Show up at the Target Center on the basketball season's final day and leave with a state championship trophy.
A hoop dream many players never fulfil is routine for current DeLaSalle players. For six straight years they haven't known any other reality.
A 72-44 rout of Austin earned the Islanders an unprecedented sixth consecutive state title and 11th overall.
Stifling man-to-man defense and big scoring nights from star players pushed No. 1 seed DeLaSalle (27-3) to a third title-game defeat of No. 2 seed Austin (29-3) in five seasons.
Senior forward Goanar Mar and junior guard Gabe Kalscheur led the Islanders' latest mountaintop ascent. Mar scored 28 points and Kalscheur added 20. They set the defensive tone by tying for the team lead with three steals.
"Our defensive effort tonight was phenomenal," DeLaSalle coach Dave Thorson said. "When your two best offensive players still play with such passion and fever and such intensity on the defensive end … I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am as a coach."
Austin coach Kris Fadness, now 1-3 in title games against Thorson, saw a devastating new weapon in Saturday's matchup.
Speed.
"They all get up and down the floor," Fadness said. "When you compare them to past teams, this team can run."
Heeding Thorson's season-long mantra of pressure and pace, DeLaSalle rushed to a 9-0 lead less than four minutes into the game. Kalscheur and Mar combined for all nine points while Austin committed three turnovers and missed its first two shots.
"I thought coming in that we could handle it, and we were ready. I was wrong," Fadness said. "This game is on me more than anybody else because I did not have us ready for that."
Blasted out of a cannon to start the second half, Kalscheur and Mar again combined for nine unanswered points — each player threw down a fast-break dunk — and DeLaSalle led 41-23.
"We had to come out and step on their throats and just end the game," Kalscheur said.
"Game over when they went on that run right away," said Fadness, who got a combined 24 points from brothers Both and Duoth Gach.
Mar, who has signed with George Mason University, leaves the Islanders with four consecutive state championships. "It's special," Mar said. "I wouldn't want to go out any other way."
Kalscheur, who is drawing Division I college interest, called Saturday's victory "unbelievable but satisfying at the same time. We're used to it but we know we have to play 100 percent each game."
