Finalists for Miss and Mr. Basketball, the top high school seniors of the year, are revealed

After one state tournament and before another, the Mr. and Miss Basketball committees pared down their list of finalists for the yearly awards to the best girls and boys high school basketball seniors in the state.

The Miss Basketball list has six finalists: 5-11 guard Elisabeth Gadient of Goodhue; 5-7 guard Liv McGill of Hopkins; 6-1 guard Tori McKinney of Minnetonka; 6-1 guard Olivia Olson of Benilde-St. Margaret’s; 6-3 forward Alyssa Sand of Albany; and 5-11 guard Jordan Zubich of Mountain Iron-Buhl.

McKinney has signed with the Gophers. McGill (Florida), Olson (Michigan) and Zubich (North Carolina) are high-major Division I recruits. Sand is bound for St. Thomas, and Gadient is headed to Minnesota State Mankato. All six played in the state tournament, and McKinney (Class 4A), Olson (Class 3A) and Gadient (Class 1A) won championships.

The list of Mr. Basketball candidates was trimmed to five: 6-3 guard Isaac Asuma of Cherry; 6-3 guard Casmir Chavis of Park Center; 6-2 guard Daniel Freitag of Breck; 6-7 forward Isaiah Johnson-Arigu of Totino-Grace; and 6-9 forward Jackson McAndrew of Wayzata.

Asuma has signed with the Gophers. The other four are also high-major Division I recruits. Chavis is headed to Washington, Freitag to Wisconsin, Johnson-Arigu to Miami (Florida) and McAndrew to Creighton. They are also all qualified for the state tournament, Chavis and McAndrew in Class 4A, Johnson-Arigu in Class 3A, Freitag in Class 2A, and Asuma in Class 1A.