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North Branch and Chisago Lakes traded proverbial blows in the regular season with the Wildcats winning the first meeting and the Vikings securing the second. 

When the two squads met in the Section 7AAA semifinals last week, there was much more on the line than a simple blemish on the win/loss column. Both teams’ seasons were on the line in the do-or-die contest.

Led by Zander Schmidt, who took a leading role in the game after playing Robin to Patrick Rowe’s Batman most of the season, the Wildcats jumped out to a double digit lead by halftime and then held off a late charge from North Branch to win 69-62 and advance to the section finals against Hermantown and end the Vikings’ season.

Chisago Lakes’ defense came to play in the contest, holding the potent NB offense to just 62 points, and star shooter Tyler Minke to just 15 points, six under his season average.

For Chisago Lakes, Schmidt led the way with 23 points — the first time this year someone other than Rowe led the Wildcats in scoring — by knocking down some open threes and driving aggressively to the basket. Rowe still had a strong game, netting 20 points in the win for Chisago Lakes.

After the two stars, there was a nice balance in scoring for the ‘Cats. Ian Larsen had seven, Kellen Meissner and Riley Estes each had six and Ben Paulsen added five.

For the Vikings, their season ended a bit shy of expectations. Evan Overson had a great game against CL, scoring 20 points, with Brody Beaver adding 16 and Minke chipping in his 15. But the Vikes couldn’t get any more offense going outside of these guys,  with the rest of the squad combining for just 11 points.

The Vikings, who had beat some of the best teams in the conference and lost to some of the worst teams, ended their season with a fairly fitting 14-14 mark.

With the win, Chisago Lakes moves on to play Hermantown for a shot to get into the Class AAA state tournament. The game is tonight Thursday, March 14 at Duluth Denfeld.

The Wildcats and Hawks tangled just two and a half weeks ago and put on one of the best games of the year in the state, with the Hawks winning 104-101 in regulation. It’s uncommon for a team to reach triple digits in high school basketball, and downright rare for both teams to get there without the help of overtime.

Hermantown is led by Abraham Souris, who scored 48 against the ‘Cats in that game. The fireworks are set to light off at 7 p.m. in the Denfeld gym. Chisago Lakes is trying to make their first trip to the state tournament since the 2016 squad. A win would mean CL’s fourth trip to state in history after 1983, 1997 and 2016.

Hermantown has been a regular lately, going four times in the last nine years, including trips in 2015, 2018, 2022 and 2023.

NORTH BRANCH BESTS CLOQUET IN ROUND 1

The Vikings advanced to the semis against Chisago Lakes with a 95-87 win over the sixth seeded Cloquet Lumberjacks on Wednesday, March 6.

Evan Overson had a double-double for the Vikes with 18 points and 11 rebounds, and Tyler Minke and Noah Thorsen combined for 47 points to help North Branch hold off Cloquet.

CL BLOWS OUT T’HAWKS

Chisago Lakes got to the section semis with a convincing 82-57 win over the seventh seeded Grand Rapids Thunderhawks on Wednesday, March 6.

The scoring was spread around as the lead grew bigger for CL. Rowe led the way with 20 points, Schmidt had 18, Larsen chipped in 13, Ben Paulsen had 10 and Kellen Meissner had nine points for the ‘Cats.

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