MINNEAPOLIS — The Marshall girls basketball team defeated Rock Ridge in Wednesday’s Class AAA quarterfinals to return to the state semifinals after last appearing in 2021. Now one win away from the state championship game, the third-seeded Tigers will be taking on No. 7 Cretin-Derham Hall.

Marshall is one of the younger teams in the state tournament, with just two seniors on the roster in Paige Gillingham and Ali Pederson. Yet, Cretin-Derham Hall is even younger, with two of their three leading scorers (Madeleine Hamiel and Isabella Deleeuw) being eighth graders and the other, Sage Gilbert, being a junior.

“Sometimes those younger kids don’t know any better when they go out there, so they don’t know that they’re supposed to be scared,” Marshall head coach Dan Westby said after Marshall’s win over Rock Ridge. “But I was really impressed with them today, they’ve got a good mix of kids.”

Deleeuw leads the team with 11.3 points per game while Gilbert and Hamiel have averaged 11.1 and 11.0, respectively. The trio led the Raiders in scoring in their 59-50 comeback win over second-seeded Monticello on Wednesday, with Gilbert scoring 17 points with four 3-pointers and Hamiel and Deleeuw contributing 15 and 12 points.

Entering the game as underdogs, Cretin-Derham Hall led by 1 point at halftime before falling behind in the second half. Still, a 12-0 run gave the Raiders the juice they needed to pull ou the victory.

In particular, Cretin Derham-Hall relied on their 22-10 advantage in points in the paint and 16-6 edge in points off turnovers to pull off the upset. Prior to the result, Monticello was a perfect 29-0 on the season.

Marshall, meanwhile, was even with Rock Ridge in points in the paint (16-16) and lost the points-off-turnovers battle 17-13. Still, the Tigers’ shooting efficiency from 3-point range and 14-3 edge in fast break points gave Marshall the 67-51 win over the sixth-seeded Wolverines.

Cretin-Derham Hall enters today’s matchup on a six-game win streak since it lost to DeLaSalle on Feb. 15. During the hot streak, the Raiders have won two games by at least 49 points. In the Section 3A championship, Cretin-Derham Hall defeated Two Rivers 65-53 behind 17 points from Gilbert.

Today’s game is scheduled for 2 p.m. at Maturi Pavilion. The winner of today’s game will play the winner of No. 1 Benilde-St. Margaret’s and No. 5 Alexandria in the state championship at Williams Arena on Saturday at 2 p.m. The losers will play in the third-place game at the Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul at noon.