basketball

A game-winning, alley-oop slam dunk by future Golden Gopher Daniel Oturu put an exclamation point on the Minnesota state high school boys' basketball championships Saturday night. The basket was good for a 79-78 win for Cretin-Derham Hall over defending champ Apple Valley and future Duke star Tre Jones.

What a season it was for the Minnehaha Academy boys basketball team - a team without a home won its second straight state championship.

Minnehaha Academy won its second straight Class AA boys' basketball championship Saturday 73-60 over Caledonia at Target Center. The Warriors roared back from a 12-point halftime deficit to close to within 59-57 with 8:15 left, but the Redhawks closed the game on a 14-3 run to capture the crown.

Minnehaha Academy will try to repeat as state Class AA champions on Saturday after powering their way past St. Cloud Cathedral 77-51 Friday night in the semifinals at Target Center. The Redhawks hit eight three-pointers to build a 42-24 lead by halftime. Jalen Suggs scored 17 of his 25 points before halftime, while connecting on a trio of treys.

Russell-Tyler-Ruthton advances to the state boys' basketball championship game for the fifth time after a sluggish 49-38 win over Mayer Lutheran at Target Center Friday afternoon in the Class A semifinals. Each team was ice cold shooting to open the game. M-L did not get their first point until more than six minutes into the game.

The success for the Big Nine Conference at the state basketball tournaments continued Wednesday as Austin won their Class AAA quarterfinal over Sauk Rapids-Rice at Williams Arena. The Packers pulled away at times in the second half and won 64-55 to advance to Thursday's semifinals at Target Center.

Minneapolis DeLaSalle has already won a state record six straight boys' basketball championships. They opened pursuit of their seventh in a row with a solid 90-63 win over Hermantown Wednesday at Williams Arena at the University of Minnesota.

For the third straight year a Big Nine Conference team has reached the state Class 3A finals in the girls' basketball tournament. Northfield beat Grand Rapids Thursday 64-54 to reach the championship game against top-seed Robbinsdale Cooper Saturday, March 17 at 6PM on Target Center on KDHL AM 920.

The Owatonna girls' basketball team closed out their home regular season at 11-0 with a 64-48 win over Faribault Tuesday at the OHS gym. Some of the best moves on the night came from the senior players' moms, who presented a halftime dance routine that included dribbling with basketballs.

Medford Tigers' girls' basketball coach Mark Kubat was hopeful that sophomore Emma Kneifel would reach the 1,000-point milestone in their home gym Friday night before spending this week on the bus with a series of road games.