On the bus ride back to school after the Bears’ section semifinal win in Stillwater, White Bear Lake senior wing Elise Dieterle delivered a heartfelt message of gratitude to her teammates.

“I didn’t know what this year had in store for me. And I didn’t know what the team was going to be like or how they were going to treat me or how I was going to mesh with the coaching staff coming in,” Dieterle said. “But it’s been better than I could’ve expected, and everything I could’ve asked for.”

Dieterle and White Bear Lake won their ensuing game over Roseville to reach the Class 4A state tournament. The eighth-seeded Bears will play top-seeded Maple Grove in the quarterfinals at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Williams Arena.

White Bear Lake coach Jeremy Post was, frankly, surprised on Day 1 of the school year in the fall. What was Dieterle doing in the building?

He’d known her from years back when he coached Dieterle in AAU when she was in fifth or sixth grade. But, far more recently, Post had coached against the wing when she was playing for Stillwater.

But an offseason transfer brought her to White Bear Lake. Post hadn’t heard a thing about it. White Bear Lake is a non-flashy team that grinds out every possession and finds ways to win a lot of games on the margins. Transfers are an infrequent occurrence in the program, to say the least.

But sure enough, Dieterle was fully cleared by all parties and was set to be on the roster.

“It was like, ‘OK, this is real. She’s here. Now we’re going to accept her as one of us,’” Post said.

From his end, that meant building a relationship in short order, and also scheming up plays for a 15-points-per-game scorer “that you didn’t have yesterday.”

“When you add the type of talent that she is, obviously you have a greater chance to win,” Post said, “and you’ve got to figure out how to piece it all together.”

Dieterle had to adjust to new, well, everything. New school, new teammates, new coaches.

What aided in the transition was the fact she could do everything. The Division-I prospect is certainly a scorer. But Post told Dieterle in their first meeting that he wanted her to do more. She was capable of it.

“I’ve taken on a ton of different roles in my basketball career, but this year I feel like I’ve been able to take on the role of being a leader,” Dieterle said.

That was through scoring. It was also through rebounding, through effectively playing through the offense and taking on difficult defensive assignments.

White Bear Lake only features two other seniors — Addison Post and Abby O’Brien — and the Bears aren’t flush with scorers. There are nights when the Bears will struggle to put the ball in the hoop. Dieterle leads the team in every major category. Post noted the senior is largely the team’s size. The 6-foot-1 forward provides the rebounding, rim protecting and much more.

Her job is to be the team’s “constant” throughout.

“If we’re struggling in the first half, I can pick them up, and they can come out in the second half and we can win big games,” she said.

Dieterle said her mindset coming to White Bear Lake was to be the best player she could for the team. Mission accomplished.

“She has been solid for us all year,” Post said. “I just think her consistency and her understanding of who we are and what we really expect and want from her kind of clicked.”

At practice this week, Post told Dieterle she had started to play for the name on the front of her jersey, “and it’s given me more success for the name on the back.”

“I believe that, 100 percent,” Dieterle said. “Relationship-wise and on the court, from fall practices to now, I feel like I’ve made some amazing friends. … I’ve played a lot of basketball in my life, and as a team, I’ve never been on a team that picks everyone up and encourages every single person so much, and from Day 1, I’ve felt belief and encouragement from every single girl I’ve been able to play with this year. And I feel like that’s what makes this team, this team.”

The team’s Instagram account does spotlight posts honoring seniors late in the season.

Included in Dieterle’s post was her favorite high school basketball memory: “transferring to White Bear Lake.”

“It’s worked out good for her,” Post noted, “and it’s worked out good for us.”