Saturday Reports 3.15.2025 plus a graph.

D1 HIGH FIVE

Kierra Wheeler, Norfolk State, Cooper 19

Anna Miller, Drake, Rochester Mayo 8

Shannon Fornshell, Drake, Wayzata 7

Totals: 34

As the days dwindle down we only have a High Trio. Two AAAA, one AAA. Wheeler has topped the list a couple of straight days. Her team won the MEAC tournament. She was the team’s high scorer as well.

POINT PARADE-7

Parade starts at 25.

AAAA-2

Erma Walker, Hopkins 28

Jordan Ode, Maple Grove 26

AAA-0

AA-2

Maddyn Greenway, Providence 40

Addi Mack, Minnehaha 32

A-3

Morgan Mathiowetz, Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s 32

Brielle Janssen, MACCRAY 28

Aubrey Morrison, Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 28

RANKED RESULTS

Winner High 81 Hopkins, Providence

Winner Low 58 West Central

Loser High 67 Maple Grove

Loser Low 36 Cretin-Derham Hall

Biggest Margin 30 Alexandria v Cretin-Derham Hall

Smallest Margin 1 Walker-Hackensack-Akeley v Mayer Lutheran

Most Combined: 148 Hopkins v Maple Grove

Least combined: 99 West Central v MACCRAY

Margins 30 or more 1

Margins 5 or less 1

Average 60.33

Winner Average 68.22

Loser Average 52.44

Average margin 15.78

Average combined: 120.7

Ranked Upsets: Hopkins was the only champion coming into Saturday that was the lower seed. #1 Maple Grove lost to the Royals for the second time this year. #8 Walker-Hackensack-Akeley slipped by #2 Mayer Lutheran in the A consolation title game. ML led late by four.

AAAA Ave 63.50

AAA Ave 58.00

AA Ave 61.75

A Ave 58.83

AAAA

#3 Hopkins 81, #1 Maple Grove 67

#2 Eastview 63, #4 Lakeville North 43

AAA

#1 Benilde-St. Margaret’s 73, #3 Marshall 57

#5 Alexandria 66, #7 Cretin-Derham Hall 36

AA

#1 Providence 81, #2 Crosby-Ironton 63

#3 Minnehaha 61, #5 Minnewaska 42

A

#4 West Central 58, #7 MACCRAY 41

#1 Goodhue 68, #3 Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s 61

#8 Walker-Hackensack-Akeley 63, #2 Mayer Lutheran 62

ABOUT LAST NIGHT….Championship Saturday

The MN High School season wrapped up on Saturday with four champions, two new (one for the first time) and two repeats (or three-peats, four-peats—safe to say dynasties). The common theme of all four (and four was a big story all day) was they were the better teams throughout the tournament—depth, balance and execution. The second-place finishers had one or two issues that prevented them from wearing the ultimate crown. And Knights (West Central, Benilde-St. Margaret’s) & Lions (Providence, and take a look at the Hopkins logo) won out.

A

West Central became the first #4 seed in any class to win a title (during the seeding era) as they dispatched #7 seed MACCRAY in the A title game. If you had those two in your bracket last week, I hope you bought a lottery ticket as well. Both were the #2 seeds….in their subsection. And if you told the casual fan that at half all-state guard Mya Foslien would have zero points and Addison Staples would spend much time on the bench with three fouls they would have assumed MACCRAY would be in the lead. That would be wrong. Despite those hurdles WC turned a 17 all tie with about 5:20 left in the first half to a 25-18 halftime lead. The Wolverines were only able to generate points from Brielle Janssen and Emma Thien. The rest of the team only scored three points all game. The Knights’ Jayden Styba was a force all week on defense getting key steals. That didn’t change in the title game. Her 11 d stops and inside presence on offense with a team high 16 points helped lift the Knights. The game did tighten to 50-40 with 3:21 left but when Janssen picked up foul number five the outcome became clear.

