Albany and Waseca, the top two seeds, will play for the Class 2A boys basketball title

Top-seeded Albany put on a three-point clinic against Caledonia in the first half and then held off a comeback in the second for a 59-54 win in a Class 2A boys basketball state tournament semifinal on Friday at Williams Arena.

The Huskies will play Waseca, which defeated defending champion Breck 68-60, for the championship at 5 p.m. Saturday.

Albany (31-0) made as many three-pointers (7-for-10) in the first half as Caledonia (29-3) made field goals (7-for-24), propelling the Huskies to a 20-point lead.

“We had really good movement, really good flow … getting [Caledonia’s] bigger bodies moving around,” Albany head coach Cory Schlagel said.

Senior guard Zeke Austin shot 5-for-9 from beyond the arc as Albany finished 11-for-22 on three-pointers.

A Jamestown (North Dakota) commit, Austin scored a game-high 22 points against a Caledonia team coached by his uncle, Brad King, and featuring three first cousins: brothers Mason and Grant King and Reid Klug.

“I like those guys because we’re the same age. I hang out with them a lot,” Austin said, noting the win “technically gets me bragging rights.”

Eventually, Albany’s hot shooting cooled. The Warriors chipped away in the second half, finding easier shots and collapsing on Sam Hondl, a Minnesota Star Tribune All-Minnesota player, in the post.

“After the first seven, eight minutes, I thought our defense was fantastic,” Brad King said.

Caledonia tied the game at 50 with 3:54 left as seniors Mason King, Ethan Stendel and Garrett Konz orchestrated a 10-0 run. King finished with 20 points.

But Caledonia never led. As the Warriors missed late free throws (finishing 9-for-19), Hondl scored four of the Huskies’ last seven points and lobbed a pass to senior Ethan Meyer for — just in time — his first bucket. Meyer had been limited by foul trouble.

“[Meyer] was getting frustrated,” Schlagel said. But when duty called, “Ethan has a knack for finding those open spaces.”

The Huskies are familiar with Saturday’s big dance, having finished as runner-up in 2023.

Deron Russell didn’t have much to say in the aftermath of Waseca’s victory over defending champion Breck in the late Class 2A semifinal.

He didn’t have to. His performance, along with a wide smile, did the talking for him. The 6-2 junior guard scored 38 points, 22 in the second half.

“You know what? It all came down to Deron Russell was better than anyone else out there,” Waseca coach Seth Anderson said.

Waseca (32-0) led 34-30 at halftime and maintained a slim advantage for most of the second half, thanks largely to Russell. Russell’s big second half was a mix of three-pointers and creative individual efforts.

Breck’s on-ball defense never let Waseca get comfortable, however, often turning mistakes into easy transition baskets. Senior forward Miles Newton was the sparkplug, scoring 13 points in the second half.

Russell put the Blue Jays on his shoulders down the stretch, at one point scoring 12 straight points. Waseca created its biggest lead of the game, 64-56, with less than 30 seconds remaining.

“Honestly, I was just thinking about getting buckets,” Russell said. “There wasn’t anything special.”

His brother, senior guard Damarius Russell, commented that when Deron is hot, the best thing to do is just get out of his way.

“When he’s hitting those shots, I just let him do his thing,” said Damarius, who added 14 points. “When he’s hot, I know any shot he takes is a good shot.”

Breck (20-11) cut the margin to six on two Newton free throws with less than 25 seconds remaining, but the Mustangs never crept closer.

“It was just one those kinds of games,” Breck coach Harry Sonie said. “You have to give them credit. It was a great game.”