Blooming Prairie to play for Section 1A title after a 62-33 semi-final win over Hayfield

The Blooming Prairie Awesome Blossoms, the No. 1 seed in the Section 1A  girls basketball tournament tangled with Gopher Conference foe and No. 4 seed Hayfield for the third time this season in the section semi-finals Saturday morning at the Mayo Civic Arena in Rochester, and, as they did against Randolph Monday evening, the Blossoms used a big first half run to break things open on their way to a 62-33 win.

Hayfield controlled the game early in the first half as they took a 3-1 lead and saw Megan Oswald, the 1,000+ point scorer for Blooming Prairie head to the bench with two early fouls.  The Blossoms, though, showed why they are the top seed as guard Maggie Bruns drilled a three from the left wing which seemed to settle BP down and got them into the flow of the game.  The hoop, as it turned out, would spark a 20-3 Blossom run to put them in front 20-6, and they maintained a 14-point lead at the half at 28-14.

In another repeat from Monday night against Randolph, Blooming Prairie did not let their foot off the gas at the start of the second half as they quickly put the game out of reach with a 12-0 run to start the half and led 40-14.  The Blossoms would eventually push their lead to as large as 30 in the second half on their way to the win.

Megan Oswald led the offensive attack for Blooming Prairie with 18 points, while teammates Bobbi Bruns and Julia Worke were also in double figures with 16 and 13 points, respectively.  Maggie Bruns added nine points, while Maren Forystek and Maya Lembke each drained a three in the game for three points apiece.  Hayfield was led by Lila Gronseth and Kristen Watson, as they each tallied 10 points.  Taylor Burt added five points, Rachel Pack chipped in four points for the Vikings while Cela Carney and Aine Stasko each added two points.

Hayfield’s sesaon comes to a close with a record of 16-12, while Blooming Prairie moves to 21-5 with the win.  The Blossoms will meet Fillmore Central in the Section 1A final Thursday night at 6:00 p.m. back at the Mayo Civic Auditorium in Rochester.  You’ll hear the game right here on AM 1480 KAUS, on the world-wide web at myaustinminnesota.com, and on the I Heart Radio app.