Park rallied in the second half to knock off host Eagan Saturday and advance to the Section 3AAAA finals and a date at Rosemount Thursday.

The third-seeded Wolfpack outscored the second-seeded Wildcats 26-19 in the second half after trailing 20-17 at the break.

Park’s Elsa Olson, Tori Henderson and Justine Jameson each scored 11 points to lead the Wolfpack offensively against Eagan. Eagan (18-10) had defeated Park 61-46 in the first game of the regular season back on Nov. 30.

Park (17-11) plays at top-seeded Rosemount (23-5) for the section championship Thursday, starting at 7 p.m. It will be the second meeting of the two teams this season. Rosemount won a home game against Park 51-45 on Dec. 18.

The Irish enter the section finals on a tear outscoring Apple Valley twice, 71-25 and 61-20 and Bloomington Jefferson 83-45 in their last three games. The Irish are 22-1 in their last 23 contests.

Park 54, Hastings 47 The section playoffs are, in case anyone forgot, a different breed of cat.

Park keelhauled Hastings 71-30 during a regular season meeting at Hastings on Jan. 6 – the Wolfpack’s biggest margin of victory this season.

Wednesday’s game was anything but a blowout. Park’s cold shooting throughout, plus spirited play from the Raiders, resulted in a tooclose- for-comfort 54-47 win for the Wolfpack in the Section 3AAA quarterfinals.

“We gave up a lot of extra rebounds, they got extra opportunities, we kind of let them get in front of us and make those turnaround jump shots where their shots didn’t drop so much last time,” said Park coach Stephanie Tolkinen. “They struggled a lot. I think we did pretty well ion defense, we just couldn’t get the ball to drop. ”

Park got some big baskets from Elsa Olson, Justine Jameson and Sydnee Nelson down the stretch to finally subdue the visitors.

“I’ve been working on my confidence and knowing I can make a shot when my team needs it,” said Olson. “Every shot helps. It doesn’t matter who makes it as long as it goes in.”

Still the difference was striking between the first meeting.

“I think they came out very strong and they came to play,” Jameson said of the Raiders.

Nelson and Jameson scored a dozen apiece to lead Park’s offense. Tori Henderson added 10 points, Olson and Emma Ambroz 8 each.

Hastings was led by center Lilly Nuytten, who scored 21 points and was a handful to handle for the Wolfpack all night long.

Hastings finished the season at 15-11.

Park senior Justine Jameson goes in for two of her 12 points against Hastings. Photo by John Molene.