Park lost the girls basketball battle but won a kind of war Friday.

Park fell to East Ridge 64-41 in the regular-season finale, but still gained a home game in the section playoffs. Third-seeded Park hosts sixth-seeded Hastings (15-10) Wednesday in the Section 3AAAA quarterfinals, starting at 7 p.m. Park defeated Hastings 71-30 in a regular-season matchup back on Jan.6.

The rest of the section lineup looks like this: top-seeded and No. 10 Rosemount (21-5) hosts eight-seeded Apple Valley (1-25), fourth-seeded Bloomington Jefferson (9-17) hosts fifth-seeded Eastview (8-18), and second- seeded Eagan (17-9) hosts seventh-seeded Burnsville (6-17). If Park defeats Hastings Wednesday, the Wolfpack would play the Eagan-Burnsville winner March 5 at the high seed arena.

Park finishes the season 15-11 overall and 11-7 in the Suburban East Conference, good for fifth place in the 10-team league.

East Ridge finishes second in the SEC with a 15-3 conference record and is 19-7 overall. Stillwater, which defeated Park Wednesday, finishes as the conference champion at 16-2 and is 22-4 overall.

East Ridge led 27-19 at the half and outscored Park 37-22 in the second half.

Justine Jameson led Park with 15 points against East Ridge. Elsa Olson continued her late season scoring surge with a dozen.

Stillwater 61, Park 38 It was a tale of two halves Wednesday and unfortunately for the Park Wolfpack it had an unhappy ending.

Park played league-leading and seventh-ranked Stillwater Ponies to a standstill in the first half only to suffer a disastrous second half in a 61-38 loss.

Stillwater outscored Park 25-2 in the first 12 minutes of the second half to run away with the Suburban East Conference victory. The Wolfpack simply could not buy a bucket for most of the second half. Stillwater, meanwhile, got its offense uncorked and put in basket after basket.

Stillwater improved its record to 21-4 in the season and 15-2 in the SEC.

“Second half, shots didn’t drop right away. I thought we got some really good looks but they just didn’t drop right away,” said Park head coach Stephanie Tolkinen. “And we had trouble making stops on defense. They’re just a very skilled team. They’re a good team. And it just got away from us in a hurry.”

The Ponies put in 33 points to a dozen for the Wolfpack after the break.

It was kind of shocking turn for Wolfpack fans after they watched their team battle toe-to-toe with a talented and tall Stillwater team in the first half.

“The kids started out with really good energy, I was really proud of them the way we started out,” said Tolkinen. “They came to play and stayed in the game the whole time. Made plays, made stops on defense.”

Justine Jameson scored 14 points to lead the Wolfpack. Elsa Olson was next with 7 points, Sydnee Nelson had 6 and Tori Henderson 5.

Elsa Olson of the Wolfpack looks determined as she drives to the basket on the second half against Stillwater. Photo by John Molene