Photos by Samantha Davis. The Dawson-Boyd boys basketball team holds up their trophy after winning the Class A state championship on Saturday at Williams Arena in Minneapolis. The Blackjacks defeated Cherry 81-74. Below: The Dawson-Boyd basketball team runs to one another as the final buzzer goes off. Below: Gunner Liebl (0) and Drew Hjelmeland (10) jump up with one another as the game ended. Below: Seniors Brayson Boike (right) and Drew Hjelmeland (left) share a moment with one another and hug at the end of game when the Blackjacks won the state championship. Below: The Dawson-Boyd fans cheer the team on as the game came to an end. Below: Head coach Cory Larson watches the game from the sideline during the first half. Below: Captains Drew Hjelmeland (left) and Brayson Boike (right) lead their team to sharing the trophy with the crowd after the Blackjacks became state champions.

MINNEAPOLIS — For the first time in program history, the No. 2 Dawson-Boyd boys basketball team have been crowned Class A state champions after dethroning top-seeded Cherry, the reigning state champions, 81-74 Saturday afternoon at University of Minnesota’s Williams Arena. The Blackjacks held the lead for more than half the time, and end their season on a 20-game win streak.

“This is just huge for me and my teammates. I know how much time each of them put into this game in the offseason and all season long, and how much this medal means to all of them,” Drew Hjelmeland said. “I’m just proud for my teammates and proud for all my coaches. This just feels unreal. There’s not a lot of words for it.”

Gunner Liebl, Hjelmeland and Brayson Boike were also named to the All-Tournament team.

Over the course of the three games, Boike finished the tournament with 88 points, 22 rebounds and six assists. Hjelmeland tallied 45 points, 29 rebounds and 18 assists. Liebl rounded out the trio with 48 points, 13 rebounds and 14 assists.

“All that hard work, it finally paid off. I mean, we got what we wanted and we’re here,” Boike said. “It just doesn’t feel real yet. It hasn’t hit me, but I’m glad I could end my career on a W.”

Dawson-Boyd built up a 38-32 halftime lead, and despite Cherry continuing to chip away and taking a 4-point edge a few minutes in the second half, the Blackjacks honed in on their defensive effort and shot efficiently from the perimeter to put the game back in their control.

Cherry went on a short rally and took a point lead with 13 minutes left, 51-50, after Carson Brown hit a 3-pointer to force Dawson-Boyd head coach Cory Larson to call a timeout.

The Tigers’ defense flustered the Blackjacks over the course of a few minutes by going into a full-court press, and grabbed three consecutive steals which put them up 55-51 followed by a pair of successful fast break layups, both of which came from Noah Sundquist.

Dawson-Boyd didn’t allow Cherry to continue its run as Boike blocked a shot and turned it into a 3-pointer on the offensive end to bring the Blackjacks within 1, 55-54, with 11 minutes left.

Carson Stratmoen had a strong second half with four 3-pointers, helping Dawson-Boyd to get back in front.

“The thing is, he’s [Stratmoen] that guy that just floats around. What you guys saw in the second half is what he’s been doing all season, knocking down 3s,” Larson said. “He’s got range, and sometimes he doesn’t realize where the actual 3-point line is.”

Hjelmeland and Boike hit back-to-back 3s with eight minutes to go, electrifying the large Blackjacks’ crowd dressed in all black and gold, for a 62-59 advantage.

Cherry forced a turnover and went up for another layup to bring the score back within a point, but Dawson-Boyd responded with 7 unanswered points behind a Liebl jump shot in the lane, a Stratmoen 3-pointer, and a steal and layup for Liebl.

The Blackjacks built back a double-digit lead after Boike got a steal, followed by a defensive rebound by Hjelmeland, both of which resulted in a layup and two free throws for Liebl for a 73-61 lead with 3:51 to go.

“No, they [Cherry] fought hard,” Larson said in regards to never feeling comfortable despite the late 12-point lead. “They [Cherry] got a couple of steals there and knocked down one or two 3s … You definitely don’t want those seven or eight second possessions where they just go and grab a quick layup or a quick 3.”

