Girls Basketball 2025: West Central Area completes run to Class A title

Years from now, the Class A field in the 2025 Minnesota State High School League’s Girls Basketball State Tournament will likely be known as “The Bracket Buster.”

While defending Class A champion Goodhue received the top seed in the first year of full seeding, there was a belief that it was a wide-open tournament and all eight participating schools had a chance to make a championship run. 

It certainly played out that way.

Upsets marked the paths of No. 4 West Central Area and No. 7 MACCRAY earned spots in the Class A championship game. Regardless of the victor, it would certainly be a memorable moment in state tournament history.

West Central Area, which needed upsets to get out of the subsection and section tournaments in Section 6A, completed its championship journey with a 58-41 victory over MACCRAY in the Class A title game on Saturday, March 15 at Williams Arena. 

Senior forward Jayden Styba scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to power the Knights (27-6) to their first-ever state championship in two state tournament appearances. Senior guard Macy Grosz added 15 points and seven rebounds while senior forward Addison Staples chipped in 13 points. 

The Knights, who finished third in the West Central Conference behind Sauk Centre and Minnewaska Area (both qualifiers in the Class AA tournament), had the biggest upset of the season in the semifinals on Friday when they dethroned top-seeded Goodhue, the defending small-school champion. 

West Central Area and MACCRAY (25-6) played even for much of the first half until the Knights went on an eight-point run with just more than six minutes remaining en route to a 25-18 advantage at the break. 

Junior forward Brielle Janssen led the Wolverines with 28 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Junior center Emma Thein added 10 points. The only other MACCRAY player to score was senior guard Ella Hultgren, who had three points.