1 vs. 2
Top seeds made it to state girls hoops finals
All four championship games in the state girls basketball tournament Saturday came down to a No. 1 seed facing the No. 2 seed.
The first two games saw the team seeded second win as Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s won the Class A title 80-63 over Mountain Iron-Buhl and Benilde-St. Margaret’s beat Stewartville 75-63 in Class AAA.
The top seed won both games in the second half of the quadruple header, as Providence Academy defeated Duluth Marshall 95-60 in Class AA and Rosemount edge Hopkins 63-62 in Class AAAA.
Here’s a look at each class:
Class A
Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s scored the first 14 points of the game and went on to win the Class A championship game.
Morgan Mathiowetz opened the scoring with a three-pointer and buried another triple during the opening flourish. The Knights, who finish 32-1, led 42-16 at halftime and were up by as many as 28 points on two occasions in the second half.
“We’ve had a lot of strong first halves all year,” Knights coach Bruce Woitas said in the postgame press conference. “So, I think once that gets going, it’s a benefit to us. But in a state championship game, I would say, no, we didn’t expect that. Credit to the way we played defense in the first half.”
The Rangers got as close as 10 points in the second half.
Mathiowetz scored 27 points Saturday and finished the tournament with 100 points. Olivia Schieffert added 25 points.
Woitas is sixth among active coaches and 17th overall in career wins with 594.
Sherburn High School graduate Erin Herman is 13th all-time in wins with 611. She coached at Hill-Murray for 35 seasons until the school elected to not renew her contract following the 2024-25 season.
Here’s the top 20, updated following the 2025-26 season:
1125: Mike Dreier, New London-Spicer (active)
728: Wendy Kohler, Alexandria (retired)
719: Myron Glass, Rochester Lourdes (retired)
732: Pat Bowlin, St. Bernard’s, Winona Cotter (active)
703: Bill Gottenborg, Stephen, Hawley, Barnesville (active)
689: Gary Lembcke, Norwood Young America (retired)
684: Ron Gunderson, New Prague (retired)
643: Jim Lien, Nevis, Akeley, Walker-Hackensack-Akeley (retired)
631: Brian Cosgriff, Hopkins, Minnetonka (retired)
626: Randy Myhre, Barnum (retired)
619: John Noga, Akeley, Parkers Prairie (retired)
642: Jeff Buffetta, Mountain Iron-Buhl (active)
611: Erin Herman, Hill-Murray (retired)
605: Dick Simpson, Barrett, Brandon, Brandon/Evansville (retired)
589: Brad Atchison, Clara City, Midwest Minnesota, MACCRAY, Willmar (retired)
599: Dan Woods, Academy of Holy Angels (active)
594: Bruce Woitas, Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s (active)
583: Faith Johnson Patterson, Minneapolis North, DeLaSalle, Eden Prairie, Minneapolis Edison, Visitation, Maranatha Christian Academy (active)
555: Carol Visness, H-H-SV-K, Kittson Central (retired)
555: Beth Clark, Hermantown (retired)
In the third-place game. Sienna Duinick recorded 23 points, eight rebounds, four assists and five steals as Section 3A champion Central Minnesota Christian defeated Hillcrest Lutheran Academy 64-55.
Mayer Lutheran won the consolation championship with a 47-42 victory over Braham. Hallie Hunter paced the Crusaders with 14 points.
Class AA
Providence Academy became the first girls basketball team to win five straight state titles with a 95-60 victory over Duluth Marshall.
Providence Academy’s Maddyn Greenway scored 33 points. She also had 13 assists.
Emma Millerbernd netted 21 points, Alexa Nicolai 19 and Maddyn’s freshman sister, Beckett scored 10.
Providence’s 95 points shattered the state tournament championship game record. The previous mark was 82 by Ada-Borup in an 82-65 win over Maranatha Christian Academy in the 2016 Class A title game.
The combined 155 points is second on the list. Providence Academy is part of that record as well as the Lions beat Albany 81-78 for the 2024 Class AA crown.
