White Bear Lake entered Wednesday’s Class 4A quarterfinal matchup against top-seeded Maple Grove as a heavy underdog.

When you’re as overmatched as the Bears were, coach Jeremy Post noted “you’ve got to kind of hang in there early and make (your opponent) feel like they’ve got a chance to lose.”

Unfortunately for the Bears, the opposite occurred in the opening minutes at Williams Arena.

Maple Grove scored the first 11 points of the game and built a 27-6 advantage at one point in the first half before running away with a 71-36 victory.

Maple Grove will meet Lakeville North in the Class 4A semifinals at 6 p.m. Thursday at the U.“That’s one thing we’ve talked about, because we’ve had games over the course of the year where we’ve been a little slow out of the gate,” Crimson coach Mark Cook said. “So that’s been an emphasis of ours, to come out and get hot starts.”

To eighth-seeded White Bear Lake’s credit, it closed the half with a 16-7 run to make things interesting.

“We actually played defense,” Bears senior Abby O’Brien said of that stretch.

The forced stops allowed White Bear Lake (20-10) to be the offensive aggressor on the other end. Elise Dieterle — who led White Bear Lake with 18 points — hit a couple big shots, and senior guard Addison Post attacked the paint in transition with success.

O’Brien, Post and Dieterle were the Bears’ only seniors.

“They gave us a chance,” Post said. “They did everything they could.”

But Maple Grove (27-2) re-exerted its dominance to open the second half. The Crimson’s defensive pressure overwhelmed White Bear Lake, and Maple Grove opened the stanza on a 13-0 run to put the affair out of reach.

“We really kind of take on our defense as our main focus. Our defense kind of drives our offense,” said Crimson forward Jordan Ode, a Michigan State commit who tallied 27 points and seven rebounds. “So just getting an opportunity to focus on that, (we) just locking down on that defensively.”

Post said his team was a little tight to open the second half but noted offense can be difficult when each possession requires three well-timed passes against the long, strong athletes the Crimson possess.

“I knew we could play with them for a certain amount of time. I didn’t think the whole game, but you never know if you can do it for a little bit,” he said. “We’ll take it. Proud of these girls. They weren’t supposed to be here.”

The Bears were in state last year but lost a lot of players from that team. White Bear Lake entered the season with a lot of inexperienced players. But Dieterle’s transfer from Stillwater increased possibilities for this year’s squad.

“It was really fun making it this year,” Addison Post said. “I feel like we care more than a lot of other schools, as a team. We really want it for each other more than ourselves.”

“This group of girls really deserved it,” O’Brien added. “All the young girls put in everything, every single day. It’s fun to see them get to experience this.”