Rosemount wins 4A girls basketball championship

The Minnesota Star Tribune

March 15, 2026 at 12:06 AM

When the Rosemount girls basketball team wins a road game, the Irish clamber aboard the team bus and wait for the joyous feeling of the ground to give out beneath them.

That’s when they know they are descending the hill that leads down to their school. Only then will they begin to sing their fight song, trying to time it exactly so that they bellow the last “Irish” as they reach the front door.

After upsetting defending champion Hopkins 63-62 to claim Rosemount’s first Class 4A girls basketball state title on Saturday, March 14, at Williams Arena, the No. 2-seeded Irish knew they would be singing the loudest, most rambunctious fight song of the season, and that a crowd would be waiting to celebrate in the gym once they were done.

Not even an incoming blizzard could stop the euphoria of the bus’ descent.

“This team’s found a way all year,” Rosemount coach Chris Orr said. “We’re going to find a way tonight.”

Against Hopkins, the program that holds a state-record nine championships, the Irish found a way while trailing 60-53 with five minutes remaining. Rosemount (29-3) stitched together a 10-2 run over the final five minutes and denied Hopkins a good look at a buzzer-beater.

“There’s never a moment that was too big for this group,” Orr said.

Before halftime, Hopkins (27-3) had wrestled away Rosemount’s quick start, and the Royals, up 32-29 at halftime, led for the first 13 minutes of the second half until buckets from Rosemount junior guard Amisha Ramlall and sophomore guard Ashna Ramlall sparked the Irish’s late push.

Sisters Amisha and Ashna led the Irish with 20 and 16 points, respectively, while Ashna grabbed a team-high six rebounds.

Amisha, an All-Minnesota Gophers commit, got to the rim often, scoring 15 points in the second half as Hopkins paid more attention — “every bit of it,” said Royals coach Tara Starks — to the Irish’s perimeter threats. The Irish were uncharacteristically low volume from three-point range (2-for-8) headed into the final five minutes.

“They shoot the ball way too well to give up uncontested shots, so that was the main focus defensively,” Starks said.

Related Coverage

Relive the moments: Rosemount upsets Hopkins; Providence Academy and BSM defend titles; St. Mary’s wins 1A

It was, essentially, the opposite of what Rosemount knew it had to do to slow down the Royals in the post.

“If they’re going to beat us, they’re going to beat us from the outside,” Orr said. Hopkins couldn’t get those outside shots to fall, going only 3-for-18 on threes. “We’re going to collapse everybody and anybody inside,” Orr added.

The Irish owned a 38-34 edge in points in the paint, but when they had to, they pulled back and shot from deep. Back-to-back three-pointers from sophomore Kaylee Dilger (her first points of the night) and junior Gianna Carpentier (10 points) gave Rosemount a three-point lead with 3:19 to play.

Amisha had the assists on both threes for two of her game-high eight dimes, playing on her future college court.

“Being denied obviously opens up a lot for my teammates,” Amisha said. “And my teammates are very good basketball players, so if you take away one person, obviously you open up another ... That’s nothing really new for us.”

Hopkins junior forward Erma Walker, who finished with 14 points and nine rebounds, hit a jumper with 2:54 left to put her team within one. As it turned out, those were the final points of the game. Two missed Irish free throws in the final seconds teed up Royals chances to retake the lead, but they came up empty-handed on an inbound play from the Irish baseline with 3.6 seconds left.

The play, which Starks said was intended to be a lob to Walker, broke down. Rosemount junior guard Isla Silk got a hand on a baseline jumper from Jaliyah Diggs, who led the Royals with 20 points and eight rebounds. Attempts at a buzzer-beating put-back couldn’t find the rim.

“I was just trying not to foul, make her have a good contested shot,” said Silk, who finished with 12 points and four key rebounds. “I knew the rest of my teammates were going to get the ball, make it hard for them.”

Said Orr: “Our keyword for tonight — relentless. Just being aggressive, and that’s kind of what [Hopkins is] known for. And we ... wanted as best as we could give it right back to them.”

BOXSCORE: Rosemount 63, Hopkins 62

Both this Irish team and the Irish program are no strangers to close games. That’s how they lost the 2021 state title to Chaska, on a game winner with just over 5 seconds to play. That’s how this year’s squad beat Rochester Mayo 65-64 in a state semifinal two days earlier.

But that prepared them for this moment, and it made the bus ride home feel even sweeter, descending that hill with the program’s first state trophy.

“It means the world,” Amisha said. “This is the first in our program history, and obviously the players before they set the standard for us. ... It’s the best feeling you could ever ask for.”