MINNEAPOLIS – The Alexandria Cardinals were the aggressor in Wednesday’s MSHSL Class 3A State Tournament quarterfinal game against DeLaSalle. A stifling defensive effort led the fifth-seeded Cardinals to a 60-40 win over the fourth-seeded Islanders on Wednesday at Maturi Pavilion in Minneapolis. “We knew this was a tough draw coming in, but I told the girls, ‘I can’t think of any team that’s more qualified to run the gauntlet than you are,”’ Alexandria head coach Wendy Kohler said. “Our seniors have led the way. They’re calm, cool, and play unselfishly. We had great attention to detail against a tough DeLaSalle team.” Alexandria held DeLaSalle, the team it lost to 82-69 in the 2024 MSHSL Class 3A tournament semifinals , to 26.9 percent shooting from the field (14-of-52), and 18.2 percent from the 3-point line (4-of-22) on Wednesday, March 12, 2025. “I’ve told our team all season long to know your personnel,” Kohler said. “They can handle an advanced level scouting report and we knew that DeLaSalle had three kids that could stick shots, cut hard, and attack the basket. We executed our game plan well.” 40 points is the lowest scoring output the Islanders have had all season. Richmond commit Aneisha Scott, a Miss Minnesota Basketball finalist, was the lone Islander in double figures in Wednesday's game as she finished with 11 points. On offense, Alexandria attacked the basket early and often. The Cardinals used dribble penetration to get to the free throw line where they made 16 of their 21 attempts. “We were in tune with the pace of the game,” Kohler said. “They understood that we should get out and run when we can, but that we have to value every possession and control the tempo. You have to control the tempo against a team like DeLaSalle. We didn’t want to start launching the ball all over the place.” The Islanders tried to prevent the Cardinals from flying up and down the court by playing a full-court press defense early on but foul trouble early in the first half forced the Islanders to make some changes. “We knew that they were going to throw a lot of different defenses at us and bring a lot of pressure,” Alexandria senior guard Allie Haabala said. “We came ready to play, got into our sets early, and executed.” Alexandria senior Hadley Thul, a South Dakota State commit who is also a Miss Minnesota Basketball finalist, finished the game with a monstrous double-double, totaling 18 points, and 17 rebounds. Alexandria won the rebounding battle in Wednesday's game, 36-30. “We knew that they were going to crash the glass hard and that gave extra incentive to get in there and take the ball away from them,” Thul said. Haabala, a Southwest Minnesota State commit , and fellow senior guard Chloe Scholl, a Gustavus Adolphus commit , finished in reached double figures for the Cardinals as well with 17 and 15 points respectively. Scholl came close to finishing with a double-double as she also had eight rebounds. The Alexandria girls basketball team hopes to capture the same magic that the Alexandria volleyball team had in the fall at the 2024 MSHSL Class 3A State Tournament when it won a state title as the No. 5 seed. Scholl and Thul were senior leaders on that Alexandria volleyball team and are senior leaders on this basketball team that is playing in the state tournament semifinals for the third season in a row. “We were the fifth seed in volleyball too so hopefully that brings us some good luck,” Thul said. “We don’t get nervous before games. We’ve been here before, we know what to do.” “We’re going to take things one game at a time,” Scholl said. In the state semifinals, the Cardinals take on the two-time defending state champion and top-seeded Benilde-St. Margaret’s Red Knights at Noon on Thursday at Williams Arena in Minneapolis. Benilde-St. Margaret’s (24-6) beat the No. 8 seed Stewartville (21-9) in the state tournament quarterfinals on Wednesday. Alexandria aims to avenge a regular season loss to Benilde-St. Margaret’s. Benilde-St. Margaret’s defeated Alexandria, 79-53, on Jan. 25, 2025, in Alexandria. “Our coaches are going to prepare a really good scouting report and we’re going to use that and give it everything we got,” Scholl said. “We know we can beat them.” The winner of the Alexandria/Benilde-St. Margaret’s plays in the MSHSL Class 3A State Championship game at 2 p.m. on Saturday at Williams Arena. The loser of the Alexandria/Benilde-St. Margaret’s game plays in the third place game at Noon on Saturday at the Gangelhoff Center at Concordia-St. Paul. The state semifinal game is being broadcast on 45tv. The third place game is being broadcast on NSPN.tv.
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