Richfield battles with top-seed in section loss

Zavier Hayes finishes with 12 points

On paper, it looked like a tough ask for No. 4 Richfield (16-12) to upset top-seed Benilde-St. Margaret’s in the Section 6AAA semifinal on Saturday in St. Louis Park.

In the end, the Red Knights (19-9) made enough plays on each end of the floor to secure a 91-72 win on the birthday of fifth-year head coach Damian Johnson.

“Guys were locked in. I think we did a lot of the little things real well and we just have to keep the same momentum,” the Red Knights coach said while his daughters patiently waited for their father with a piece of birthday cake on his 37th birthday.

The wrapped gift following the win – a rematch of last year’s section final which went to Orono 66-62 at neutral site Chanhassen High School. Orono went on to claim the third-place title at state last year.

This year the teams meet on the Red Knights court Thursday at 7 p.m. for the section title. BSM won both Metro West Conference meetings but Johnson says the section final rematch will be different because of what is at stake. BSM won at Orono 83-54 on Jan. 29 and the return game at Haben Center 85-68 on Feb. 23. Johnson said the possible section-final rematch is something they began preparing for soon after losing the section final in 2023.

Semifinal

BSM converted Richfield turnovers in the first half to take a 40-25 before the teams traded baskets in the second half by a 51-47 margin.

Spartans coach Omar McMillan liked the game plan the coaches drew up and worked on during practice all week but in the end, execution of that plan was lacking.

“Benilde played a really good team game and I’m not sure how I would describe it but our game plan wasn’t executed like we had worked on all week,” McMillan said. “I thought we still had a shot at it all game but they beat us with second-chance points and points off transition.”

BSM out-scored Richfield by 18 points in the first half to build a 45-20 halftime lead.

Each time Richfield tried to close the gap with a transition basket or turn a steal or in-bounds pass from their end of the court, BSM would respond with possession to not only push the lead but also eat up valuable seconds off the clock.

In the end, BSM’s depth was too much as Jayden Daisy led the way with 24 points and Jalen Wilson had 23. Abu Keita finished with 19 points and Ron Lee had 16 points.

Richfield junior standout guard CJ Armstrong had a game-high 25 points, despite being heavily guarded all game.

Senior David Lee finished with 20 points, piling up the points late and senior Zavier Hayes had 12 points. Freshman Dre Collins added eight points, Adin Inda had five points and Randy Logan had two points.

The post-season awards from the Tri-Metro Conference were released with Armstrong taking home Player of the Year honors and First Team All-Conference. Hayes also landed on the First Team All-Conference list joining honorable mention recipients Sanneh, Collins and Lee. Sannah was also named to the All-Defense team.

“We have a really good group and another really good group coming up next. The magnification will be on CJ and he deserves it but a lot of time people forget about freshman Dre Collins and seniors Zavier Hayes, David Lee and Musa Sanneh, When they are firing on all cylinders they are a tough team to beat. Add in sophomore Adin Inda coming off the bench and guys like freshman Tyrese Hagler with a big game against DeLaSalle or defensive specialist junior Derrick Brown. Even guys on the bench without playing time, we have to get them to believe they can help.”

McMillan pointed to the deep loss that is going to be felt on the team for this senior group. “Those were the glue guys who gave us so much success this year not to mention those guys who didn’t see a lot of playing time like Brennan Thimm and Randy Logan Jr. and our scout team against Mound Westonka.”

Looking ahead to the future of the program, McMillan believes the next group of Spartans will continue the recent winning legacy with a solid group of young men.

As for the tough losses coming into sections against two top-tier programs like Columbia Heights and Minneapolis South were both winnable games but for various reasons came up short in the end.

“Both were within our reach to win and in our eyes were bad losses but at the same time we can’t lose against those teams,” McMillan said after a 95-92 loss to Columbia Heights which finished one spot ahead of third-place Richfield in the Tri-Metro Conference. Richfield closed out the regular season at RHS with a 97-94 loss to Minneapolis South.