Opening the season with three consecutive losses is a distant memory for the Benilde-St. Margaret’s girls basketball team. The losses were to Minnetonka and Hopkins of Class AAAA and Dowling Catholic in Iowa. 

Playing those teams early was a benchmark for where the Red Knights wanted to be at the tail end of the season: In a position to win a third consecutive Class AAA championship. 

Top-seeded Benilde-St. Margaret’s took another step toward that objective with a 60-52 victory over No. 5 Alexandria Area in the Class AAA semifinals on Thursday, March 13 at Williams Arena on the University of Minnesota campus. 

Sophomore guard Sydney Friedly scored 20 points and had three assists to fuel the Red Knights (25-6). While Benilde-St. Margaret’s maintained comfortable leads throughout, they connected on a handful of free throws in the final minutes when Alexandria Area (25-5) was attempting to carve into the deficit. 

Sophomore guard Pressley Watkins chipped in nine points and senior guard Kendall McGee added eight. 

Awaiting Benilde-St. Margaret’s in their quest for a three-peat is either No. 3 Marshall or No. 7 Cretin-Derham Hall. They played in the second semifinal. Cretin-Derham Hall upended No. 2 Monticello in the quarterfinals on Wednesday while Marshall defeated No. 6 Rock Ridge. 

Benilde-St. Margaret’s is hoping to become the sixth girls basketball program to claim three consecutive championships. The others are: New York Mills (1977-79); Minneapolis North (2003-05); DeLaSalle (2011-13); Hopkins (2011-13) and Providence Academy (2022-24). 

Providence Academy, the top seed in the Class AA field, is on course to become Minnesota’s first four-peat champion in girls basketball. Class AA will continue with its semifinals on Friday evening. 

In reaching another Class AAA championship game, Benilde-St. Margaret’s built a 34-20 halftime advantage behind 11 points from Friedly, who made three three-pointers in the opening 18 minutes of play. The Red Knights closed the half on a 15-3 run.

Alexandria Area senior forward Hadley Thul paced the Cardinals with 18 points and nine rebounds while senior guard Chloe Scholl added 15.