The high school winter sports season official comes to an end today when four schools hoist championship trophies inside Williams Arena, culminating the five-day Minnesota boys basketball state tournament.

Hills-Beaver Creek is the first champion, claiming the 1A title.

Totino-Grace and DeLaSalle are playing for the 3A championship.

The tournament began with 32 schools, grouped into four classifications based on school enrollment grades 9-12. If you missed the first four days of the tournament, here are the live blog replays:

• Day 4 (1A and 2A semifinals)
• Day 3 (4A, 3A semifinals and 1A quarterfinals
• Day 2 (3A & 2A quarterfinals)
• Day 1 (4A & 2A quarterfinals)

View the complete brackets for 4A, 3A, 2A and 1A and follow live scores on our boys basketball hub.

Scroll through the updates below to catch up on Saturday’s games:

. . .

No slow starts in this one

Class 3A final

DeLaSalle struck first with a pair of three-pointers from junior guard Deon Wallace-Johnson and sophomore forward Ichima Idoko. There’s only one senior, forward Evan Miller, rostered on this Islanders team.

But a 7-0 Totino-Grace run, with five points from senior Tian Chatman, puts the Eagles up briefly. It’s been back-and-forth since, early. Idoko hits another three to give the Islanders a 11-7 lead, 4:20 into the first half.

— Cassidy Hettesheimer

Top seeds meet in 3A title game

Class 3A championship

This year’s Class 3A title game features no scrappy, unprecedented underdog making a push for its program’s first state title. Few programs have the recent championship pedigree of No. 1 Totino-Grace (26-2) or No. 2 DeLaSalle (28-3).

The Eagles, who haven’t lost since Jan. 2, are trying to make it four 3A titles in five years after being knocked out in the quarterfinals of last season’s tournament.

Meanwhile, DeLaSalle has 12 MSHSL titles (including six straight from 2012-17); the Islanders, on their 15th consecutive trip to state, are trying for their first championship since 2019, having been bounced by Totino-Grace in the 2022, 2023 and 2024 postseasons.

Read more about the high championship standards of these two programs here.

Both teams’ rosters are deep in talent and athleticism, but keep an eye out for their All-Minnesota players, Totino-Grace’s Dothan Ijadimbola and DeLaSalle’s Jaedan Udean.

Ijadimbola, a 6-6 senior forward committed to Drake, started the Eagles’ 2024 state title game and averaged 18 points per game this season. He had 12 points, five rebounds, three assists, four steals and a block in Totino-Grace’s 89-61 semifinal win over Northfield.

Udean, a 6-2 junior guard, can launch a shot from just about anywhere, averaging a team-high 15 points per game for the Islanders this winter. He scored 19 points on 7-for-11 shooting in an electric 73-70 semifinal victory over conference rival Richfield.

— Cassidy Hettesheimer

Final: Hills-Beaver-Creek 64, Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton 33

Class 1A championship

Senior Jamin Metzger finished with 22 points and 13 rebounds to lead Hills-Beaver-Creek to its first basketball state title in a 64-33 win against Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton at Williams Arena.

Metzger, who also was the nine-man championship quarterback, scored 14 points in the second half for the Patriots (30-3), who led 32-9 at halftime.

Senior Micah Bush and junior Riggins Rhenault also combined for 23 points and 16 rebounds for HBC, which held its opponent to 24% shooting from the field in the game.

The Bulldogs (30-4) cut a 23-point deficit to 37-26 after Daulton Bauer’s layup with 13:32 left in the second half, but they couldn’t get the margin under double figures. Sophomore Gavin Bauer led J-W-P with 11 points.

— Marcus Fuller

HBC’s leading scorer could really sling the football, too

Class 1A final

Jamin Metzger, the top scorer in the Class A basketball title game today, was the star quarterback of Hills-Beaver Creek’s nine-man football championship team in the fall.

How good was the 6-5 senior’s performance in the Prep Bowl? Well, here was what Strib Varsity wrote about Metzger when he made the all-tournament team in football.

— Marcus Fuller

Halftime: Hills-Beaver Creek 32, Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton 9

Class 1A final

It was supposed to be a championship battle, but it looked more like a wipeout at the hands of Hills-Beaver Creek in the first half of today’s Class A final at the Barn.

The Patriots, who won the nine-man football title, used their size and physicality to completely dominate and disrupt Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton, which shot just 12.5% from the field (3-for-24) in the first half. The Bulldogs were outscored 19-3 to end the half after pulling within 13-6 at 9:47. They only made one field goal the rest of the half after that point.

Gavin Bauer led J-W-P with four points on 2-for-5 shooting, but the rest of his team shot 1-for-19 from the field. The only field goal other than Bauer came trailing 28-9 with 1:39 to play in the half.

HBC shot 46% from the field in the first half and was led by Jamin Metzger and Riggins Rhenault with a combined 15 points. The Patriots were dominant with 22-11 rebounding edge and 20-4 points in the paint advantage.

— Marcus Fuller

Nothing going offensively for Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton in first half

Class 1A final

The Bulldogs picked the worst time to have their roughest shooting start of the state tournament. They opened today’s Class A final shooting 2-for-16 from the field, including 0-for-6 from three-point range to trail 16-6 with 5:45 remaining in the first half. Hills-Beaver Creek isn’t shooting much better at 5-for-17.

But Gavin Bauer has the only two field goals, including a layup to make it 13-6 at the 9:47 mark, which ended a near eight-minute drought from the field. Gavin Bauer’s teammates have started the game going 0-for-11 from the field.

— Marcus Fuller

Hills-Beaver Creek sets tone with big run to start first half

Class 1A final

Hills-Beaver Creek took already won a nine-man football championship with this same squad. It knows that how you start can set the tone for the rest of the game.

The Patriots used an 13-0 run in the first half to make a statement to open today’s Class A basketball championship vs. Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton at the Barn.

Riggins Rhenault had seven of his team’s first 11 points, but it was Karson Metzger and Jamin Metzger baskets that made it 13-3 with 10:41 to play in the first half. HBC started shooting only 4-for-13 from the field, but it made 5-for-5 free throws to that point. J-W-P started 1-for-9 from the field.

— Marcus Fuller

J-W-P starts things off with ‘Bauer Power’

Class 1A final

Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton fans call brothers Gavin and Daulton Bauer their “Bauer Power” tandem. Makes sense since they’re the leading scorers on the team and combined for 61 points in the Class A quarterfinals this week.

In Saturday’s championship game, Gavin started the game off with a layup and Daulton hit 1-for-2 free throws for a 3-0 start, but that lead didn’t last.

Hills-Beaver Creek responded with a 5-0 run to take the lead on a three-point play from Riggins Rhenault.

— Marcus Fuller

Expect physical, competitive action with Hills-Beaver Creek vs. J-W-P

Class 1A championship

Hills-Beaver Creek boys basketball coach Chad Rauk knew no opponent would be physically tougher than his team, with nearly an entire roster also members of the school’s Nine-Player state championship football team.

The Patriots were known for gridiron greatness, but they also changed the perception that they could be a basketball school as well this year.

Reaching the first state tournament in program history was probably enough to gain respect in hoops, but No. 5 seed Hills-Beaver Creek made it to today’s Class 1A championship against No. 3 seed Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton at Williams Arena.

If Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton’s going to keep Hills-Beaver Creek from doubling up on state titles Saturday, it will need another stellar effort from Daulton and Gavin Bauer, who also play football.

Continue reading: The Patriots, who won the 9-Player football title in the fall, are led by two-sport standouts … but so is Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton