No. 5 Chaska ends No. 1 Tartan’s undefeated season, advances to Class 4A boys basketball title game
Chaska, making just its second trip to state since its 2004 title, hands Tartan its first loss with a 60-51 semifinal win.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
The final buzzer at Williams Arena sounded just before Chaska junior guard Tyler Forrest rose for a final dunk in the Hawks’ state semifinal against Class 4A’s No. 1 seed, undefeated Tartan.
But instead of rushing to beat the final buzzer for a last-gasp winner, the No. 5-seeded Hawks weren’t seeking any dramatic heroics, just a euphoric punctuation on the second big upset of this year’s 4A tournament.
Chaska (27-4), making just its second trip to state since its 2004 title, handed Tartan (30-1) its first loss of the year with a 60-51 semifinal win.
The Hawks strung together a 9-0 run in the game’s final 4:49 to make it 24 straight victories after starting the season 3-4.
Both of the top seeds in the tournament have been eliminated; No. 7 Apple Valley upset defending champ No. 2 Wayzata in Tuesday’s quarterfinals. Chaska will face Apple Valley in Saturday’s 4A title game, set for 8 p.m. at Williams Arena, after the Eagles beat No. 3 Maple Grove 73-63 in the following semifinal.
“I don’t even see it as an upset, really,” said Forrest, an All-Minnesota honoree. “I trusted us the whole time. I mean, I know we got guys. I take us over anybody, really.”
Freshman forward Jed Keenan, playing big minutes off the Hawks’ deep bench, made two three-pointers in Chaska’s final push. He finished with 17 points, shooting 5-for-12 from three.
“Everybody’s believing in me, honestly,” Keenan said. “I don’t think one person on this team doubts me, and just having that belief just gives me confidence to shoot the ball over and over again.”
Chaska junior guard Kalin Jochum also finished with 17 points, and senior guard Evan Atkinson had 11. Senior forward Matthew Welter led the Hawks on the glass, with 10 rebounds in 14 minutes off the bench.
Forrest and sophomore forward Chase Maetzold — who combined for 34 points in their 71-53 quarterfinal win over Lakeville South — needed to score just six combined points to beat Tartan, finding other ways to impact the game, including Forrest’s eight assists.
“Just the depth that we have,” Keenan said, “we’ve got a lot of guys that can play.”
Related Coverage
Tartan had made it out of one of the state’s toughest sections for the first time since 2014 in hopes of adding to its 2000 title. The Titans jumped out to a 14-3 lead in the game’s first seven minutes, forcing five Chaska turnovers in that span. But the Hawks settled in, ending the half on a 16-5 run for a 27-25 halftime lead.
The Hawks shot 11-for-30 from deep, and when their shots weren’t falling, they were able to draw fouls, shooting 17-for-21 from the free-throw line, while Tartan was 5-for-8.
“They’re going to play up the line, and we knew they’re going to be one of the best defensive teams that we play, so obviously the counter is going to be going backdoor, getting downhill,” Jochum said. “I feel like that collapsed the defense, and then got us going to get our rhythm for three, and then, you know, a couple foul calls got our rhythm back.”
Three Titans — senior guard Jaylen Goergen (14 points), sophomore guard Kevin Wilson Jr. (12) and sophomore forward Emmanuel Oyesanmi (11) — finished in double figures.
But the Hawks managed to shut out Tartan out for the game’s final 4:49. They only posted three steals — to Tartan’s eight — but held Tartan to 30.8% shooting from the floor and 8-for-32 shooting from three.
“[Chaska] plays a little bit of a pack line. In other words, they’re backed off, and they got such great length,” Tartan coach Mark Klingsporn said. “[Against] great lengths, you’re required to hit some further shots, and then your shots aren’t falling, you know, that’s a little tougher. You don’t get as many easy baskets against them.”
“We cut their offensive rebounds in half between the first half and the second half,” Chaska coach Nick Hayes said. “That just speaks to our guys, just their toughness and their wanting, their ability to close games. They’ve done it now for a few months.”
“A few months” ago takes Chaska back to the end of December and a string of three losses to Wayzata, Eden Prairie and Prior Lake. Hayes held a film session, pointing to all the controllables that the team could fix.
“It’s one thing to push kids and call them out, saying, like, ‘We messed up, and this is why we lost.’ They could take [that] a lot of ways,” Hayes said. “They took it as, I think, a positive thing. And I just remember that next week was one of our best weeks this season.”
A strong week turned into a month, then two months, then a return to the state championship game.
“This team is just so special, like, the trust that we have in each other, how we play, the chemistry, like, it’s really special,” Forrest said. “You don’t really find that anywhere.”
About the Author
Cassidy Hettesheimer
Sports reporter
Cassidy Hettesheimer is a high school sports reporter for Strib Varsity.
See More
Comments