The Burnsville girls basketball team couldn’t pull off back-to-back upsets in the Section 3AAAA tournament.
The fifth-seeded Blaze earned a 75-73 win at fourth-seeded Bloomington Jefferson in the quarterfinals March 1, but followed with a 82-53 loss at top-seeded Rosemount in the semifinals March 4.
Burnsville finished the season with an 8-18 record under first-year coach David Shaw, including a 6-12 mark in the South Suburban Conference. Shaw inherited a program that has had just one winning season in the last 11 years.
That came in 2020 when the team finished 16-11. The Blaze is 4-7 in the section quarterfinal play over the last 11 seasons, but is 0-11 in the semifinals.
Shaw had a young team this winter with just one senior on the roster, Shawna Bruha, who will play Division II basketball next year at Minot State University. Bruha led the team in scoring at 14.8 points per game.
Juniors Ashley King and Madison Malecha also averaged in double figures at 10.8 and 10 points per game, respectively. Junior O’Ciana Johnson was next at 8.8 points.
In the playoff win over Jefferson, Burnsville dominated the first half jumping out to a 49-27 lead. The Jaguars chipped away at the margin in the second half cutting deficit to 58-51 with 9:08 left to play and 74-71 with 31 seconds to go.
But the Blaze was able to hold on. Bruha led the way with 17 points, while Malecha finished with 14.
King and Johnson both scored 13 points, while junior Zoey Wooten was also in double figures 11 points. Sophomore Avery Krumwiede chipped in six points for Burnsville.
In the loss to Rosemount, the Blaze got down 44-29 in the first half and couldn’t recover.
Malecha led the team with 21 points, while King had 10. Krumwiede finished with seven points, followed by Bruha, Wooten and Johnson each with four.
