DETROIT LAKES – The Alexandria girls basketball team completely dominated Section 8-3A in the 2024-25 regular season and had its sights set on winning its third straight section championship.

In the section semifinals on Saturday, March 1, 2025, Little Falls tested Alexandria early but Alexandria went on to win 59-25.

In Thursday’s Section 8-3A Championship game at Detroit Lakes, the No. 2 seed Fergus Falls tested the No. 1 seed Alexandria early on, but Alexandria built up a 19-point lead by halftime and never looked back as it punched its ticket to the MSHSL Class 3A State Tournament with a 74-53 win.

“These girls have proven their consistency throughout the season,” Alexandria head coach Wendy Kohler said. “I’m so proud of this team. We built a tough schedule for them and there’s been a lot of mental preparation. We’ve played five teams that have had a No. 1 ranking at certain times of the season. Win or lose, I told them that we were going to get better. I’m proud of how they game plan, make adjustments, and the improvements they’ve made this season.”

“This feels super good because we’ve earned it,” Alexandria senior guard MaCee Linow said. “It especially feels good the third time around.”

The Cardinals faced early foul trouble on Thursday, with five fouls called in the first four minutes.

Senior guard Chloe Scholl, a Gustavus Adolphus commit , and senior forward Hadley Thul, a South Dakota State commit , both had two fouls with 13:18 left in the first half, when Alexandria led 11-10.

With two strong rebounders saddled with two early fouls, junior forward Kate Hennessy anchored Alexandria’s defense as Alexandria went on a 13-0 run to push its lead to 24-10 with eight minutes left in the first half.

“She came up huge for us,” Kohler said. “That’s what this team is all about. We’re so balanced and can hurt teams in so many different ways. We knew that we could attack them right down the lane. Rebounding was key. We had to rebound well because Fergus Falls hits the boards hard.”

A couple of first half 3-pointers by Linow and company gave Alexandria (24-4) a 40-21 lead over Fergus Falls (21-8) at halftime.

“My teammates set lots of really good screens, and we worked the ball around really fast to get good looks,” Linow said.

The Cardinals didn’t let their lead dip below 13 points in the second half as they earned a 21-point win on Thursday, their third win of the season over the Otters.

“It got tougher each time because they start to get to know our personnel, but it feels better each time we do win,” Linow said about beating Fergus Falls three times in a season.

“Fergus Falls pushed us hard and hats off to them for a great season,” Kohler said.

Thul led the Cardinals’ offense with 16 points followed by Scholl with 15 and Linow , a Bemidji State commit , with 14. Hennessy finished with 11 points, while senior guard Allie Haabala, a Southwest Minnesota State commit , had 10 points, and junior guard McKinley Hoelscher had seven.

Fergus Falls’ Hattie Fullhart led all scorers with 19 points.

Alexandria, who is ranked No. 5 in Class 3A, is now set to make its third-straight state tournament appearance and its seventh in nine seasons.

Alexandria has placed in the top four, placing fourth in 2023, and third in 2024. Now Alexandria is giving its seniors one last run at the state tournament.

“These seniors are special and have taken the younger kids under their wing,” Kohler said. “They’ve led the way. They are mentors to their younger counterparts. The younger players have improved so much this season as well. They've been great teammates and we couldn’t have done this without them. They’ve been doing a great job this season on the scout team and everything that they did these last week and a half was fantastic. It’s a total team effort.”

The 2025 MSHSL Class 3A State Tournament runs from March 12-15 in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

“We're going to work hard as a team, we're going to keep our sisterhood together, and we're going to play together,” Linow said.

Alexandria now awaits its state tournament seed and matchup. The MSHSL State Tournament bracket will be unveiled on Saturday. This article will be updated when the bracket is out. An article with all the state tournament information will be published on Saturday.