Benilde-St. Margaret’s romps past DeLaSalle to Class 3A girls basketball state championship

Olivia Olson scored 30 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, driving Benilde-St. Margaret’s past DeLaSalle 81-58 on Saturday in Williams Arena for its second Class 3A girls basketball state championship in a row.

Benilde-St. Margaret’s was the top seed and ranked second in Class 3A by Minnesota Basketball News. DeLaSalle was seeded first but ranked second.

DeLaSalle (27-4) lost only to state tournament teams this season: to Minnehaha Academy and Hopkins in November and to Minnetonka in mid-January. The Islanders defeated Benilde-St. Margaret’s 78-63 on Dec. 22 in their annual rivalry game.

Benilde-St. Margaret’s (27-5) suffered all of its losses when Olson, a first-team All-Metro player committed to Michigan, was out because of a broken hand. She was injured early in a season-opening loss to Class 2A champ Providence Academy, and losses to Hopkins, Alexandria, Eden Prairie and DeLaSalle followed in quick succession. Olson returned Jan. 4 and scored 30 points against Jordan. The Red Knights have not lost since.

Benilde-St. Margaret’s scored 15 straight points in a span of 6 minutes, 2 seconds early in the second half to pull away from the Islanders.

Olson dominated the first half with 21 points as the Red Knights took a five-point lead into halftime. Zahara Bishop’s six points led the 15-0 run.

Olson did not score her first basket of the second half until the 11:08 mark.

The Islanders got off to a hot start, shooting well over 60% from the floor through most of the first half. They fell off to and finished at 39.2%.

Aneisha Scott, the Islanders’ leading scorer in the regular season at 17.9 points per game, had 15 points in 19 minutes. She was limited in the second half after picking up her fourth foul with 13:06 left.