Benilde-St. Margaret’s, Marshall advance to Class 3A girls basketball championship

Benilde-St. Margaret’s coach Tim Ellefson knew it was coming, but didn’t know when.

With just over eight minutes remaining in the first half against Alexandria in the Class 3A girls basketball state semifinals Thursday at Williams Arena, the Red Knights took the air out of their opponent.

The result was a 60-52 victory and third consecutive trip to the 3A title game.

Ellefson entered the season having guided the Red Knights to two consecutive 3A state championships. This season, he coached them to a third championship game in a row despite having to fill a large hole left by the graduation of Olivia Olson, one of the school’s all-time great players.

After a virtual standoff for the first half of the first half, Benilde-St. Margaret’s turned up the defensive pressure and forced Alexandria out of its comfort zone while limiting offensive opportunities.

In the meantime, the Red Knights hit a couple of well-timed three-pointers, converted some transition chances into easy points and went on a 15-3 run to end the first half. It was the run Ellefson had come to expect of his team.

“It’s not just one possession. It’s multiple possessions of seeing us in your face, challenging every pass, and eventually just wears you down,” Ellefson said. “You never know when it’s going to hit, but there’ll be a time in the game where [an opponent] makes three or four mistakes in a row.”

It wasn’t the usual suspects who did the damage for Benilde-St. Margaret’s (25-6). Sophomore guard Sydney Friedly repeatedly dampened Alexandria’s hopes with her long-range accuracy. She made five of seven three-point attempts to finish with a team-high 20 points.

“I like shooting here,” said Friedly, referring to Williams Arena. “I just shot my shots. We’ve got a lot of good shooters here. Anyone could have done that.”

Senior forward Hadley Thul led Alexandria with 18 points.

No. 3 seed Marshall was tied at halftime with No. 7 seed Cretin-Derham Hall but avoided the upset, advancing to the Class 3A state final.

Marshall junior Taleigha Bigler scored 19 of her game-high 30 points in the second half.

The Tigers (29-1) return to the state championship game for the first time since 2021. Marshall has four runner-up finishes in girls basketball since it won back-to-back championships in 2001 and 2002.

Both teams got off to a slow start. Marshall forced 12 turnovers in the first half, but on the offensive end, too often its layups bounced around the rim and not through the netting.

The game was tied 26-26 at halftime.

Until the final score, Marshall’s largest lead was 36-29 in the second half thanks to a 6-0 run, all coming from Bigler.

“Every time we’d make a shot, they’d come back with a big shot,” Marshall coach Dan Westby said. “… I thought their team showed a lot of grit, and thought our team did as well.”

Eight players scored for the Raiders, led by eighth-grader Madeleine Hamiel’s 11 points.

Marshall shot 31.6% from the field, including 1-for-15 from long range, while the Raiders shot 32.1% from the field in addition to committing 22 turnovers.

“I think as Marshall, we take a lot of pride in our defense … and defense turns into offense,“ Paige Gillingham said. ”Everything starts with really good defense. I think as a team we all know that.”

The loss ended a six-game win streak for Cretin-Derham Hall (21-10), which was looking for its first state championship game appearance in more than 25 years.

“We didn’t shoot that well in the second half, but I just felt like the team battled and battled all the way through and it was a fun game,” Cretin-Derham Hall coach Tara Gunderson said.