It has, in short, been the school’s longest running success story on the girls’ side since the turn of the century.
St. Michael-Albertville’s girls’ basketball team has overcome heated rivalries with schools like Buffalo, Rogers and Elk River, an entirely new class level (now playing with the big schools) and the loss of one talented player after another to graduation, yet the Knights have remained a go-to team when it comes to March mayhem.
This year, it’s no different. And the deja vu is getting more and more prevalent.
For the fourth straight season, the Knights will need to top the Elk River Elks on the way to the Class 4A Tournament. And for the third straight time, it’s in the Section 8-4A championship, this time at Monticello High School.
The clash between No. 5 St. Michael and No. 6 ERHS is set for 7 p.m. Thursday night. So many of the faces from last year’s battle – which saw nearly a dozen lead changes before STMA pulled away in the second half – return for this year’s tilt.
But so much has changed. STMA’s Sydney Tracy has become a stronger player inside, with South Dakota State (who punched a ticket to the Division I tournament yesterday) next on her horizon. Rae Johnson is healthy and leading the team in scoring, coming up big night after night against a schedule that’s seen STMA play five Top 10 Class 4A programs this season.
“It’s fun to be a part of this,” Johnson said to NWCT last season. “To be successful the way we have, you have to have teammates that will buy into it every year. You have to play those tough teams, because that’s all that’s left in the end is the best teams.”
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That’s been coach Kent Hamre’s philosophy the past several years. No longer content with conference titles and appearances at state, Hamre began putting STMA in the spotlight – preseason tournaments in Hopkins. Defending state champions playing on the Knights’ home floor. Regular match-ups against Lake Conference powers. The Knights weren’t traveling to outstate schools for games much, anymore, outside of the conference. To be the best, the Knights would play the best.
It paid off last year. In that Section Title tile in 2015, STMA had to knock off an Elks team that was ranked No. 4 in the state and had Minnesota’s top recruit in Abi Scheid (she’s headed to Northwestern University). They won, and went on to get their first tournament win in the opening round, fell short in the semis to eventual champ Eastview, but recover to take third place in the state.
This year, Kitri Zezza, Lexi Heil, Tracy and Johnson are hoping to win that semifinal and get a shot at cutting down the nets. But they’ll have to get there first.
“Elk River’s got great talent inside, of course, with Abi,” Hamre said. “We ask Syd to do a lot. But they’ve got great guards, too. You have to play strong defense. That’s something we pride ourselves in.”
STMA has been outstanding defensively – something required when you go 27-2 on a season. STMA held Monticello to under 20 points in one game, and did the same to Cambridge. In the Section 8-4A quarterfinal, Tech managed just 24 points. The Knights’ pressure defense forces young guards into big mistakes.
But Elk River showed it could handle that pressure – at least for half of its first game against STMA. The Knights, who trailed at half, clamped down on Scheid and ran away with a 10-point win way back in December.
“It’s a good rivalry,” Scheid, who plays with Tracy on an AAU team, said. “This is our last chance to get them. It’s the game we’ve been looking for all season.”