More Minnesota state boys basketball semifinals: Here’s your spot for updates with 1A, 2A title games set
Breck and Badgers-bound Daniel Freitag flew past Minnehaha Academy in Friday’s first Class 2A semifinal. Fertile-Beltrami and Cherry, led by Gophers-bound Isaac Asuma, advanced to Saturday’s Class 1A championship.
Semifinals
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FRIDAY
At Williams Arena
Class 1A
Class 2A
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10:07 p.m.
Lake City knocks off defending 2A champ Albany
Class 2A will crown a new boys basketball state tournament champion.
Third-seeded Lake City took out defending champion Albany by a 69-59 score in Friday’s second semifinal played at Williams Arena. Senior guard Hunter Lorenson led Lake City with a game-high 22 points. He also grabbed 14 rebounds.
The Tigers (26-5) advance to the championship game, set for 5 p.m. Saturday against No. 1 seed Breck at Williams Arena.
Lake City led No. 2 seed Albany 30-28 at halftime. Senior guard Jack Rieland and junior guard Zeke Austin paced the Huskies (29-3) in scoring with 16 points.
DAVID LA VAQUE
7:48 p.m.
Breck sweeps Minnehaha Academy out of tourney
Breck swept its two regular-season games against Minnehaha Academy and brought the same winning formula to Friday’s Class 2A boys basketball state semifinal at Williams Arena.
Top seed Breck won the game 70-45 and didn’t allow the Redhawks, who pulled an upset of No. 1 seeded Holy Family Catholic in the semifinals last season, to recapture their underdog magic.
As a result, the Mustangs (30-1) advance to the championship game, set for 5 p.m. Saturday at Williams Arena. Breck’s leading scorers, Daniel Freitag and Hanif Muhammad, each finished with 13 points, and Freitag added 15 rebounds, six assists and five steals.
Breck led 28-21 at halftime as No. 5 seed Minnehaha Academy (15-15) shot a dismal 30%. George Norsman led the Redhawks with 15 points for the game.
DAVID LA VAQUE
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4:29 p.m.
Fertile-Beltrami outlasts West Central Area in three OTs
Derek Sorenson had seen enough.
The Fertile-Beltrami senior guard scored seven points and handed out an assist in the third overtime as the Falcons outlasted No. 3-ranked West Central Area 84-75 in the Class 1A boys basketball state semifinals Friday at Williams Arena.
“I’ve been doing this for 31 years and that might be one of the best state tournament games I have ever seen,” Fertile-Beltrami coach Neil Steffes said. “It was an unbelievable game by both sides.”
Sorenson drained a three-pointer on the first possession of the third overtime, giving the Falcons the lead for good. He finished with 13 points and five assists, and was one of five Fertile-Beltrami starters to finish in double-figures.
“I got a little confidence after making that three-pointer,” Sorenson said. “I kept going from there.”
Fertile-Beltrami sophomore forward Preston Hanson’s two free throws with 57 seconds left in the second overtime tied the score at 67, forcing a third extra session. Hanson wound up with 23 points.
“Our defense was good all game,” Steffes said. “We locked them down in the third overtime.”
Falcons senior guard Masen Nowacki buried a three-pointer from the wing with six seconds remaining in the first overtime to make the game 60-60. He had 12 points.
“They made a lot of shots in clutch situations,” West Central Area coach Kraig Hunter said.
As did the Knights (28-4), who were playing in their first state tournament. West Central senior guard Mitchell Dewey banked home a three-pointer on a heave from between the college three-point line and the large “M” at midcourt at the buzzer send the game to overtime tied at 51. He finished with 11 points.
“I was just glad it went in,” said Dewey, whose three-pointer at the buzzer of the second overtime rimmed out. “We just didn’t win today.”
Junior forward Ben Bye had 23 points, leading four Knights in double figures.
The Falcons survived without leading scorer Caiden Swenby. The senior guard had 19 points, 13 rebounds and four assists before fouling out with 2:58 remaining in regulation.
“We had other guys step up,” Steffes said.
Caleb Stoltman finished with 13 points for Fertile-Beltrami (27-6).
“We’re just happy,” Steffes said. “It’s really surreal right now.”
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1:38 p.m.
Sharp-shooting Cherry nips Nevis in rematch
Nevis coach Scott Kramer was concerned about Cherry’s explosiveness. He had seen it firsthand. It was even better the second time around.
No. 1-ranked Cherry connected on its first seven shots, running out to a quick double-digit lead en route to a 76-58 victory in the Class 1A boys basketball state semifinals Friday at Williams Arena. Nevis lost to Cherry 73-57 in the regular season, a game it led by one point at halftime.
“What we didn’t want to happen did,” Kramer said. “They knocked down about everything. They were a lot better this time.”
All five Cherry starters scored in the opening five minutes and four finished in double figures. When Cherry finally missed a shot, sophomore Noah Asuma grabbed the offensive rebound and kicked it out to his older brother, senior Isaac Asuma, for a three-pointer. It left Kramer shaking his head.
“I was happy with the way we started,” said Isaac, a 6-3 Gophers recruit who finished with a game-high 20 points, nine assists, seven rebounds and three blocked shots. “We came out really hot. We rode that momentum throughout the game.”
Cherry assisted on 14 of its 17 first-half baskets, building a 38-23 lead. Noah and Isaac each had 13 points at the intermission. Noah also finished with 20 points, while Isaiah Asuma scored 14 points and Carson Brown had 13 for top-seeded Cherry (30-2).
“We try to gas our opponents out,” Cherry coach Jordan Christianson said. “We’ve been rolling for a while. We are getting better every day.”
Fifth-seeded Nevis (24-8) was paced by 6-7 junior center Alex Lester’s 18 points.
“We got in a hole early,” Kramer said. “They are playing with an edge. This is their year.”
RON HAGGSTROM
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TV and tickets
Ch. 45 will televise the semifinals and championship games. All consolation games are available for a fee on NSPN. Tickets to the event range from $11 to $22 and are available at mshsl.org/tickets.
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Tournament brackets
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Star Tribune coverage
The Star Tribune will be publishing stories and other content related to these state championship games and more this week. Keep up by checking startribune.com/preps each day. Thank you for reading and subscribing.
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Tournament information
Six players plus head coach Garrett Raboin and assistant coach Ben Gordon are from Minnesota. The tournament’s games will be televised starting Monday.
