Boys basketball: Dawson-Boyd Blackjacks battle with returning Heritage Christian Academy

MINNEAPOLIS — After ending a 34-year state absence, the Dawson-Boyd boys basketball team is zoned in.

Fresh off a 59-52 win over Hills-Beaver Creek in the Section 3A championship, the Blackjacks are back at state for the first time since 1991. They are the two seed in the Class A state tournament starting on Thursday at the Target Center.

“They’re focused enough and that’s one thing that as the season has gone along, they’ve proven that they’re a very composed group,” said D-B head coach Cory Larson, who was a member of that ‘91 tournament team.

“They achieved their goal of making a state tournament. Now you reset your goal and your next goal is to make it to a semifinal.”

In order to get to a semifinal, and hopefully a championship game after that, the Blackjacks have to get by a returning team in Heritage Christian Academy.

D-B and seventh-seeded Heritage square off at 3 p.m. Thursday.

Heritage (24-5) brings back all the key contributors from last year’s state team, according to head coach Tim Herman. The Eagles lost in the first round to West Central Area 64-53 before winning the next two and taking fifth place with the consolation championship over Russell-Tyler-Ruthton 63-62. Heritage also made state in 2018.

The Eagles won the Section 4A championship over Liberty Classical Academy 93-72.

“We’d like to make this an annual affair,” Herman said on coming back to the state tournament.

He continued, “A lot of these guys are playing AAU and they play in so many different venues and games, it’s not like when I was a kid where you’re shown a big like and your knees would start shaking. The guys don’t get that way anymore. The (state) experience is valuable.”

Heritage has five players scoring in double figures. Owen Haag, a 6-foot-3 senior wing, scores a team-high 18 points to go with 4.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game. Joshua Sokeye, a 6-0 senior guard, puts up 16.0 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 3.6 steals and 1.0 blocks a game. Jonah Moulton, a 5-11 senior wing, has hit a team-high 76 3-pointers for an average of 10.7 ppg.

The post is anchored by senior Abu Tarawallie. Tarawallie is a 6-foot-3, 280-pound post that is committed to play defensive line for the University of Minnesota football team. He averages 14.7 points, 11.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game.

Sophomore 6-7 post Aaron Palmer comes off the bench to average 11.2 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game.

Their four senior starters — Sockeye, Moulton, Haag and Tarawallie — have all scored 1,000 career points. The only other time a team has had four 1,000-point scorers in the same class was Eden Prairie in 2020.

“We have six starters, that’s how I phrase it,” said Herman, who has a 322-248 career record. “Every one of ‘em offers something different. Every one of them is unique and they offer a complementary piece. … We got guys who can score from the outside, we got guys who can slash, we’ve got two big guys we can go to. We’re pretty flexible and I’d like to think we can beat teams in a lot of different ways.”

D-B (27-3) offers plenty of size with seniors Brayson Boike and Drew Hjelmeland. The 6-8 Boike has put up 21.8 points, 9.8 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 1.7 steals and 1.4 blocks per game. He’s committed to play basketball at Division II Southwest Minnesota State. At 6-7, Hjelmeland has averages of 16.5 points, 9.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 1.7 steals and 1.7 blocks per game. He’s also hit a team-high 60 3-pointers at a 40% clip.

“That’s not a bad combo,” Herman said of Boike and Hjelmeland.

There is also 6-0 junior guard Gunner Liebl (18.9 ppg, 5.5 apg, 2.2 spg) and 6-3 sophomore guard Jaxton Hastad (9.6 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 1.4 spg) to worry about.

D-B is second among Class A tournament teams at 81.1 ppg. Heritage is fourth at 78.2. Top-seeded Cherry leads the pack at 89.2 ppg.

“They want to play fast, which is fine with us,” said Larson, whose career record is 365-165. “We’d like to play fast and slow them down. … We don’t want the tempo dictated by what they’re doing, which I think starts with defense and rebounding.”

Besides putting up the points, the Blackjacks come in as the stingiest defense in the Class A tournament at 49.1 points allowed per game. Henning is second at 49.6. Heritage allows 62.0 ppg, which is the most by any team in the Class A field.

“About two months ago is when it really switched for us,” Larson said of his team’s defense. “We started to invest more energy on the defensive end, getting into guys and playing more connected. We got a little more aggressive and increased intensity.

“If we wanted to get where we wanted to get, which we are now, we had to start to play better defense more consistently.”

D-B and Heritage both played Nevis and Central Minnesota Christian this season.

The Blackjacks beat Nevis 67-62 while the Eagles lost 77-62. Nevis is the four seed in the A tournament.

D-B went 3-0 against Camden Conference foe CMCS, including an 81-47 victory in the Section 3A-North championship. Heritage lost to CMCS, 61-52.

In hopes of breaking a three-decade state drought, D-B challenged itself this season. The Blackjacks’ three losses came against Cherry, the top seed in Class A, Albany, the top seed in Class AA, and Dell Rapids St. Mary’s, the No. 2 seed in South Dakota’s Class B tournament. Along with the Nevis win, the Blackjacks beat Montevideo in the regular season. Monte is the six seed in the AA tourney.

“Our non-conference schedule definitely helped us grow as a group,” Larson said.

D-B and Heritage met in the off-season at the Pacesetter Sweet 16 tournament in August. In a preseason tournament featuring four top teams from each class, the Blackjacks won that matchup, 68-53.

After a 34-year hiatus, D-B wants to make it a lengthy return. That’ll hopefully begin with a win in the opening round.

“It’s basketball, so anything can happen in the course of 36 minutes,” Larson said. “(Heritage) has some decent size, they got some kids who can score the basketball and some kids that can hit some outside shots. We have to make sure we find ways to keep them out of a rhythm.”

* Gunner Liebl, 6-0, junior guard

* Carson Stratmoen, 6-0, sophomore guard

* Brayson Boike, 6-8, senior guard/forward

* Drew Hjelmeland, 6-7, senior forward

* Jaxton Hastad, 6-3, sophomore forward

* Joshua Sokeye, 6-0, senior guard

* Jonah Moulton, 5-11, senior wing

* Owen Haag, 6-3, senior wing

* Griffin Booms, 5-10, junior guard

* Abu Tarawallie, 6-3, senior post

Thursday at Target Center

No. 1 Cherry vs. No. 8 BOLD, 11 a.m.

No. 4 Nevis vs. No. 5 Henning, 1 p.m.

No. 2 Dawson-Boyd vs. No. 7 Heritage Christian Academy, 3 p.m.

No. 3 Red Lake County vs. No. 6 Goodhue, 5 p.m.

Friday at Williams Arena

Semifinal winners, noon and 2 p.m.

Friday at Gangelhoff Center, St. Paul

Noon and 2 p.m.

Saturday

Championship: 11 a.m. at Williams Arena

Third-place: 10 a.m. at Concordia University’s Gangelhoff Center

Consolation: 8 a.m. at Concordia University’s Gangelhoff Center