South ends Owatonna’s run

No. 5 Owatonna was riding high after upsetting No. 4 Lakeville North 73-72 in Lakeville during the Section 1AAAA quarterfinals last week, but the team’s momentum came to a crashing halt after a 61-43 loss to No. 1-ranked Lakeville South just days later.

The loss to the Cougars was Owatonna’s second of the season, and despite some adjustments made since the two teams’ first meeting in late December, Lakeville South still managed to get the best of the Huskies by a large margin.

The Cougars initially beat the Huskies 77-55 in a lopsided game on Dec. 30, 2025.

According to Huskies’ head coach Josh Williams, the team’s primary focuses for the rematch were to limit Lakeville South’s ability to play in transition while also trying to win the battle for rebounds.

While Owatonna did manage to contain the Cougars’ ability to capitalize in transition, the rebounding metrics were heavily in favor of the opposition.

“They killed us on the glass the first time by a lot. That was a huge teaching point coming into this game. That was the one area where we got destroyed [tonight],” said Williams.

Second-chance points helped build the majority of the Cougars’ scoring runs in the first half as the home team went on to lead 27-19 at halftime.

It was apparent that Lakeville South had done its homework on the Huskies’ offensive tendencies as the Cougars did everything in their power to limit standout guard Willie Moore from making an impact on the game.

After dropping 43 points in the team’s upset win over Lakeville North, Moore was held in check with just five total points against the Cougars.

Without Moore’s usual playmaking abilities, Owatonna spent many possessions going deep into the shot clock before settling for long-range jump shots and contested lay-ups.

The result was an ever-increasing deficit that the Huskies were able to chip into, but never overcome.

Lakeville South cruised to the win by outscoring Owatonna 32-26 in the second half, despite a much more solid offensive showing from the Huskies.

Owatonna’s Cooper Routh (15 points) and Gavin Burmeister (14) were the team’s leading scorers, but buckets were hard to come by for the rest of the lineup with Moore’s five points being the next highest mark.

The loss ended the Huskies’ season with a 16-12 overall record.

“From day one, it was our first conversation at a pre-practice meeting to understand what we’re doing and where we wanted to be come this time of year. We graduated all five starters from a season ago, so we knew we’d be starting a lot of sophomores and juniors… Next year, we’re going to be one of the most experienced teams in the Big Nine Conference coming back… Looking ahead, the pieces are there to make a really good run,” said Williams.

Earlier in the week, Owatonna pulled off a last-second 73-72 win over the Lakeville North Panthers.

Owatonna trailed 33-28 at halftime but came out swinging in the second half to outscore the Panthers 44-40 in hostile territory.

Moore was nearly unstoppable during the Huskies’ comeback effort and dropped 43 points on a night where he seemingly couldn’t miss.