have traditionally been a press team this season, Lakeview head coach Mike Imes said his team laid off it on Saturday to try to focus on rebounding, half-court defense and pushing the pace.

“That’s how we like to play. We spent all week focusing on defense because they [Canby] are a hard team to defend,” Imes said, adding that he felt the Lancers’ five guards all can shoot 3s and drive. “I was proud of our girls tonight for how they defended.”

Nelson ended the Canby drought with a 3-pointer and, after another Laker free throw on Canby’s ninth foul of the half, Josie Frank knocked down another shot from long range to make it a one-possession game at 22-19.

Imes attributed his team’s ability to draw fouls to its aggression.

“If you’ve got the chance to drive to the hoop, you’ve got to drive to the hoop. Make that official make the decision,” Imes said. “We wanted to be a more physical team, we weren’t going to back down from this challenge, and we knew… that we were going to have our hands full.”

The final few minutes of the half were all Lakeview from there. A Reagan Bossuyt offensive rebound set up Rausch with a midrange jumper and another pair of baskets from Schmidt and Gunlogson gave the Lakers a 28-19 halftime advantage.

Frank connected from long range to give Canby the first points of the second half, but Gunlogson hit a layup and Stensrud knocked down a pair of free throws to quickly re-extend the Lakers’ lead. 

It took Lakeview less than four minutes from there to extend its lead into double digits, and another four minutes later Schmidt hit a free throw to bring the Lakers’ lead up to 43-26, the largest gap of the game at the time.

Still, Canby wasn’t ready to give up yet. A Brynn Kockelman shot from beyond the arc and a Danielson old-fashioned 3 trimmed Lakeview’s lead down to 11. 

The Lancers got off a good look from 3 with the opportunity to cut the deficit to single digits, but the shot wouldn’t go and a pair of Stensrud free throws and a Gunlogson jumper brought Lakeview’s lead back up to 15 points..

Kockelman scored a pair of points and a Danielson 3 gave Canby a 4-point lead early in the first half, prompting a Lakeview timeout before their go-ahead run.

Lakeview improves to 19-7 on the season with the win and now prepares to take on top-seeded Central Minnesota Christian (21-5) in the subsection quarterfinals on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Montevideo High School. When the Lakers and Bluejays met in the regular season, CMC downed Lakeview 66-31. 

Imes noted that his team only has one day of practice before its rematch against CMC, a team he described as highly efficient, but that the team is going to try to put it all on the line.

“It’ll be a heck of a battle for us, but at this point, you never know what can happen,” Imes said. “It’s the playoffs, you’ve got to play your best game and whatever is going to happen, happens. We wanted to get to the semis for sure, and this team has worked so hard this year and kind of validated our season to get to the semis, but we’re not done. We want to give them a good battle.”

Canby wraps up its season at 13-13, a notable improvement from last year’s 8-17 finish. The Lancers fielded a young roster this season and will graduate just two seniors, Frank and Audrey Hentges.