Breck boys basketball notched a historic section championship title last week to a spot at the 2024 MSHSL Class AA state tournament for the first time since 2006.
First seed Breck started the week with an 87-61 win over rivals fifth seed Blake on March 13, earning their ticket to the Section 5AA final two days later. It was a victory that gave the full Mustangs roster time to shine.
JP Musoke led the scoring against Blake with 25 points. Hanif Muhammad and Daniel Freitag added 18 and 17 points in the semifinal win.
The win means that Breck has completed a full season sweep of their rivals, beating Blake three times this season with 95-55 and 83-66 victories in the regular season.
Breck then made program history two days later as they beat Minneapolis North, ranked second in both the Class AA standings and in Section 5AA, 91-74 at Augsburg University to earn their first section championship and state tournament qualification since 2006. The Mustangs enter the state tournament with just one loss all season to their name.
The night did not start perfectly. In fact, it was North who came out with the higher energy on Friday, taking an early lead and limiting Breck to just a few points across the first six minutes. The Mustangs responded, finding their scoring confidence while working to react better to the physicality and skill of North’s Jordan Hurd, Zashon Rich, and J’Marion Sanders.
The script had very much flipped by the time 10 minutes had passed, with Breck now ahead 28-14. Freitag, Muhammad, DeAngelo Dungey, Musoke, and Mile Newton were all protagonists as Breck built a dominant 50-34 lead by halftime. North was forced to take a late timeout to readjust after a Freitag dunk in the final minute showing just how much the momentum had changed.
North scored several points before the halftime buzzer to narrow the gap but were still 16 points adrift.
North came out of halftime looking far more confident and did find some points to show it. Breck managed the situation well, avoiding panic and controlling the storyline with their play. North did close the gap to five points multiple times, but Breck reacted by simply taking the initiative and going on scoring runs of their own.
That maturity proved to be the answer as Breck survived North’s final efforts and won 91-74, bringing the game to a close in an Augsburg gymnasium filled to the brim with fans from both schools.
Muhammad and Freitag ended the night tied as top point scorers on the night with 27 points each against North. Musoke added 13 points.
Breck boys basketball head coach Harry Sonie, who took over the position last season, spoke to how much the championship means to a program that has not always had trophies to celebrate.
“You can look around and see all the fans we brought out tonight. We haven’t been to the state tournament since 2006. The basketball culture was a little down over the years, so to bring the culture and the community back means everything to us, not just tonight but all season. The support we’ve gotten has been amazing.”
Sonie noted that the team prepared for big challenges with a highly challenging regular season schedule, one they came out of with just one loss.
“Our schedule prepared us all year. We went 5-1 against Class AAAA teams, we went 3-0 against Class AAA teams, and we played all the top AA teams so we’ve been in this environment before. We’ve been in big games all year. So today was just about coming out and doing what we’re doing.”
Sonie’s note on Breck’s schedule this regular season is truthful. Breck beat North 90-75 in the regular season and showed out in several wins against upper-class teams like Hopkins, Osseo, Southwest, Eastview, Columbia Heights, Apple Valley and Southwest.
Breck boys basketball will now take part in the MSHSL Class AA state tournament as the first seed, starting with a quarterfinal matchup against Waseca at Williams Arena on Mar. 20.
Following last week's results, University of Wisconsin commit Daniel Freitag was named to the final five for the Mr. Basketball award alongside Cherry's Isaac Asuma, Park Center's Casmir Chavis, Wayzata's Jackson Andrew, and Totino-Grace's Isaiah Johnson-Arigu. Freitag was also named to the all-metro first team.
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