Class 4A, Section 8 went from being thought of as weak to one of the best in the state quickly. The two teams that figure to fight to represent that section in the state tournament went head-to-head Thursday night and if the result gave anything away, it’s that a second round would be highly anticipated.

St. Michael-Albertville, ranked No. 7 in Class 4A by Minnesota Basketball News, got 19 points from sophomore guard Mackenzie Kramer, 15 points from Jadyn Hanson and 14 points from sophomore forward Vanessa Alexander on the way to a 64-61 win over No. 8-4A Moorhead.

The Knights had to overcome quite a bit, namely 35 points from University of Nebraska recruit Sam Haiby and a boatload of turnovers to get the win. The win might not have been the prettiest, but it was monumental.

“It does a lot for us,” said St. Michael-Albertville coach Kent Hamre. “You only play them once. To come up here; it’s a hostile environment. Two heavyweights going at it, it’s great. [Moorhead coach Jed Carlson] has really turned this program around. They are one of the best teams in the state. Obviously one of the best players in the state [in Sam Haiby]. When you have a kid like her, she’s tough. She can take over the game. Our kids gutted it out. It’s a game that could go either way.”

The key to the game might’ve been Hamre’s decision to switch up defenses. St. Michael-Albertville played exclusively man-to-man defense in the first half and the Spuds got to the rim on practically every possession. The Knights switched to a 2-3 zone in the second half and it disrupted any sort of rhythm Moorhead had generated in the first frame.

Haiby finished the game with 35 points and scored the final 11 points for the Spuds. But that 11 point outburst came in the final two minutes when the Knights had already built up enough of a cushion to fend off a rally. They bottled her up effectively through a majority of the second half, cutting off any potential driving lanes and forcing the ball to other Moorhead shooters.

And on Thursday, the shots weren’t falling for the rest of the Spuds.

“That’s a key for us,” said Kramer. “We have to try to slow down their top scorers. [Haiby] is so good and it’s hard to stop her but we made her work for her points.”

Hamre commented on the second-half defensive switch.

“We switched to a zone, we saw in South Dakota they struggled against a zone a little bit,” said Hamre. “Jed will get that fixed I’m sure but it slowed them down a little bit. It’s about shots falling. We had some fall. They didn’t tonight.”

Hanson was a catalyst in the defensive effort at the top of the zone. Her ability to limit penetration and foce the Spuds to start their offense further away from the basket than normal changed the complexion of the game and was a big reason for why Moorhead scored just 18 points in the first 15 minutes of the second half.

St. Michael-Albertville struggled to take care of the ball for large portions of the game and finished with 17 turnovers — including several late that allowed Moorhead to stick around. The Spuds’ collective length was certainly a factor on the smaller St. Michael-Albertville guards, but when the Knights did get shots, they got high percentage ones.

Kramer was terrific, finishing with 19 points. More than her scoring output though, her ability to control the game and get St. Michael-Albertville into good offense was crucial in the middle stretch of the second half when the Knights earned the bit of breathing room they did.

The sophomore guard is one of the top players in the 2020 class and it showed as she consistently made good things happen with the ball against a top-notch team.

“I just focus on being calm, cool and collected,” said Kramer. “I hope that carries over with my teammates. I think we can all do that especially in games like this. This is a big one.”

It was everything a matchup between potential section final teams should be. If played again, it would likely go down to the wire. And if it is in fact a prelude to a section final game, both teams will have plenty of good and bad to draw on. This one might not matter a whole lot come March. For now that’s worth an awful lot.

“It means a lot especially considering last year, they kicked us out,” said Kramer. “That was like our first time in a long time not making it to state. We thought about that. So this was big for us.”

Hamre highlighted the significance of defeating a section opponent.

“For us this is a big section game,” said Hamre. “Elk River, Buffalo, Rogers; Maple Grove is playing good. There’s a lot of competition here so what used to be the weak sister of the state is now one of the toughest sections.”

If it were a seven game series, it might go six or seven games. But in a matchup featuring a pair of top-10 teams in the state, there needed to be a winner in Moorhead on Thursday night. And in a back-and-forth matchup, it was St. Michael-Albertville getting just enough stops and making just enough free throws to overcome a monster effort from Sam Haiby to beat Moorhead 64-61.

The Spuds' Haiby finished the game with 35 points but missed a potential game-tying three-pointer at the buzzer.

St. Michael-Albertville (5-2) got 19 points from sophomore guard Mackenzie Kramer and 15 points in addition to outstanding pressure defense from junior guard Jadyn Hanson in the win.

Neither team ever lead by more than six points but the Knights, who are ranked No. 7 in Class 4A by Minnesota Basketball News, used a 2-3 zone to their advantage in the second half, holding the No. 8-4A Spuds (7-2) to just 28 points while scoring their final eight points from the free throw line.

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