St. Michael-Albertville Tops Buffalo for Trip to State

St. Michael-Albertville, who suffered heartbreak last season, thought they might watch another State 4A girls' basketball tournament appearance slip away when Buffalo's Alexa Thielman hit a three-pointer from about 25 feet to force overtime in the Section 8 championship game.

But Christine Thorn and Rachel Valley, two seniors who watched last year's team fall in the second half in the championship game between these same two teams, wouldn't let it happen.

Thorn and Valley combined for six points in the overtime, and Knights pulled out a 58-55 victory to send coach Kent Hamre and St. Michael-Albertville to the State Girls' Basketball tournament for the third time in four years, second in Class 4A.

"This group is just a great bunch that has really contributed a lot to St. Michael-Albertville girls basketball over the last four years," Hamre said of his seniors, including Valley, Thorn, Courtney Rottenberger and Maggie Casey.

STMA had stretches of dominance, but the Bison, who beat the Knights twice during the regular season, used a career night from Thielmann and a great performance from Jamie High to keep coming back.

Still, it was Thorn on offense, and Valley on defense down low, that punched the Knights' ticket to state.

"We know they're a great team, but we knew we had some chances and just didn't take advantage of them. If we play our game, we can compete with anyone, we think," Thorn said.