AA

The undefeated match up tilted to Providence’s favor late in the first half. CI last lead came at 24-23 with around six minutes left. A 19-8 finish set the trajectory for the Lions the rest of the way. The mega star power of junior 4000-point scorers Maddyn Greenway and Tori Oehrlein was a draw, but Greenway channeled her inner Jordan and left no doubt to which team was going to win. She put a stamp on this game and had the day’s top 31 Club score with 58. Using cartoon analogies Greenway is like the Tasmanian Devil, a whirl of energy and action that destroys everything that gets in her path. She has another level of speed and usually you can see three puffs of smoke as she streaks down court past baffled defenders trying to keep up. Another analogy, this time from the world of cinema, is Greenway plays at an eleven, make that twelve. By half she already was in the 31 Club with 34. The Lions all year have been extremely sharp. They owned three victories over the #1, #2 and #3 seeds in the state’s biggest most featured AAAA class. Hope Counts also made life miserable on the inside for the Rangers and ended up with a 40 in the 31 Club. Oehrlein was held under the century mark due to the determined defensive efforts of Emma Millerbernd. Also, two early fouls kept her shackled and altered her attack methods. Beckett Greenway was a thorn in the side of Regan Juenemann all night. And McKenna Schaefer provided a valued added score of 18. For the first time in the four-class era the best team in the state lives in AA many would argue.

AAA

Winning titles is also becoming a habit at Benilde-St. Margaret’s. But this time the habit came in the afternoon. This was the first year the AAA title game moved to the 2 pm slot on Saturday. The #1 seed topped #3 seed Marshall to take their third straight and fifth for the Red Knights. The first separation came with BSM scoring six straight times to grab a 19-11 lead. Marshall was forced to burn a time out at the 10:20 mark. The Tigers narrowed the gap to 32-27 with 1:46 left in the half, but Sydney Fiendly hit a corner 3 directly in response. The Knights were up 35-29 at the break. It was a 41-36 game after a 3 by Marshall’s #12. Then another BSM flurry struck with four straight scores capped by another Fiendly 3. The margin quickly grew to 54-39 with still eleven minutes to go. Both teams liked to run and use their pressure full court. BSM was more efficient and didn’t drop off when dipping into their bench. The Red Knights reserves won 10-6 but you could not really tell them apart from the starting five. The starters were 112.5, the bench 111.1. Marshall’s bench was 75.0.

AAAA

Hopkins returns to the throne after two years of heartbreak in the finals. The difference this year is they were a #3 seed. This marks the third straight year the #1 seed has gone down in the title bout. The Royals excised those demons and confirmed their earlier season victory over the Crimson. Erma Walker had a gutty, gritty performance with 28 points and a 31 Club score of 36. What was impressive in that was she went down with what looked like a painful ankle injury but she kept on keeping on. She owned the inside position as MG played behind her, or at least got pinned by her. The game really didn’t break open until the second half about the 11:30 mark of the second half. Hopkins broke a 46 all tie with a triple by London Harris. That started a four straight scoring spree raising the margin to 55-46. Then the Royals put the game out of reach with a trio of 3s with Maliyah White scoring two straight capped by Lauren Hillsheim to make it 70-53 with 4:30 left. MG outscored Hopkins the rest of the way 14-11, but the hole was too deep at that point.

A	PP100
West Central	93.5
MACCRAY	65.1
AA
Providence	103.8
Crosby-Ironton	81.8
AAA
Benilde-St. Margaret’s	112.3
Marshall	90.5
AAAA
Hopkins	126.6
Maple Grove	106.3

You can see the perfect correlation between each class. The higher the class, the better the offensive performance. And the gap between both stayed roughly about 20 pp100. I defy anyone to tell me that Hopkins and Maple Grove did not play defense in that AAAA title game. Both teams had skilled players to respond. MG had better pp100 than five of the other seven teams on Saturday.

Name	School	31 Club	Pp100
A
Brielle Janssen	MACCRAY	42	84.8
Jayden Styba	West Central	32	133.3
AA
Maddyn Greenway	Providence	58	137.9
Tori Oehrlein	Crosby-Ironton	44	77.3
Hope Counts	Providence	40	127.8
AAA
none
AAAA
Jordan Ode	Maple Grove	37	123.8
Erma Walker	Hopkins	36	147.4
Jailyah Diggs	Hopkins	32	100.0

Eight is enough. Eight players made the final 31 Club listing of 2025 with Maddyn Greenway making it to the 51 Club. Two players (Janssen, Oehrlein) reached the 41 Club level, but their teams fell in the final. Both also missed the centurion circle. Providence and Hopkins both had two entries and that helps explain victories. Oddly enough, AAA did not have any entries.

MORE TO COME

I will examine a couple of issues throughout the rest of the week.