ALEXANDRIA — The Alexandria boys basketball team is on a roll. The Cardinals came into Friday’s game undefeated in Section 8-3A play on the season at 11-0 and riding an 18-game winning streak. Alexandria, the No. 2 ranked team in Class 3A, finished the 2024-25 regular season on a high note on Feb. 28, 2025, as it defeated the St. Cloud Tech Tigers, 109-71, on Youth Night. “I feel good about where we’re at,” Alexandria head coach Forrest Witt said. “We’re an unselfish, talented group. We’ve been super consistent.” Junior Mason Witt and senior Chase Thompson paced Alexandria’s offense on Friday as they both had 28 points apiece. St. Cloud Tech sophomore Jiech Jiech led all scorers on Friday with 30 points. Thompson came into Friday’s game on a personal high after he broke the program’s single-game scoring record with 50 points against Detroit Lakes on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025. Mike Cihlar set the previous program record of 48 points during the 1990-91 season. Thompson also holds the Alexandria boys basketball program career scoring record with 1,586 points. Earlier in the season, Thompson passed Ryan Nodland (1995-97) who had 1,220 career points for the top spot on the Alexandria boys basketball team's career scoring list. “To score as many points I have with all the great teammates I have, it’s probably come easier for me than it was for some,” Thompson said. Alexandria finishes the regular season unbeaten against Section 8-3A opponents (12-0) and enters the postseason on a 19-game winning streak. “We have a great brotherhood,” Thompson said. “We play super well together and we’re super unselfish.” Alexandria’s last loss came on Dec. 28, 2024, when it lost 81-77 in overtime in St. Paul to the team that is currently ranked No. 1 in Class 3A, Mankato East. And now two months removed from that game, Mankato East (25-1) and Alexandria (23-3) are ranked No. 1 and No. 2 respectively, ahead of their respective tournaments (Section 3-3A for Mankato East and Section 8-3A for Alexandria). “We’re having a lot of fun playing a lot of really good basketball,” Mason Witt said. “We had a couple of close losses earlier in the season to Cretin-Derham Hall , the No. 1 ranked team in Class 4A, and Mankato East, but have earned wins over Benilde-St. Margaret’s (ranked No. 3 in Class 3A) and Orono (ranked No. 4 in Class 3A), so we’ve done well against really good competition. We don’t worry about the records or rankings, we just show up and play our kind of basketball.” The Cardinals have their sights set on finishing as the state’s best this season, much like the 2024 Alexandria volleyball team and 2024 Alexandria girls track and field team did. The 2024 Alexandria volleyball and girls track and field teams were honored for their state title wins and had their state championship banners unveiled during halftime of Friday’s game. “There’s been a lot of success in Alexandria activities over the last several years and that sometimes feeds itself as far as competition,” Forrest Witt said. “Kids want to do well and see other teams do well and create a strong culture throughout all sports in Alexandria. There's a lot of talented kids and a lot of coaches invested a lot of time into the kids' success.” Alexandria has won the last three out of four Section 8-3A titles, including the last two, and is set to be the No. 1 seed in the 2025 Section 8-3A Tournament that starts on Tuesday, March 4. “We expect to be challenged,” Forrest Witt said. “Everybody is 0-0 at this point in the season. Nothing is going to come easy. Teams are going to give us all they got, so we have to be ready to go.” The Section 8-3A Tournament bracket is set to be revealed on Saturday. This article will be updated once the bracket has been released. An article with all the area boys basketball team’s postseason seedings and opening round matchups will be published on Sunday once all section tournament brackets have been released.
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