St. Michael-Albertville’s Own “Tourney Tessa” Leads South Carolina to National Championship

For those here in St. Michael-Albertville who know, the fact Tessa Johnson did what she did in Cleveland, Ohio, was no surprise.

Since recovering from a femur injury in 2021, Johnson has earned a scholarship to South Carolina, been named a McDonald’s All-American, was Gatorade Player of the Year, Metro Player of the Year and Miss Basketball in Minnesota and led the Knights to an incredible win in the Class 4A State Championship in 2023 (a year after finishing as a state runner-up in 2022).

But the while the emergence of “Tourney Tess,” as Elle Duncan and her team on ESPN so elegantly dubbed Johnson on Sunday afternoon, definitely raised eyebrows around the country.

From LeBron James to Robert Griffin III, Rebecca Lobo to “Sports Siren” Holly Rowe to Sen. Amy Klobuchar and everyone else proud of her Minnesota lineage – Johnson opened some eyebrows.

“She’s going to be a star,” Lobo said as the ABC/ESPN crew broke down the game after South Carolina’s 12-point win over Caitlin Clark and Iowa.

Tessa earned a spot on the All-Tournament team, joined by Paige Bueckers, who, like Johnson, is a Minnesota great and will look to be back in the Final Four next season. Fellow South Carolina standout Kamilla Cardoso also made the team. Iowa’s Caitlin Clark – the woman most responsible for raising the NCAA Women’s Tournament to all-time attendance and viewership highs in 2024, was also on the team, along with teammate and forward Hannah Stuelke, who will be back for the Hawkeyes next year.

Asked how she came up with a career-high 19 points in the biggest game (so far) of her collegiate experience, Johnson focused on her teammates, who fell to Iowa in the national semifinals in 2023.

“I did it for them. I wanted to do it for them. I just felt comfortable and found shots and my teammates found me and had that confidence in me. But I wanted to win and I wanted to win it for the team who was here last year and for Coach [Dawn Staley],” she said.

Staley is no stranger to St. Michael-Albertville. Throughout Johnson’s junior and senior campaign – two years she spent pushing for greatness that many saw in her – the South Carolina coach was in St. Michael and the Twin Cities checking on her recruit. Johnson signed with South Carolina prior to her senior year, but that didn’t keep the 2022 Coach of the Year from coming back to Minnesota and checking in on STMA’s biggest talent since, perhaps, Matt Spaeth – a Super Bowl champion with the Pittsburgh Steelers and former Gopher tight end.

Staley lost all five starters from the team that lost, heartbreakingly, to Clark and Iowa in 2022. She filled her team with an amazing recruiting class, some veteran leadership and the hope that young players, like Johnson, would play beyond their years in March and April.

In her final three games of this season, Johnson put up 15 points in the Regional Championship victory over Oregon State, nine points in a blowout win in the semifinal over North Carolina State and 19 against Iowa.

“She balled out,” Rowe said.

We expected nothing less.