In the third-place game, Perham made 11 three-point baskets in winning 66-52 over Section 3AA champ New London-Spicer.
Reagan Hemberger hit seven treys and finished with a game-high 21 points for the Yellowjackets.
Rochester Lourdes beat Minnehaha Academy 71-40 in the consolation championship game on Friday.
Class AAA
Benilde-St. Margaret’s won its fourth straight Class AAA title with a 75-63 victory Stewartville.
Sydney Friedly scored 24 points and had five assists while sophomore guard Zaida Jenkins scored 16 points.
The Tigers had a 28-game winning streak stopped. One of those wins was 85-76 over BSM in a game played in Kasson on Jan. 17.
Stewartville’s Audrey Shindelar scored a game-high 29 points.
In the third-place game, Marshall won 68-51 over Cretin-Derham Hall. Marshall had lost to Benilde-St. Margaret’s in the semifinals on Thursday.
Four players scored in double figures for Marshall, led by Avery Fahl’s 19 points. Reese Drake and Avery Schneekloth had 15 points each and Taleigha Bigler scored 14.
Hill-Murray beat Totino-Grace 81-41 in Friday’s consolation championship game.
Class AAAA
A pair of late three-pointers keyed Rosemount’s 63-62 win over defending champ Hopkins for the AAAA title. The Irish ended the game on a 10-2 run over the final 5:02.
Gianna Carpentier tied the game at 60-60 on a three-pointer with 4:03 remaining in regulation and Kaylee Digler’s trifecta with 3:19 to go gave the Irish the lead for good.
Emma Walker scored with 2:54 remaining to bring the Royals within one and neither team scored the rest of the way. Rosemount protected the ball and ran the clock down even though it couldn’t score and played strong on defense without fouling.
Amisha Ramlall, a junior guard who is headed to the University of Minnesota, had 20 points, eight assists and two steals for the Irish. Her sister, Ashna, a sophomore, scored 16.
Rochester Mayo defeated Maple Grove 69-60 in the third-place game on Saturday. Monticello was a 70-52 winner over Blaine in the consolation championship on Friday.
All-tournament teams
Here are the all-tournament teams in each class.
Class A
Kate Thayer. Kelliher/Northome
Morgan Rysdam, Braham
Izabelle Keaveny, Mayer Lutheran
Elin Retzlaff, Hillcrest Lutheran Academy
Sienna Duininck, Central Minnesota Christian
Emmi Braem, Central Minnesota Christian
Anna Neyens, Mountain Iron-Buhl
Paige Norman, Mountain Iron-Buhl
Olivia Schieffert, Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s
Morgan Mathiowetz Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s
Class AA
Lauren Hust, Rochester Lourdes
Korbin Tanner, New London-Spicer
Kaia Anderson, Perham
Regan Hemberger, Perham
Chloe Johnson, Duluth Marshall
Candice Ndomb, Duluth Marshall
Alexa Nicolai, Providence Academy
Emma Millerbernd, Providence Academy
Beckett Greenway, Providence Academy
Maddyn Greenway, Providence Academy
Class AAA
Ashlee Wilson, Hill-Murray
Madeleine Hamiel, Cretin-Derham Hall
Reese Drake, Marshall
Taleigha Bigler, Marshall
Jayci Rath, Stewartville
Audrey Shindelar, Stewartville
Danika Shindelar, Stewartville
Zaida Jenkins, Benilde-St. Margaret’s
Sydney Friedly, Benilde-St. Margaret’s
Pressley Watkins, Benilde-St. Margaret’s
Class AAAA
Samantha Voll, Monticello
Sophia Anderson, Maple Grove
Amelia Mills, Rochester Mayo
Maggie Dyer, Rochester Mayo
Gianna Carpentier, Rosemount
Amisha Ramlall, Rosemount
Ashna Ramlall, Rosemount
Marianna Davis, Hopkins
Erma Walker, Hopkins
Jaliyah Diggs, Hopkins