AAU State Tournament: Championship Sunday

It has been a magical spring season thus far for [player_tooltip player_id="108299" first="Tessa" last="Johnson"], but on Sunday the St. Michael-Albertville guard pulled off her biggest trick yet – an unconscious, off-balance prayer of a shot with just 3 seconds remaining on the clock to give North Tartan 2023 EYBL an AAU state championship. Rabbit, meet hat! That sleight of hand for Johnson, the #1 player in the Prep Girls Hoops Class of 2023, capped a great day of basketball at Kennedy High School in Bloomington as champions were crowned at the Division 1, 2 and 3 levels in eight age groups. Here’s a recap of the four high school-aged championship games. <img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-430219" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/pgh/uploads/2022/05/Tessa-Johnson-281x300.jpg" alt="" width="281" height="300" /> <strong>CLASS OF 2023: NORTH TARTAN EYBL 58 - METRO STARS PRYOR 56</strong> The rivalry between North Tartan and Metro Stars at the highest level is as good as it gets, but the intrigue was racheted up a couple of notches this year by the last-minute switch of Hopkins forward and Michigan commit [player_tooltip player_id="108298" first="Taylor" last="Woodson"] from one team to the other. Her impact on behalf of North Tartan was definitely felt in Sunday’s championship game as the #2-rated prospect in the Class of 2023 scored 13 first-half points to stake her new team to an early lead. She scored in multiple different ways, knocking down a couple of mid-range jump shots, driving to the basket for and-1s and going three-for-three at the free throw line. It was Woodson’s long-time Hopkins teammate [player_tooltip player_id="108348" first="Nunu" last="Agara"] who eventually tied the game at 18 midway through the period before North Tartan went on a mini-run in the last two minutes. Stillwater’s [player_tooltip player_id="178274" first="Amy" last="Thompson"] nailed a buzzer beater three for the Metro Stars to end the half at 34-28 in favor of North Tartan. Despite the best efforts of Metro Stars sophomore guard [player_tooltip player_id="178269" first="Liv" last="McGill"] – she’s the #2-rated player in the Class of 2024 – North Tartan continued to pull ahead. McGill was doing everything she could to will her team back into the hunt, and eventually her heroic efforts paid off. It was a [player_tooltip player_id="108320" first="Kelly" last="Boyle"] triple at the 6-minute mark that sparked the Metro Stars to a comeback. McGill followed with a nifty 360-degree spin move in the lane to cut the margin to 5 points before [player_tooltip player_id="108308" first="Savanna" last="Jones"] scored inside to make it 3. A few minutes later Boyle hit another corner 3 before Jones tied the game at 51-all at the 2:20 mark. With just 43 seconds remaining in the game, McGill made one of two free throws to put the Metro Stars ahead 56-55. That led to Tessa’s last-minute heroics which saw her first attempt fall short at the 15-second mark and another bounce off the rim from the lane with about 5 ticks left on the clock. Then came the magical prayer that was answered with another North Tartan state championship for coach Gerard Coury. Johnson led all scorers with 17 points while Woodson had 15. McGill finished with 15 points while Agara had 12 and Jones scored 11. One statistic worth noting is free throw percentage: North Tartan was 9-for-13 on the day while the Metro Stars were 11-for-23, including a dismal 3-for-13 in the first half. <strong>CLASS OF 2024: NORTH TARTAN EYBL 59 - MINNESOTA SUNS BLUE STAR 38</strong> The 2024 championship had all the makings of a great one as coach Dre Jefferson’s Suns brought the most talent they’ve ever had to the fight. Despite the absence of #3 prospect [player_tooltip player_id="215956" first="Claire" last="Stern"] – she’s been out since midway through the high school season with a back injury – the Suns have a ton of terrific prospects including 2026 phenom [player_tooltip player_id="205310" first="Tori" last="Oehrlein"] of Crosby-Ironton and Top 20 sophomores [player_tooltip player_id="215985" first="Olivia" last="Pawlicki"] (Shakopee) and [player_tooltip player_id="178261" first="Piper" last="Engelby"] (Andover). On this day, however, it was North Tartan’s smothering defense that won the race as they jumped out to a 17-1 lead and never looked back. The Suns eventually got things going but were never able to close the gap as North Tartan’s top sophomores coached by Marqus McGlothan cruised to a 59-38 win. There were a ton of nice performances for North Tartan but it was Top 5 sophomore [player_tooltip player_id="178263" first="Laura" last="Hauge"] of St. Croix Lutheran whose star shone brightest on the day. Hauge, who is one of the state’s premier shooters from distance, went 4-for-5 from beyond the arc and finished