Photo by Samantha Davis: The Minneota girls basketball team walks off the court for the final time this season after shaking hands with Central Minnesota Christian following a 52-49 loss Tuesday night in the Section 3A North subsection semifinals at Montevideo High School.

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MONTEVIDEO — Going down to the final seconds in a loud and competitive atmosphere, the No. 4 Minneota girls basketball team came up just short in a 52-49 loss to top-seeded Central Minnesota Christian Tuesday night in the Section 3A North subsection semifinals. The loss concludes the Vikings’ season at 19-9 overall, and they will graduate their lone senior in Sarah Gruenes.

Following a strongly aggressive and fierce first half that went back-and-forth, to which CMC led by just 2 points at the break, the second half continued with much of the same tempo and physicality.

Fighting back from a once 8-point deficit in the earlier part of the half, Autum Anderson came up clutch, with a handful of big shots throughout the night, and drilled in a 3-pointer to bring Minneota back within a possession, 49-47 with 19 seconds on the clock.

Minneota intentionally fouled, and CMC made a free throw for a 50-47 edge with 10.6 seconds left when the Vikings called a timeout.

Out of the reset, Ava Rost ignited the crowd with a deep 2 just inside the right wing of the 3-point line to bring the Vikings within a point, down 50-49 and 4.7 seconds remaining.

The scorer’s table initially counted Rost’s basket as a 3, which would tie the score at 50 with just over a second left, but after an official’s discussion, it was confirmed as a regular field goal and added about three seconds to the clock.

The Bluejays from there were intentionally fouled once more and made both clinching free throws to seal the win, as the Vikings last deep heave didn’t fall.

Minneota’s defense shined in the latter part of the second half, with several players getting their hands in passing lanes for steals and tips. The Vikings’ rebounding effort in particular, earned them back a string of crucial possessions.

CMC was able to pull ahead about midway through the half, but Rost caught the hot hand and scored 8 straight points for Minneota with back-to-back 3-pointers followed up with a 2-on-1 fastbreak layup beside Anderson after a steal to tie the score back up 32-32 with 13 minutes to play.

The Blujays responded on a 10-2 run to take a 42-34 lead, their largest of the night, following two consecutive steals and layups from junior Sienna Duininck and a CMC 3 with 10:30 left.

Yet, the Vikings never let up on their fight as they eventually brought it back within striking reach as the final minutes came around.

The Vikings and Bluejays went basket for basket the entire first half, neither able to break away to larger than a two-posession lead.

Anderson particularly had the spark in the first half, including 9 of Minneota’s first 13 points along with facilitating the offense and scored a majority of her first points by driving to the basket. She initially opened the Vikings’ scoring with a 3-pointer from the top of the key.

Jayla Jerzak also had a string of hustle plays, continuing to dive for the ball and put her body on the line on several occasions, as did the entirety of the team.

Minneota also collectively had a handful of possession-saving smart plays throughout the night, including one from Rost in the waning moments of the first half where she bounced the ball off of CMC as she was falling out of bounds with the ball.

The first half went on to see a few different lead changes and a 20-20 tie, and the Bluejays went into the break with a 22-20 edge after scoring once more before the buzzer.

CMC also spent the season ranked in the top-10 coaches poll in Class A, and ended the regular season tabbed No. 6 in the state. The Bluejays had a 23-3 record heading into Tuesday and were on a 14-game win streak prior to their final regular-season game.

A valiant Viking effort

Minneota finishes with another successful 2025-26 season campaign, despite Tuesday’s loss. The Vikings maintained a winning record throughout the year, and also had four different stretches of winning three or more games consecutively.

The Vikings got eliminated in the same spot last season, to MACCRAY by 1 point in the subsection semifinals, but finished with an improved record this time around. Minneota went 17-12 overall last year, and picked up two more wins this season.

Notably, Minneota will be returning nearly its entire lineup of talent next season after graduating just one senior in Gruenes. The Vikings will be older with more experience, as their core group of five current juniors in Jaylyn Coequyt, Leah Coequyt, Libby Sussner, Natalie DeCock and Clare Swedzinkski will be coming back for a final season.