MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – No. 1 seed Lyle/Pacelli (30-1) extended its winning streak to 23 games with a 59-43 win over Heritage Christian Academy (19-11) on Thursday afternoon in the 2018 MSHSL Class A Girls’ Basketball Tournament quarterfinals at Williams Arena.

Class A’s top seed will place the winner of No. 5 Menagha and No. 4 Minneota in the state semifinals on Friday, March 16 at noon at Target Center. Heritage Christian Academy heads across the river to Concordia-St. Paul’s Gangelhoff Center against the losing team in the consolation semifinals on Friday at 10 a.m.

Six-foot, five-inch senior center Kristi Fett led Lyle/Pacelli with 25 points and 18 rebounds while senior guard Brooke Walter dished out eight assists and added six rebounds. Sophomore forward Olivia Christianson added 14 points, five rebounds, five assists and five steals.

Heritage leading scorer senior guard Taylie Scott easily topped her 16.0 season average with a 24 point performance including four three-pointers and seven rebounds. All five Eagles starters had at least five rebounds as Heritage out-rebounded Lyle/Pacelli 36-34, but managed to shoot just 27.5 percent (14-51) while the Athletics were an efficient 46.0 percent (23-50) from the field.

It’s Lyle/Pacelli’s second state tournament appearance across all of its combined athletic programs, and the Athletics led throughout the contest although Heritage remained in striking distance for most of the first half. The Lyle/Pacelli lead hovered between two and six for most of the half until the Athletics made a 12-2 run to open up a 10-point lead with 3:43 to play in the half.

Although Heritage cut the margin back to five, the Athletics were able to head into the locker room ahead by 11, 34-23.

In the second half, the Eagles were only able to trim the lead to single-digits once early before the Athletics pulled away, leading by as many as a 19.