Owatonna Boys Basketball Starts Playoffs at Lakeville South Wednesday

Owatonna versus Lakeville South in the first round of the playoffs has been the anticipated match-up for quite a while. It was just a matter of where the game would be.

Owatonna (18-8) has a better record than South (14-12). Each team has slumped a little down the stretch. The Huskies are 4-4 in their last eight games, including a disappointing showing at Mankato East last week. The Cougars are 4-3 in their past seven games. Both squads finished third in their conference. With South playing in the challenging South Suburban Conference they got the nod to host Owatonna in the No. 4 vs. No. 5 game in the Section 1AAAA quarterfinals Wednesday night at 7PM on Kat Kountry 105FM.

OHS senior Jay Sullivan and junior Dalton Kubista were named to the Big Nine all-conference team this week. Juniors Andrew Jackson and Alex Raichle landed on the honorable mention list. Kubista, Sullivan and Jackson all have a scoring average of double digits.

The Cougars are led by senior Jack Sorenson with 22 points per game. Six-foot-7 forward Shae Mitchell adds 16 per game. South is averaging about 70 points per game and giving up about the same. Owatonna is scoring 67 per game and surrendering 63.

The winner is likely to meet top-seed Lakeville North (22-4, No. 4AAAA) in the semifinals Saturday at 6:30PM at the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester. The four-time defending section champion Panthers open with Rochester Century (3-23) Wednesday night. The other quarterfinals are Farmington (8-18) at Big Nine Conference champion Rochester JM (23-3) and Rochester Mayo (11-15) at New Prague (22-4).

The Section 1AAA tournament also begins Wednesday. Albert Lea plays at top-seed Austin, Red Wing is at Byron, Stewartville goes to Winona and Kasson-Mantorville heads to Northfield.

Section 2AAA boys quarterfinals are Tuesday with Hutchinson at No. 1 seed Marshall, Mankato West plays at Faribault, New Ulm goes to Waseca and Worthington plays at Mankato East.