On Thursday, March 12th, the Sartell boys basketball team won the Section 8 AAA championship game in Sartell to advance to the state tournament.
The Sabres’ record stands at 21-8 after playoffs. Their playoff run consisted of wins over Little Falls by 54, St. Cloud Tech by 29, and Fergus Falls by 24. Throughout the playoffs, the Sabres held an average margin of victory of 35.6. This season, the Sabres were a successful 14-4 in conference play and 15-2 in section play. This season marked the fourth time ever that the Sabres achieved 20 wins in a season with the other times being the 1979-80, 1995-96, and 2018-19 seasons.
The 2026 state tournament will start on March, 24th in Minneapolis. Sartell earned themselves the #6 seed in the tournament and will face off against #3 Richfield on Wednesday, March 25th at Williams Arena. Sartell will be making their second appearance at Williams Arena in program history with the first being Dave Angell’s 2012-13 team. In the 2013 state tournament, the Sabres fell to the eventual state champions DeLaSalle 70-55 in the quarterfinals.
Wednesday’s matchup will be unlike any other that Sartell has faced this year. Richfield has a record of 27-2 and play with high-energy and feed off of turnovers. The Sabres will need to take care of the ball and score well inside and out. Richfield is lead by a strong junior class. 6’4 forward Dre Collins leads the Spartans in scoring at 18 points per game.
