Minnesota State Tournament: Wednesday Game Recaps

It was another big time day at the Minnesota State Tournament with Class AAA joining Class AA on Wednesday. Here is what happened!

Totino Grace 90 Minneapolis South 56.   The Tiger/Eagle game opened with a Jumair Wright Jumair Wright 6'0" South School | 2028 State MN jumper countered by a Malachi Hill Malachi Hill 6'0" | PG Totino-Grace | 2027 State MN attack score.  The energy was high and the crowd was juiced.  Wright's excitement led to him making the “too little” hand gesture while Hill's energy led to deep stance clapping.  From this point on it was a rapid paced first half filled with open floor plays both good and ugly.  The teams combined for 27 first half turnovers and 15 of those came from South and eight of those came from Wright.  Another item that affected the game was seven players having two fouls just ten minutes into the morning contest.  Players had to change how they played but that leads to an issue….. Totino-Grace is far more talented and far deeper so foul trouble really wasn't an issue for them.  The Eagles threw Hill, Deangelo Dungey Deangelo Dungey 6'4" | SG/CG Totino-Grace | 2026 State MN , Tian Chatman Tian Chatman 6'5" | CG Totino-Grace | 2026 State MN and Shay Jackson Shay Jackson 5'10" | PG Totino-Grace | 2027 State MN in a defensive rotation at Wright and the sophomore star just had too many fresh bodies coming at him to make a consistent impact.  Wright finished with 18 misses on 24 attempts and 11 turnovers.  For the Eagles Dungey earned seven steals and had a 15 point game, Chatman scored ten, Hill scored 11, and when the Eagles pushed the game from a 20 point led to a 30 point lead, it was Drake bound Dothan Ijadimbola Dothan Ijadimbola 6'6" | SF Totino-Grace | 2026 State MN scoring a three, a Euro Step And1, and a spin move.  The Eagles defense forced South into 24 turnovers and 19 of 68 shooting for the game.  Wright scored a team high 21 points for the Tigers. 

Northfield 56 Mankato East 49. The Raiders and Cougars split the match-ups this year and naturally with the teams getting the four and five seeds the third and final game was going to come at state.  Mankato East had the upper hand early, getting some low post production from future Northern Illinois football player Braden Petzel Braden Petzel 6'10" | C Mankato East | 2026 State MN with four first half buckets.  Unfortunately as the half moved on, East standout Amari Nobles Amari Nobles 6'7" | SF/CG Mankato East | 2026 State MN looked to have hurt his knee and had to be taken off the floor.  Despite a 32-21 Mankato East lead at the half, everything changed momentum wise from that injury to the final buzzer.  Northfield was able to put all of their focus on stopping Lucas Gustafson Lucas Gustafson 6'0" | PG Mankato East | 2026 State MN and with great defensive efforts from Tyler Hupton Tyler Hupton 6'0" | CG Northfield | 2026 State MN and Liam Oakland Liam Oakland 6'3" | SG/CG Northfield | 2028 State MN , they did (slowed Lucas to eight points on 3 of 14 shooting).  Meanwhile, JT Graupmann JT Graupmann 6'2" | SF Northfield | 2026 State MN became red hot knocking out five threes for a game high 22 points and All State talent Kayden Oakland Kayden Oakland 6'5" | SF Northfield | 2026 State MN put up 19 points.  

DeLaSalle 87 Grand Rapids 37. DeLaSalle scored on the first six possessions while the first six possessions for the Thunderhawks included a turnover and five missed field goals.  It was 11-0 about three minutes in and it never got closer from there.  DeLaSalle junior Jaeden Udean Jaeden Udean 6'2" | SG De La Salle | 2027 State MN hit four threes and was flying all over the court for a game high 26 points leading the way.  Kamar Thomas Kamar Thomas 6'4" | SG De La Salle | 2027 State MN and Ichima Idoko Ichima Idoko 6'7" | PF De La Salle | 2028 State MN followed suit with 12 points and 11 points respectively, and then Deon Wallace-Johnson Deon Wallace-Johnson 6'3" | SG/SF De La Salle | 2027 State MN had 8/6/6 in the first half earning a 54-21 first half lead.  DeLaSalle went with the second five and the junior varsity almost the entire second half and they didn't let up holding Grand Rapids to only 16 second half points.  It was a 50 point blowout and you could see the game was headed that way after the first six possessions. 