Cherry hit a pair of late 3-pointers to try to get back into the game, yet Dawson-Boyd’s late cushioned lead was too much to overcome. The Blackjacks led for 25 of the total 36 minutes.

Larson put in his reserves with 3.8 seconds left, so all players got an opportunity to step on the court and share the moment.

Cherry began to foul while in bonus in the final two minutes as Dawson-Boyd was able to run some clock down on a few possessions. Both Boike and Hjelmeland hit some final free throws to seal the victory, and finished their high school basketball careers by raising a trophy with their teammates.

As the final buzzer rang, the Dawson-Boyd players ran together on the court for a group hug, along with the coaching staff sharing a hug between themselves as well, all with the crowd cheering in support of returning home as state champions.

“It’s a little town’s dream come true,” Liebl said. “The whole town of Dawson and Boyd was here.”

Cherry and Dawson-Boyd met once in the regular season on Dec. 7 in Edina, where the Blackjacks fell short 70-64.

“It showed us what a team that was championship level looked like,” Boike said regarding how the team used December’s matchup to prepare for Saturday. “We knew we had a little ways to go, and we got there.”

Dawson-Boyd outrebonded the Tigers 20-15 on defensive boards, and 26-23 overall.

Although the Blackjacks were outscored in points off turnovers, in the paint and from fast breaks, they made it count shooting 53% from the perimeter, going 10 of 19. Cherry shot just 18%, going 3 of 17, all of which didn’t come until the second half.

“They [Dawson-Boyd] know that we’re a team that likes to get to the rim,” Cherry head coach Jordan Christianson said. “They did a really good job of cutting the ball off and getting us off of our spots, and just made things more difficult.”

Boike led all scorers with 29 points, and went 3 of 4 from the arc and 8 for 8 in free throws, along with a game-high eight rebounds.

Liebl followed with 20 points and three assists, while Hjelmeland tallied 17 points, five rebounds and six assists. Statmoen finished with 12 points coming from his 4 of 7 3-point shooting.

Overall, the Blackjacks shot 59% from the field, and had 16 assists on their 29 makes.

“These guys [Dawson-Boyd] have been hot all year. That’s [perimeter shooting] just one thing that we don’t really put a lot of thought into because we got shooters all over. But, today we shot 18% [from 3],” Christianson said. “They shot 56% from deep. They played well, and we don’t go into a game expecting to shoot 18%.”

Cherry finished with 14 turnovers and 14 steals, to Dawson-Boyd’s 19 turnovers and eight steals. The Tigers outshot the Blackjacks 46-30 in the paint and 18-10 on fast breaks.

Hjelemland was assessed three fouls early on and had to sit out the final minutes of the first half. He finished with four.

“We had to take a risk … We put him back in the game [early in the second half], we felt like we had to. We didn’t want things to get away from us,” Larson said. “On both ends of it, but Drew is so important for us on the offensive end.”

Dawson-Boyd was competing in its first ever state title game, returning to the tournament for the first time since 1991 and just third overall appearance. The Blackjacks finish their season 30-3.

Their lone losses come from its first meeting with Cherry, a 74-53 fall to first-ranked Albany in Class 2A, and their last loss was on Jan. 18 to third-ranked Dell Rapids St. Mary (S.D.), 78-72.

Larson has now won a state championship in three different sports for Dawson-Boyd. Adding to boys basketball, he won the Class A girls golf title in 2024 and with the 2011 football team.

“That’s one of those things where, if we were going to be sitting here today … I thought we started to compete harder on the defensive end. These guys bought in to say, ‘We need all five guys defending if we want to get to hanging metals around our neck at the end of the season,” Larson said. “It was, ‘Let’s fight, and fight and fight.”

Dawson-Boyd graduates seniors Boike, Hjelmeland, Beau Johnson, Kade Solem, Mitchell Myers and Gunnar Olson.

“I’ve been blessed to have a lot of amazing teammates that [have] built me to become the player I am today and the person I am today,” Boike said. “I just want to say thank you to them.”

“Some of those guys that graduated before me, those guys did a lot for me. I remember looking up to all of them when I was younger,” Hjelmeland said. “Going through the whole program at Dawson-Boyd, it’s been a treat.”