Minnesota Playoff Central: Lesage, O’Neil Lead Pigtail Madness

Ryan James March 3, 2026 @ 11:38 AM

Tonight there are 51 sectional playoff games in Minnesota high school basketball which I believe to be the biggest night of section playoffs in the state.   Playoff Central. With 51 games coming tonight, where should a fan's focus turn to? At the big school level there are three sections playing their quarterfinal games and that is 3AAAA, 5AAAA, and 8AAAA. Within those games you have two very good 5AAAA contests of Roseville facing long time rival Mounds View, and a Champlin Park versus Spring Lake Park contest. And let's not forget that Monticello vs Moorhead game which matches a 21-5 team with a 17-9 team in the 4/5 game while the 3/6 game matches two teams with losing records.   In Class AA basketball there are five sections that are in spots that vary when it comes to how deep into the playoffs they are, but its section 1-5 while 6-8 won't get back to the court until later in the week. And in Class A basketball it's all lower half action with Sections 1-4 competing (some are pigtail games, some are quarterfinals, another is round of 16).   The Big Stage. We go back to the Mayo Civic Center where the auditorium and the arena both have double headers (just like last night). The auditorium has a big game between 18-win Grand Meadow and 19-win Lewiston-Altura. Then you have Class AA which has top ten ranked Zumbrota-Mazeppa facing up and coming Dover-Eyota, and then Caledonia facing Cannon Falls. Both Caledonia and Cannon Falls have been in the top ten this season.   Upset City. That would be North St. Paul winning their FIRST game of the season and it comes in the pigtail game of the playoffs. Even more fun, TC Hoops Czar was covering the game and NSP was down 57-46 with five minutes left and came back to send the game into overtime. They finished the game on a 32-9 run! Congrats to the Polars, and good luck with the Islanders. Junior Jaxon O'Neil was the catalyst for the Polars hitting huge clutch threes.   Top Performers. For starters, [player_tooltip player_id='2119578' first='Pierce' last='Petersohn'] had 39 points and eight rebounds for Triton to beat Rushford-Peterson, and [player_tooltip player_id='2394170' first='Alex' last='Loos'] not only scored 34 points for Goodhue to beat Lake CIty, he played a strong defensive game for his team as well. We talked about both of these performances in the other articles today (Mayo Civic Center articles).   Westonka freshman Cole Lesage, a 5'11 guard, scored 24 points leading his team past Cooper for a 57-52 win in the pigtail game. Cole is scoring 11 points a game this season and has been one of the most productive frosh in Class AAA basketball.   Six-foot-2 Jace Braseth had 24 points, seven rounds and five assists leading Norman County East/Ulen-Hitterdal to a 97-73 win over Parkers Prairie.   Junior Rylan Nelson of Hayfield, a 6'1 junior, hit six threes and scored 28 points leading the Vikings to a 79-51 win over Mabel-Canton.   Southland beat Betethlehem Academy 75-38 lead by Henry Wiste and [player_tooltip player_id='2824353' first='Tate' last='Goergen'], Wiste had 22 points agile Goergen gave his team 20 points, four rebounds and five assists.   Tip of the Hat to the Career. The best player in the state that saw is career end last night was almost surely [player_tooltip player_id='2126149' first='Cayden' last='Lea'] of Rushford-Peterson. Lea is a four year varsity guy that led his team to 84 wins the last four seasons and in his final game against Triton, Lea hit six threes scoring 23 points plus he had six assists

Tonight there are 51 sectional playoff games in Minnesota high school basketball which I believe to be the biggest night of section playoffs in the state.