In a game that was intense from start to finish, DeLaSalle finished the grittiest, topping Benilde-St. Margaret’s 55-46 on Thursday at Target Center and moving on to the Class 3A championship game for the third time in five years.

With 20 seconds left, Allina Starr placed a perfect layup that started the bench and crowd roaring and made it a reality for many of the girls, for the first time.

“Making it to the championship is something amazing,” DeLaSalle’s Mariah Adanene said. “Me and Tyseanna [Johnson] just got pumped up and said, ‘Let’s go!’”

The Red Knights, and Grace Coughlin’s two early three-pointers, dictated the pace at the start of the game, with DeLaSalle playing from a step behind, but the Islanders claimed possession on a burst of outside shots, including two three-pointers from Johnson. Claire Thomas sank a 15-footer to keep DeLaSalle up 26-24 at halftime.

“It was really intense,” Adanene said. “Everyone was yelling at each other, but we all knew, ‘OK, we got to do what we got to do and play our roles.’”

In the second half, despite Khadijah Shumpert’s 12-point half for the Red Knights, DeLaSalle took the winning end of seven lead changes. With just over three minutes remaining, Adanene netted two free throws to create some breathing room, and the Islanders held the Red Knights to three points after that.

“It was the heart of the kids — they wanted it,” coach Faith Johnson Patterson said. “Earlier in the season, they beat Benilde, so they knew they could do it, so I think the confidence and the fact that they wanted it really badly is what carried us through.”