Boys Basketball 2025: Dawson-Boyd dethrones Cherry to claim Class A championship

In a back-and-forth Class A Boys Basketball state championship game, Dawson-Boyd produced the decisive run. 

A championship run. 

The Blackjacks outscored Cherry 17-4 during a pivotal part of the second half, taking a 69-61 lead they didn’t relinquish to claim their first state title, 81-74, Saturday at Williams Arena on the University of Minnesota campus. 

“It’s a little town’s dream come true,” Dawson-Boyd junior guard Gunner Liebl said.  

The key stretch in the first half was 11-2 in favor of No. 2 seed Dawson-Boyd (30-3) to take a 28-19 lead. It was 38-32 at the break, but the top-seeded, defending champion Tigers (31-2) didn’t go quietly. 

Cherry scored 13 straight points to take a 55-51 lead. Drew Hjelmeland’s 3-pointer tied it with 9:17 to go and Brayson Boike buried a 3 on the next possession to put the Blackjacks back in front. Carson Stratmoen’s fourth 3-pointer extended the advantage to 67-61 with 5:34 left and the Tigers never got closer. 

Hjelmeland, Boike and Liebl represented Dawson-Boyd on the All-Tournament Team presented by Trustone Financial and Delta Dental.  

Boike scored a game-high 29 points, making 9 of 13 field-goal attempts and all eight free throws. Liebl added 20 points and Hjelmeland had 17 points and a team-best six assists. 

Four players scored between 16 and 21 points for Cherry; Noah Sundquist led the way with 21. 

Cherry won a regular-season meeting between the teams, 70-64, on Dec. 7. The Blackjacks were ready with adjustments. 

Championship adjustments. 

"It was probably back in January where I thought we started to compete harder on the defensive end,” said Dawson-Boyd coach Cory Larson, a member of the school's last state-qualifying team in 1991. “These guys bought in to saying we need all five guys defending if we want to get to hanging medals around our necks at the end of the season.”

Third place: Red Lake County earned bronze medals in its first Boys Basketball State Tournament, defeating Nevis 67-62 in Saturday's third-place game.

Consolation final: Kale Misegades scored 30 points and nabbed six steals to lead Henning to fifth place with a 73-69 victory over Heritage Christian Academy earlier Saturday morning.