Girls Basketball, Class AA semifinals: Albany 48, Goodhue 45

Albany extended its winning streak to 24 consecutive games, and with it, landed in a place the school’s basketball program knows well.

Junior guard Tatum Findley made a three-pointer from the deep left corner with 1 minute, 10 seconds remaining in regulation time to give the No. 3-seeded Huskies a 48-45 victory over No. 2 Goodhue in the Class AA semifinals of the Minnesota State High School League’s Girls Basketball State Tournament on Friday, March 17 at Williams Arena on the University of Minnesota campus.

The victory sends Albany (30-1) into the Class AA championship game where it hopes to stretch the winning spree to 25 with an upset of top-seeded Providence Academy, the defending class champion. Findley finished with 13 points and was 3 of 3 from three-point range. Junior forward Kylan Gerads chipped in 12 points.

Albany has not lost a game since Dec. 20 when it suffered a 45-33 setback to New London-Spicer. New London-Spicer was the No. 4 seed in the Class AA field, but lost to No. 5 Minnehaha Academy in the quarterfinals. Albany was most recently the Class AA champion in 2021, which joined a Class AA crown in 2008 and 1983. The Huskies were the Class A champion in 1980 and runner-ups in 1979 and 2007.

Albany trailed by four points heading into the final three minutes of regulation before going on a 10-3 run to top the Wildcats. Findley capped the run with her well-timed three-pointer.

Sophomore forward Kendyl Lodermeier had 19 points for Goodhue (28-3), which was attempting to earn a spot in a championship game for the first time since finishing as the Class A runner-up in 2019. The Wildcats were back-to-back Class A champions in 2016 and 2017, respectively. Senior post Jada Scheele added 12 points for the Wildcats.