Maple Grove meets St. Michael-Albertville in Star Tribune Game of the Week

As part of our commitment to expanding high school sports coverage, we’ll be livestreaming high school basketball and hockey games from across the state for the remainder of the winter sports season on startribune.com. Keep an eye out for our Star Tribune Games of the Week, which are free to watch.

Saturday’s GOTW matinee is a must-see high school girls basketball matchup and a potential state tournament preview, you can watch it live at 2 p.m. right here on startribune.com. Come back to this article page an hour before the game begins to see the livestream feed.

Maple Grove, No. 3 in the Class 4A state rankings released Jan. 8, has played a schedule designed to prepare a team for a deep postseason run. The Crimson (10-2 overall) have five victories over teams ranked in this week’s rankings, including a 77-73 win at Class 4A, No. 1 Eden Prairie in the season opener, while their losses to Class 2A, No. 1 Providence Academy and Class 4A, No. 2 Hopkins were by a combined 11 points. Maple Grove also has games against Class 3A, No. 8 Totino-Grace, Class 4A, No. 8 Minnetonka and Class 2A, No. 4 Minnehaha Academy before entering the section tournament.

The first half of St. Michael-Albertville’s schedule may not include as many games against teams with such high pedigrees, but there is an 87-79 loss to Class 3A, No. 3 Monticello. However, the back half of the regular season brings the kind of matchups that should prep the Knights (11-2) for success in the section and state tournaments. They already defeated Minnetonka 54-52 on Jan. 10 to help extend a six-game winning streak and host Lake Conference rival Eden Prairie a day before visiting Maple Grove. St. Michael-Albertville faces the Eagles and Skippers once more and has two matchups with Hopkins and Class 4A, No. 7 Wayzata as part of league play. There’s also a date with Providence Academy on Feb. 1.

The Star Tribune is partnering with Neighborhood Sports Network TV to bring you games from some of the best Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota teams this season.

Upcoming livestreams: To watch these livestreams, visit startribune.com/nspn on the scheduled game date.

For results from this game and others played across the state, visit the MN Girls Basketball Hub — the premier online source for Minnesota high school girls basketball scores, schedules, stats, rankings, recruiting news, livestreams, video highlights and more.