The Lyle-Pacelli girls basketball team wasn’t in the best of moods after it had dropped its second regular season game to a subsection opponent in two weeks. After falling to Goodhue 61-45 Jan. 17, the Athletics lost 62-52 to Southland Jan. 24 and their postseason future was looking a bit murky.

The Athletics had to be wondering if their head coach Justin Morris had lost it that Monday when he came to practice and started taping up pictures and newspaper articles about Goodhue beating LP and Blooming Prairie ending LP’s season in 2014 all over the walls of Pacelli Gym.

Those articles and photos didn’t just stay up that day, they remained on the walls and they are still there.

“We had no clue what was happening at first, but seeing them up there every day just drove us to be all in all the time,” LP junior Sarah Holtz said. “It’s not something we really talked about, but just seeing it really pushed you. We knew [the articles and photos] weren’t going to come down until we beat them.”

Morris knew exactly what he was doing. He wanted to find a way to show his team what could happen if they didn’t fully invest themselves and he accomplished that as LP has now won 10 in a row — including tournament wins over Goodhue and Southland — to get within one win of the program’s first ever state berth.

“We tried to find some external motivations,” Morris said. “Even after those losses, our goals were still in front of us and we tried to pace ourselves more this year. I think we’re playing our best basketball of the season right now.”

To get to the Class A state tournament, the Athletics (24-3 overall) will have to get by Fillmore Central (18-11 overall), which LP beat 65-27 in Pacelli Feb. 3. The Athletics and Falcons will play at 8 p.m. in the Section 1A title game in Mayo Civic Center Friday.

LP knows all to well not overlook a team it beat handily in the regular season, especially when BP knocked off LP last year after being blown out by the Athletics in the regular season.

Morris wants his team to focus playing the defense that is allowing just 42.7 points per game in the playoffs, boxing out and taking caring of the ball.

“What happened in the regular season has no bearing on the postseason,” Morris said. “Blooming Prairie showed that to us last season and we showed that this year. We’re not taking these guys lightly. We know they’re a very good team and we know it’s going to be a battle. Nothing has been handed to us, we have to go earn it on Friday.”

It’s been a long road to this point for the LP girls basketball team. In 2010, senior Madison Truckenmiller was still in middle school when she recorded a double-double in an upset win over Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton in a play-in game of the Section 1A West tournament. That was just LP’s third win in a span of four seasons — but every successful program has to start somewhere.

The state tournament probably wasn’t even in Truckenmiller’s wildest dreams when her team was a No. 10 seed and it upset a No. 7 seed, but now the Athletics are one win away from doing something no Lyle girls basketball team has ever done and a Pacelli girls basketball team last did in 1981.

“It’s crazy to think about that,” Truckenmiller said. “We were talking about a seven and ten seed in the tournament the other day and I remember we won as a ten seed against JWP. It’s amazing to see how far we’ve come.”

LP’s turnaround has not come by accident. The team has put in more work each and every summer and it has had to adjust to playing more of a half-court game with less running and gunning this season.

“We put a ton of time in,” LP junior Courtney Walter said. “A lot of us have been playing AAU ball in the summer and then we started playing in the Tri County League. It’s been a lot of shooting and a lot of playing.”

The team has grown closer together off the court as well this season and that has helped them excel.

Now LP is on the verge of the biggest game in the history of the co-op between Lyle and Pacelli. The Athletics are taking every precaution to prepare for playing Mayo Civic Center for the first time.

Morris put extra tape around the 3-point line in Pacelli Gym in practice to prepare the squad for the college line that is at Civic Center and the Athletics have had some practice time at Riverland Community College to get used to playing on a bigger floor.

The Athletics have responded to every challenge so far this season, and they have to overcome one more to make program history.

“They continue to set the bar higher and higher every year,” Morris said. “They deserve the opportunity to play for a section championship because of the time they’ve put in. We probably put in as much time in the offseason as anybody in the area.”