Richfield 72 Sartell 62. At first it looked like another blowout was coming as Richfield jumped ahead 13-0 at the start and built the lead to 35-19 at one point.  Sometimes those early big leads can lead to relaxation and mistakes.  The Spartans got into some foul trouble plus their defensive rotations to shooters started to lag.  Maddox Lewis Maddox Lewis 6'5" | SF Sartell | 2026 State MN hit five threes for Sartell while Karson Lewis (no relation) knocked out three of his own.  Sartell was able to get within 40-46 of Richfield early in the second half.  The Spartans had too much speed up the floor and a bit more depth allowing them to continually keep the second half lead at a four score differential.  Gideon Horne Gideon Horne 6'4" | SF Richfield | 2027 State MN was excellent in the first half (double of 18 points and 10 boards), Dre Collins Dre Collins 6'4" | SF Richfield | 2027 State MN got going in the second half (15 points), and Tyrece Hagler Tyrece Hagler 6'1" | SG Richfield | 2027 State MN had a strong game overall putting up 20 points highlighted by five threes made.  Richfield held on for the ten point win and they will play DeLaSalle for the third time tomorrow afternoon. Sartell likely shot it well enough to win at 47 percent with ten threes made but the 16 turnovers ended up being the biggest issue.  That and the 12 offensive boards for the Spartans . 

Pequot Lakes 69 Blake 60. Pequot Lakes plays one guy under 6'4 for the most part and while they have size with guard skill, it's best for them to play zone.  As I watched Carson McMichael Carson McMichael 6'1" | SG Blake | 2026 State MN knock out early game threes I thought…. A zone isn't going to work here.  Then as the Patriots started to extend to him leaving Tramiell White Tramiell White 6'4" | CG/PG Blake | 2029 MN open all over the high post I really thought…. A zone isn't going to work here.  What I didn't know is that this is a Pequot Lakes team that is completely committed to team basketball.  The way they passed off McMichael staying glued to him in the zone was outstanding.  And while it wasn't a box and one, they sure passed him off and made Carson feel like he was boxed up.  Those Patriot team concepts moved right over to the offensive end as well.  Pequot Lakes shares the ball as well as anybody especially post to post.  Six-foot-7 (6'6 but you can't see through that hair so 6'7 it is) Samuel Afagwu was excellent back to the basket scoring 14 points with eight boards.  Afagwu shared it well too with guys like Rock Holubar Rock Holubar 6'3" | SF Pequot Lakes | 2027 MN who had 14 and Gus Mckenna who scored 11.  Throw in the versatile scoring of Tollef Birkeland Tollef Birkeland 6'3" | SG/PG Pequot Lakes | 2027 State MN hitting three threes and scoring 15 and it was a balanced effort.  McMichael had 17 points and freshman Trameill White Trameill White 6'3" | PF Camden | 2029 MN scored a game high 15 points. 

Minnehaha Academy 77 Waseca 69. Sometimes Superman just has too many opponents at once, that's what we saw tonight in a very exciting Redhawks win over the Jays.  Deron Russell Deron Russell 6'1" | PG Waseca | 2026 State MN scored 51 points on 15 of 26 shooting, scoring with so many pull-ups from all over the building regardless if it was two, three or four defenders chasing him. As good as Deron was, the Redhawks had three scoring options coming at the Jays and a load of defenders to chase Russell down.  Unfortunately for Waseca the rest of the Jays shot 7 of 25 for the game and just couldn't get enough shots to go down.  Kellen Troup Kellen Troup 6'8" | PF Minnehaha Academy | 2027 State MN had a 19 point, 14 rebounding game making sure the Redhawks had the rebounding edge (36-33).  Carter Cupito Carter Cupito 5'9" | PG Minnehaha Academy | 2030 MN knocked down so many momentum changing shots that you would think he was a half year from entering college, not high school (scored 20 points).  And Ayden Green Ayden Green 6'0" | PG/SG Minnehaha Academy | 2027 State MN battled on both ends to score a team high 22 points with a team high eight assists and as much defense as he could bring to try and force the ball out of Russell's hands.