The City of Minneapolis will be well represented on Championship Saturday in the 2017 Minnesota State High School Boys Basketball tournament as Minneapolis North, Minnehaha Academy and DeLaSalle will be playing for a state title. Here's a preview of the four championship games.
Opening up the festivities at 11 AM is the Class A final with the defending champion Minneapolis North Polars taking on the North Woods Grizzlies. The Polars have plowed through the upper bracket like a snow plow after a snowstorm beating the Red Lake Warriors 93-46 in the quarterfinals and the Springfield Tigers in the semifinals 100-56, giving Mpls. North an average win margin of 45.5 points in two games. The North Woods Grizzlies is in their first Class A championship since the current incarnation began in 2011 after the merger of Cook and Orr high schools. The big story for the unseated Grizzlies was the half court miracle shot from Cade Goggleye that beat the third seeded Central Minnesota Christian Bluejays. Goggleye turned out to be the hero again in the semifinals as he hit a pair of free throws with :04 left in regulation to beat the Goodhue Wildcats 51-49. Can the Grizzlies bring more drama and beat the Polars or will North continue their hot scoring run? It could be Mpls. North's last Class A title due to a possibility of moving up a class or two.
Wrapping up the afternoon session around 1 PM is the Class AA championship between the Minnehaha Academy Redhawks and the Crosby-Ironton Rangers. The Redhawks, led by freshman Jalen Suggs advanced with a quarterfinal win over the Lake City Tigers and beat the Annandale Cardinals in the semifinals. Suggs led Minnehaha Academy to its first Class AA final since 2013 with 23 points, four assists and five steals. The Rangers, in their 21st state tournament, advanced with a quarterfinal win over the Breckenridge Cowboys and used a slowdown offense in the second half to top the St. Cloud Cathedral Crusaders. The semifinal game had two players that joined the 1000 point club. They were Trey Jacobs of Crosby-Ironton and Michael Schaefer of St. Cloud Cathedral. The Rangers are in their sixth state final but have not taken home the championship trophy. They will need to stop Suggs and the Redhawks in order to bring the school their first state title.
At 5 PM, their could be history in the making as the top seeded DeLaSalle Islanders go for their sixth straight Class AAA title against the Austin Packers. The Islanders used a strong second half to beat the Big Lake Hornets in the quarterfinals and win their third consecutive game against their Tri-Metro Conference rivals, the Columbia Heights Hylanders in the semifinals. The Packers, in their 30th trip to state are playing for their first state championship since Ove Berven coached them to the 1958 state title. Austin beat St. Thomas Academy in the quarterfinals and won by 20 over Marshall in the semifinals. TTwo outstanding programs battling for a state championship.
Concluding Championship Saturday at 8 PM is a rematch of the 2015 Class AAAA final between the Champlin Park Rebels and the Apple Valley Eagles. The Rebels had to come from behind in both tournament games. In the quarterfinals, Sam Dubois' buzzer beater ended the Chaska Hawks' hopes for an upset and they got a solid performance from Marquette bound Theo John to beat the Wayzata Trojans in the semifinals. The Eagles beat the Cretin-Derham Hall Raiders in the quarterfinals and the Maple Grove Crimson in the semifinals. You'll need only two words to describe the key to Apple Valley's tournament run, Tre Jones. He scored 34 points in the win over the Raiders and in the victory over the Crimson had a triple double of 19 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists. he's an unselfish player who can set up the offense very well and he made some outstanding inside passes in the Maple Grove game.
The stage is set with four outstanding finals to wrap up the winter season in Minnesota high school sports.
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