with 14 points. She was also responsible in large part for containing the prolific Pawlicki and limiting her to just 2 points. North Tartan held Oehrlein to a mere 4. [player_tooltip player_id="335641" first="Trinity" last="Wilson"] of Lakeville North had 10 points and a bushel of rebounds for North Tartan. <strong>CLASS OF 2025: NORTH TARTAN NIKE 71 - MINNESOTA STARS BOROWICZ 55</strong> To say [player_tooltip player_id="252381" first="Maddyn" last="Greenway"] is having a great year would be peak understatement. The 8th grade guard led Providence Academy to the Class 2A high school state title this spring. On Sunday she did the same for North Tartan 2025 as they knocked off the long-time powerhouse of the class. Greenway scored 23 points including 5 triples. Freshman [player_tooltip player_id="212489" first="Sophie" last="Hawkinson"] of Wayzata was just as good, putting her will on the game in so many different facets. She ended with 20 points. The win avenged last year’s championship game defeat in which the Stars [player_tooltip player_id="296523" first="Kendall" last="McGee"], the #2-rated 2025 in the state, knocked down a buzzer-beater three to take home the title. Despite a 26-point performance by Kendall this time around it was not enough. The game was a back-and-forth affair in the opening half as the teams traded blows throughout. By the time they reached the break it was North Tartan holding a 29-23 margin. A series of three-pointers sparked a mini run for North Tartan in the second period as Hawkinson buried a trio of triples, Greenway had two and [player_tooltip player_id="262910" first="Tori" last="Schlagel"] added one from the corner in a five-minute span. That stretched the margin to 15 and the Stars never got closer than 10. North Tartan made a dozen threes in all as coach Andy Berkvam’s team took home the title. <strong>CLASS OF 2026: MINNESOTA STARS HILL 50 - NORTH TARTAN NIKE 33</strong> Physiology matters in basketball, especially when the participants are in junior high school. That fact was certainly evident on Sunday as a bigger, stronger, more physically developed Stars Hill squad bumped and banged and otherwise dominated North Tartan Nike to capture its 4th state championship in the past five years. It was a pair of big-time prospects from Minot, ND who were the difference makers as <strong>Alliyah Bell</strong> and <strong>Maggie Fricke</strong> – both high-end Division 1 prospects – imposed their will on North Tartan from start to finish. The Stars jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead. North Tartan stayed within shouting distance thanks to three triples from Maple Grove point guard [player_tooltip player_id="344332" first="Kate" last="Holmquist"], who was her team’s top performer by a wide margin on Sunday. Coach P.J. Hill’s Stars led by 9 points at the break. In the second half it was more of the same. North Tartan hung around for some time but the lead eventually reached 20 by the midway point of the period. North Tartan scored just 13 points in the second half as Bell, Fricke and friends demonstrated clearly that size, speed and strength is difficult for even the most-skilled of 8th grade squads to overcome. Bell finished with 13 points while Fricke had 9 as did big <strong>Reese Hagenbart</strong>. <strong>Sinae Hill</strong> ended up with 8. Holmquist, with 11, was the only North Tartan player to reach double figures. <strong>THE REST OF THE STATE CHAMPIONS</strong> North Tartan won three of the four top age groups in Division 1 and five of the eight D1 titles overall. North Tartan’s Southeast affiliate out of Rochester captured the 2026 Division 2 title giving the club six wins in total. The Minnesota Fury and 43 Hoops earned three titles each while Starks Elite of Duluth and the Minnesota Rise out of the New Ulm/Mankato region each took home a pair of wins. Although Twin Cities metro teams captured all of the D1 crowns there were eight champions in D2 and D3 from outstate clubs. Here are all of the state champions. <strong>Division 1</strong> <ul> <li>2023 – North Tartan EYBL</li> <li>2024 – North Tartan EYBL</li> <li>2025 – North Tartan NIke</li> <li>2026 – Minnesota Stars Hill</li> <li>2027 – 43 Hoops Elite</li> <li>2028 – North Tartan Nike</li> <li>2029 – North Tartan Nike</li> <li>2030 – Minnesota Fury Blue</li> </ul> <strong>Division 2</strong> <ul> <li>2023 – Starks Elite</li> <li>2024 – Minnesota Rise Schultz</li> <li>2025 – 43 Hoops Orange</li> <li>2026 – North Tartan Southeast</li> <li>2027 – Starks Elite</li> <li>2028 – Southwest Minnesota Fury</li> <li>2029 – 43 Hoops Black</li> <li>2030 – Minnesota Fury 2031</li> </ul> <strong>Division 3</strong> <ul> <li>2023 – West Central United</li> <li>2024 – Playmakers North</li> <li>2025 – St. Paul Saints</li> <li>2026 – Minnesota Rise Devlaeminck</li> <li>2027 – E1T1 Queens</li> <li>2028 – Edina</li> </ul>