(Gallery) Hopkins Girls Basketball Advances to State Title Game

Hopkins did again what the Royals have been doing all season—make good shots and play furious defense Friday. As a results, the Royals will be back playing in the Class AAAA title game—the fourth time Hopkins has advanced to the finals since 2004.

Hopkins (29-2) dropped White Bear Lake 52-34 in Friday's semifinal.

The Royals will play Eden Prairie (25-4) in the AAAA championship game Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Target Center in Minneapolis. Eden Prairie defeated Lakeville North 49-32 in Thursday's second semifinal.

Hopkins senior guard Ebony Livingston scored 15, sophomore guard Nia Coffey 14 and senior guard Brianna Williams 11 to lead the Royals offense.

Hopkins made 14 of 29 field goals in the first half to take a commanding 31-15 lead. The Royals cooled off in the second half and finished with just 23 of 62 field goals (37.1 percent) but the outcome was academic by that point.

White Bear Lake led just once at 3-2 on a 3-point field goal by Rochelle Regnier. Brianna Williams answered with a jumper to put Hopkins up 4-3 and White Bear Lake never led again. Hopkins outscored the Bears 10-2 from the 14:02 mark to the 10:55 mark to take command of te game with a 14-6 lead.

Hopkins went on another tear later in the first half, extending its lead from 22-11 to 31-11 with 4:28 to play, and the contest was essentially over.

But it was the defense that keyed the win for Hopkins. The Royals forced a whopping 30 turnovers by the Bears and converted most of those miscues into easy baskets. Williams had five steals.

Hopkins also out-rebounded the Bears 34-26, led by Coffey's nine and Williams' seven.

Coffey had an all-around stellar night for the Royals with 14 points, nine rebounds, two steals, one block and no turnovers in just 22 minutes.