For the fourth time this season, the International Falls girls basketball team has defeated Virginia.
The top-seeded Broncos won their Section 7AA quarterfinal game Saturday afternoon over the No. 4-seeded Blue Devils, 60-43, at Duluth Denfeld High School.
“I knew it was probably going to be a tough game – I thought we could break through – but they kept it close the whole game,” said Falls head coach Shawn Gilbert.
The Broncos, who also won the three regular-season games against Virginia, led by seven points at halftime, 26-19, when both teams ended up in the double bonus with more than 10 fouls apiece.
“This (playoff game) was a lot more difficult,” Gilbert said. “They were playing for their last game of the season – whoever lost that game – so it's probably the hardest they played against us so far, and they played really well.”
Fouls continued to mount up for the Blues Devils in the second half as three Virginia played ended up fouling out with the Falls staying front until the final buzzer. The Blue Devils cut the lead to four points early in the second half, but could come no closer before time expired.
“I was really worried, if we happen to get behind or something, what might happen,” Gilbert said. “But we were able to keep the lead the whole game, and that was the most important part.”
The Broncos scored half of their points from the free-throw line, shooting 30-46 from the charity stripe, while Virginia made 10 of 29 free throws.
Four Falls players scored in double figures led by Cassie Tomczak with 16 points. Maddie Filipiak, Shelby Wolden and Emma Gilbert added 10 points apiece.
Maria Stokes-Cerkvenik led Virginia with 14 points, followed by Morgan Deutsch-Woods with 13 points.
The Broncos, who improved their season record to 21-7, next face No. 2-seeded Barnum in the Section 7AA semifinals at 5:45 p.m. Thursday at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
“After playing Virginia four times, it's going to be nice to play a team that maybe doesn't know quite a bit about us,” Gilbert said. “We really didn't show too much (Saturday afternoon), mainly because we had to play Virginia man-to-man, so hopefully we'll be able to play some of our trapping defense next game.”
The Falls, which has advanced to the Section 7AA semifinals for the fourth year in a row, lost the last three semifinal games to Braham, which is now is Section 5AA. The Broncos have yet this season to play Barnum, which won its quarterfinal game over Moose Lake/Willow River, 63-61, and has a record of 18-8.
The winner of the semifinal game between the Falls and Barnum advances to Saturday night's Section 7AA finals at UMD to play the winner of the other semifinal game between Esko and Mesabi East.
Int'l Falls 60, Virginia 43
Virginia 19 24 – 43
Int'l Falls 26 34 – 60
Virginia: Kaylie Purcel 2, Morgan Deutsch-Woods 13, Brylee Seitz 5, Emily Sipola 8, Mickey Whiteside 1, Maria Stokes-Cerkvenik 14. 3-pointers: Deutsch-Woods 2, Stokes-Cerkvenik 2, Seitz. Free throws: 10-29. Fouls: 31. Fouled out: Pucel, Seitz, Sipola.
Int'l Falls: Maddie Filipiak 10, Shelby Wolden 10, Cassie Tomczak 16, Teagan Anderson 9, Janet Humbert 5, Emma Gilbert 10. 3-pointers: Tomczak 2, Anderson, Humbert. Free throws: 30-46. Fouls: 22. Fouled out: Filipiak.
