ROCHESTER — The Athletics couldn’t stop the Erie’s in an 86-61 loss to top-seeded Goodhue in the Section 1A West Division boys basketball finals in Mayo Civic Arena Saturday.

Goodhue’s Blayne and Ashton Erie combined for 46 of the Wildcat’s 50 first half points and L/P never got closer than 10 in the second half. Blayne Erie finshed with 38 points and 11 rebounds and Ashton Erie added 23 points.

“The Erie boys are both outstanding players,” Lyle/Pacelli head coach Reid Olson said. “We just didn’t come out and execute our assignments and play the way we’re capable of playing. When we went to man (defense) we were supposed to switch on all the cross screens but we refused to switch and we refused to talk.”

No. 2 seeded L/P (20-6 overall) closed to within 51-40 early in the first half after a three-point play by Brady Stier and a drive by Cody Meyer. But Goodhue (16-10 overall) responded with an 11-2 run to put the game out of reach.

Stier, a senior center, finished with 30 points and 10 rebounds for L/P.

“Goodhue’s a great team and besides us, I’d pick them to go to state. They work hard all the time and they just had our number tonight,” he said. “You never want it to end and we had to fight back.”

L/P kept up with Goodhue early in the first half and the score was 14-13 Wildcats after Ryan Rust hit a jumper. From that point, Goodhue scored 11 straight and when L/P crept within 41-31 with 3:23 left in the half, the Wildcats closed the half on a 9-2 run.

“We worked all week on getting back to stop transiton and we didn’t do that,” Olson said. “We wanted to get it to a half court game and pound it inside. We didn’t get Brady the ball very much inside early on and that hurt us.”

Despite the loss, Olson was proud of the effort his five seniors gave him throughout the year.

“I’m proud of our effort and we had a heck of a season,” he said. “I told the seniors the one thing that’s a sign of success is if the program is in a better spot when you leave than when you came in. Our five seniors have given our program a very huge step.”

Goodhue will play Rushford/Peterson in the Section 1A title game Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Mayo Civic Arena.

L/P 33 28 — 61

Goodhue 50 36 — 86

L/P scoring: Brady Stier, 30; Ryan Rust, 8; Mike Lonergan, 6; Cody Meyer, 6; Colton Scherer, 4; Kyle Pereault, 3; Micheal Hutchinson, 2; Carter Guthmiller, 2; free throws: 71 percent (15-for-21); rebounds: 26 (Stier, 10); turnovers: 19

Goodhue scoring: Blayne Erie, 38; Ashton Erie, 23; Jared Dicke, 8; Derek McNamara, 5; Dustin Thomforde, 4; Brian Strauss, 2; Casey Buck, 2; Nathan Voth, 1; free throws: 73 percent (16-for-22); rebounds: 37 (Blayne Erie, 11); turnovers: 23