Cathedral Boys Make State Hockey Tournament; Girls Basketball Decides Section Championship; Boys Basketball Sectionals Tip Off

(KNSI) – The 16-12 Cathedral Boys’ Hockey Team is back in the state tournament.

The Crusaders escaped Section 5A with a come-from-behind overtime win against Little Falls last week, 4-3. The comeback helped extend the team’s overall winning streak to four games. The state quarterfinal is set to start at 6:00 p.m. this Wednesday at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. You can hear the game on KNSI.

Cathedral was a random draw and they got a bit unlucky with their matchup. They’re slotted to take on the #1 overall seed, Warroad. The Warriors are a nearly perfect 27-0-1 this season and have already defeated the Crusaders. The squads played on November 26th with a 4-0 result.

Warroad tied Sartell to end the regular season and then returned to form for Section 8A. They cruised past Park Rapids, Thief River Falls, and East Grand Forks by a combined 19-2 score. The winner of Cathedral and Warroad will take on the victor of Orono and Northfield High Schools.

Boys’ Basketball

Sections begin Tuesday. In 8AAAA, Sartell is the seven seed and will travel to Moorhead.

8AAA quarterfinals include #8 Apollo versus #1 Alexandria, #2 Tech versus #7 Willmar, #4 ROCORI hosting Little Falls, and #6 Sauk Rapids-Rice traveling to #3 Detroit Lakes.

6AA begins on Thursday. Albany is the #1 seed and if they best Maple Lake they would face the winner of #8 Cathedral and #9 Spectrum on Saturday. Other Stearns County schools in the bracket include #4 Sauk Centre, #5 Osakis #7 Melrose, #12 Royalton, #14 Kimball, and #15 Holdingford. Some area teams to watch include #3 Milaca, #6 Annandale, and #10 Foley.

Girls’ Basketball

The Section 8AAA championship will be played Thursday night between #1 Alexandria and #3 Sauk Rapids-Rice. The Storm defeated Little Falls, 54-37, and Detroit Lakes, 59-55, last week to reach the section title. The Storm are now 18-10 on the season. The Cardinals enter the contest at 23-4.

In 6AA, #1 Albany is in a sectional semifinal Tuesday night against #4 Pine City. On the other side of the bracket, it is #2 Sauk Centre versus #3 Holdingford. The doubleheader will be played at St. John’s University. Albany, from the Granite Ridge Conference, is 26-1 overall. Sauk Centre is 20-8 overall out of the West Central Conference and Holdingford enters Tuesday at 24-3 from the Central Minnesota Conference.

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