Totino-Grace wins MN 2026 3A basketball state championship

The Minnesota Star Tribune

March 28, 2026 at 6:01 PM

If DeLaSalle was the premier Class 3A boys basketball dynasty in the 2010s, Totino-Grace has made its case that this is the Eagles’ decade.

No. 1 seed Totino-Grace defeated No. 2 DeLaSalle 72-70 at Williams Arena on Saturday, March 28, to secure its fourth Class 3A state title in five years.

The Islanders raised seven championship banners between 2012 and 2019. Then, starting in 2022, the Eagles won their first three state titles, back-to-back-to-back, until falling to eventual champ Alexandria in last year’s quarterfinals.

Totino-Grace senior guard Tian Chatman had watched his older brother, Taison, now a guard at Ohio State, help the Eagles to those first two trophies, both over DeLaSalle. Totino-Grace head coach Nick Carroll showed his team footage of the final seconds of those two games ahead of this year’s state tournament.

And Chatman was the final player with the ball in his hands Saturday. He scooped up a loose ball for a post-buzzer dunk as he and junior guard Malachi Hill locked up the Islanders in the backcourt in the game’s final seconds, preventing a chance at a game-winner.

“We actually talked about before, we just want to hype the crowd up, bring the energy,” said Chatman of his final play. He got pregame words of advice from his brother: “Make sure you get it done.”

Totino-Grace, its roster rolling deep, got it done, behind 19 points off the bench from junior guard Jaylan Hynes and a double-double from All-Minnesota senior forward Dothan Ijadimbola — even when the Islanders cut it close late.

After facing a 10-point deficit at halftime, DeLaSalle was better able to find sophomore forward Ichima Idoko (23 points) and junior guard Deon Wallace-Johnson (19 points) at the rim in the second half. The Islanders trimmed the lead to one point twice after halftime — first with 8:01 left in the game, then again with 7.1 seconds left.

Trailing 71-67, DeLaSalle’s All-Minnesota junior guard Jaedan Udean drew a foul on a narrowly missed three-point attempt. Both Islanders and Eagles clutched their heads after what could have been a game-tying four-point play.

“If that [three] goes in, maybe it’s a tie game,” DeLaSalle head coach Todd Anderson said. “For us, I think it’s one of those [games], couldn’t quite get over the hump, you know. And I think we had our chances, but to their credit, they made the plays when they needed to make the plays.”

Udean sank all three free throws, but the Islanders were forced to foul, and they sent Hill to the line, where he went 1-for-2. The Eagles went into a full-court press for the final turnover and Chatman’s steal sealed the victory.

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“Deon had done such a good job getting downhill,” Carroll said. “We wanted to make sure that he didn’t catch with a head of steam. Malachi did a great job.”

As did Hynes, who in 20 minutes of game time shot 5-for-6 from three. The Eagles shot 10-for-22 from deep as a team, while the Islanders were 6-for-21.

Hynes also helped the Eagles’ bench outscore the Islanders’, 27-12, and helped Totino-Grace outshoot the Islanders at the free-throw line (14-for-17, vs. 18-for-27).

“It’s nothing new. Jaylan’s a beast,” Eagles senior forward Luther Bunge said.

Chatman finished with 13 points and six rebounds. Ijadimbola, a Drake commit, had a 13-point, 10-rebound double-double and added four assists, two steals and a block. Both had played in the Eagles’ 2024 championship victory as sophomores and felt the sting of last year’s loss, but knew their team’s ceiling.

“We came into the season wanting to go undefeated,” Ijadimbola said. The Eagles (27-2) dropped back-to-back games against Wayzata and East Ridge but hadn’t lost since Jan. 2. “Coach Nick has talked about it all season, those links we have, we’re all tied in together, and everyone has each other’s back.”

Carroll knows part of Totino-Grace’s strength is its depth, and its players’ resulting willingness to trade personal minutes and stats for team success. When he referees scrimmages between the starters and the younger reserves at practice, he said, “It’s a road game for the starters, every day.”

“We push each other every single day to that excellent standard,” Eagles senior guard DeAngelo Dungey said.

But ahead of the title game on March 28, Carroll texted his four seniors — Ijadimbola, Chatman, Bunge and Dungey, who joined the team this season from Breck — a simple message: “Seniors run this team.” The Eagles had run into senior-driven teams in Alexandria and Orono in last year’s tournament.

He needed his upperclassmen leaders to be among the Eagles’ most motivated players in order to beat a DeLaSalle crew (28-4) that was young, with just one graduating player, but also repped a program where the annual expectation is to contend for a title.

“To earn the right to feel pressure in these situations and not just feel like you’re lucky to be here is a privilege that very few are afforded,” Carroll said, “and so we try to help these guys embrace it and make each season their own, which these guys did an amazing job of this year.”