ROCHESTER — The Blooming Prairie girls basketball team started off on the wrong foot and it cost them in the Section 1A West title game in Mayo Civic Auditorium Saturday.

The Awesome Blossoms (19-8 overall) trailed by 17 points at halftime and they couldn’t make up the difference as they lost 54-42 to top-ranked Goodhue (24-5 overall).

BP pulled to within 46-40 with two minutes left in the game but Goodhue’s Mikayla Miller broke free for a layup to make it 48-40 and Miller, who scored 30 points, converted a steal for a layup just a few seconds later to make it a 50-40 game.

“When things got tight, [Miller] handled the ball. They’ve got a great supporting cast and they’ve got great shooters,” BP head coach John Worke said. “If you look at the first half where we had ten points, that kind of says it all. The thing I’m most proud of is that we got it to six against a good team. The kids just kept battling.”

Madison Worke helped keep the Blossoms in the game by scoring 21 points on 9-of-14 shooting. However, BP’s 21 turnovers cost them a chance to keep up with the Wildcats.

“We knew that they had quick hands and we knew we had to protect the ball,” Madison Worke said. “We practiced that, but their hands are so quick. You think that you have a lane to the basket and it’s getting stripped.”

BP struggled out of the gates and Goodhue hit two 3-pointers in the first minute of the game. BP found itself down 15-3 before it was able to find its footing. The Blossoms trailed by as many as 20 in the first frame.

The Blossoms will bring back much of their squad as Sara Noble is the team’s lone senior.

“You can’t say enough about Sara Noble and her senior leadership,” John Worke said. “The kids know her passion for the game is unquestionable.”

BP 10 32 — 42

Goodhue 27 37 — 54

BP scoring: Madison Worke, 21; Taylor Hagen, 9; Kalyn Naatz, 7; Sara Noble, 3; Hannah Ahrens, 2; field goals: 32 percent (17-for-40); 3-pointers: 23 percent (3-for-13); free throws: 62 percent (5-for-8); rebounds; 20 (Hagen, 9); turnovers: 21