Benilde-St. Margaret’s romps past DeLaSalle to Class 3A girls basketball state championship

A special six minutes made Benilde-St. Margaret’s a state champion Saturday.

The Red Knights made a 15-point run early in the second half and sprinted away from DeLaSalle, claiming the Class 3A girls basketball championship 81-58 at Williams Arena.

The top-seeded Red Knights spread those 15 points over a 6-minute, 2-second span.

Olivia Olson dominated the first half with 21 points, helping the Red Knights take a 44-39 lead into halftime. But Olson wasn’t the one driving that 15-point burst. That was Zahara Bishop, who scored six of her 11 points in that stretch despite other concerns.

“I knew coming into the second half I was in foul trouble. So I wasn’t really focused on points,” Bishop said. “I was more focused on defense and getting the ball to [teammates] the best I can.”

Olson, an All-Metro first-team pick who is committed to Michigan for college, did not score her first basket of the second half until the 11:08 mark. She finished the game with 30 points, 15 rebounds and six assists.

Benilde-St. Margaret’s was the top seed and ranked second in Class 3A by Minnesota Basketball News. DeLaSalle was seeded first but ranked second.

The Islanders (27-4) got off to a hot start, shooting well over 60% through most of the first half. It took five missed shots in a row starting with 4:18 left in the first half to get the Islanders down to 50% at halftime. Things continued that way, and they finished the game making only 39.2%.

“A few missed shots here and there and then, [against] their zone, us not executing the way we needed to,” Islanders coach James Fassett said.

Aneisha Scott, the Islanders’ leading scorer in the regular season at 17.9 points per game, had 15 points in 19 minutes. Her playing time was limited in the second half after she picked up her fourth foul with 13:06 left. It made a difference, Red Knights coach Tim Ellefson said.

“Aneisha is a great player. She is a handful to guard,” he said. “We didn’t game-plan on her getting fouls. It just happened that way. She had some tough luck … being in the wrong place at the wrong time type of thing. That’s part of the game, and handling fouls is a difficult thing. Definitely a big impact on the game.”

The Red Knights (27-5) finished the season on a 24-game winning streak. Their last loss came Dec. 22 — to the Islanders.