Minnesota Playoff Central: 19 Tickets to be Punched Tonight

Playoff Central.  Tonight there will be 19 center court celebrations around the state of Minnesota. Teams that are finalizing plans to play in the 2024 Minnesota State Tournament. One of the best stories will be RTR looking for a repeat trip to state to defend their title. They have spent the majority of their season unranked but once again RTR is playing championship level basketball in March. Lester Prairie is another Class A team that we thought could be very good before the season. They hit some losses, people may have forgotten about them, and now this band of lifetime battlers and winners takes on 6th ranked Mountain Lake-Comfrey for state.   You have Orono and Benilde-St. Margaret's. The Rivalry. Orono was thought of higher early in the season but BSM has got the better of the match-ups and the Metro West. They play again tonight with BSM trying to shake this 14 year drought. St. Cloud Tech vs Alexandria. Tech and Alex have split the last eight meetings and tonight is the huge rubber match. There is Chisago Lakes vs Hermantown, a [player_tooltip player_id='1288720' first='Patrick' last='Rowe'] vs Abe Soumis big bucket battle. Who around them will have the big game? And Minneapolis plays for state for the first time in 32 seasons! South matches up with St. Thomas Academy.   A top ten Class AAAA match-up (4 vs 7 actually) takes center stage when Shakopee faces Minnetonka. No low post bangers to worry about here, just guards everywhere with an active 6'5 worker in the middle for each. There is also the battle of St. Paul/extended St. Paul when Cretin-Derham Hall HOSTS Tartan (capital letters there because the venue had to be changed). And what about the comeback story of sections? Eastview looks for win seven of the season when they take on Eagan who came into the playoffs a one seed at two games over .500. Underdog stories in Section 3AAAA.   Does Cannon Falls go to state for the first time EVER? Or will Lake City return for the first time in five years? How about Waseca and Morris Area. Did anybody expect them to rebound this quickly to be playing for state? Here they are back in the mix. Belle Plaine and Jackson County Central stand in their way.   Upset City. Technically 8th ranked Ada Borup West beating 2nd ranked Henning and Mountain Iron-Buhl beating Carlton/Wrenshall are upsets. They say so in the seeds, they saw so in our rankings. That said, Ada Borup West was expected to get ahead of Henning before the year, and Mountain Iron-Buhl had the better record than Carlton/Wrenshall.   By the way, all the high seeds won in Class AA last night.   The Big Stage. Who is hosting multiple games? Here is your list! A state tournament crowing list!   Southwest Minnesota State. They are hosting RTR vs Central Minnesota Christian followed by Morris Area/Chokio-Alberta taking on Jackson County Central.   Minnesota State-Mankato. You get Lester Prairie against Mountain Lake-Comfrey followed by Belle Plaine against Waseca.   Mayo Civic Center. The Minnesota playoff mecca has Goodhue versus Blooming Prairie and then the Cannon Falls vs Lake City headliner.   Also, Orono vs BSM is at BSM, Alex and Tech play at Willmar, Shakopee is at Tonka, Columbia Heights and DeLaSalle might be neighbors that can wave at each other but they are driving to Stillwater to play, and Eastview is at Eagan.   Top Performers. [player_tooltip player_id='1284136' first='Gerald' last='Kingbird Jr'] scored 43 points for Red Lake in the Red Lake two score victory over Mahnomen/Wauben. Red Lake now plays for state!   Breck beat Blake 87-61 with [player_tooltip player_id='1560864' first='JP' last='Musoke'] scoring 25. [player_tooltip player_id='1151197' first='Daniel' last='Freitag'] scored 17 points and had either 13, 12 or 10 assists, depends on which reporter you look to. Assists, toughest stat to really nail down as what is and isn't an assist.   [player_tooltip player_id='2375115' first='Braedyn' last='Male'] had 19 to lead Esko over Moose Lake-Willow River.   [player_tooltip player_id='1286547' first='Sam' last='Hondl'] had 28 points for second ranked Albany in a 23 point win over Spectrum. [player_tooltip player_id='1284089' first='Blake' last='Femrite'] had 27 for Spectrum.   Freshman [player_tooltip player_id='2524689' first='Marcus' last='Marshall Jr'] had a HUGE performance hitting seven threes and scoring 31 for Minneapolis North who knocked off Holy Family. That is the definition of putting himself on the map in a big game scenario.   Tip of the Hat to the Career. [player_tooltip player_id='1287442' first='Kole' last='Hanson'] of Holy Family. The heart of a champion right there. He put together a memorable two year role for Holy Family taking them on a state tournament trip a season ago and getting them back into the top ten this year at a couple different times. Hanson has shown he can set the table for talent (AAU and high school) and he's shown he can be the go to scorer for his team on many occasions. He will make for a good Bulldog in Duluth.   Grayson Okoronwko of Blake. Carter Femrite of Spectrum. [player_tooltip player_id='1284168' first='Kyle' last='Mages'] of Osakis. It's interesting that this trio were all in Class AA, they all have similar builds and frames, they are all strong and tough all around basketball players, and their teams all won this year more than people expected. And I think all three of them are going to make for very good college basketball players that only get better at the next level.

Playoff Central. Tonight there will be 19 center court celebrations around the state of Minnesota. Teams that are finalizing plans to play in the 2024 Minnesota State Tournament. One of the best stories will be RTR looking for a repeat trip to state to defend their title. They have spent the majority of their season unranked but once again RTR is playing championship level basketball in March. Lester Prairie is another Class A team that we thought could be very good before the season. They hit some losses, people may have forgotten about them, and now this band of lifetime battlers and winners takes on 6th ranked Mountain Lake-Comfrey for state.