Photo by Samantha Davis: Marshall forward JR Vierstraete (0) absorbs contact from a defender while driving to the basket during the Section 2AAA boys basketball semifinals against St. Peter on Saturday at Mankato East High School. The second-seeded Tigers defeated the third-seeded Saints in overtime, setting Marshall up with a sectino championship matchup against No. 1 Mankato East at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter tonight.

ST. PETER — Returning to the Section 2AAA championship game after a five-year hiatus, the No. 2 Marshall boys basketball team is taking on top-seeded Mankato East for the title tonight at the Gustavus Adolphus Lund Center. The winner will claim a spot in the Class 3A state tournament.

Marshall (20-8) earned the second seed into the tournament after finishing its regular season 18-8. It defeated No. 7 Worthington in the quarterfinals 77-60, its first quarterfinal win since 2022. The Tigers then survived for a semifinal overtime 69-67 win against third-seeded St. Peter on Saturday in Mankato.

“We thought going into this last game, that there were times where maybe we were a little anxious at times,” Marshall head coach Travis Carroll said. “Just go out there and execute — That’s going to be an important mindset for our kids, and understand there’s going to be a lot of adversity in the game with the crowd and the gym environment. It’s a good opportunity to embrace the environment.”

Mankato East (26-1) is the three-time defending section champions dating back to 2022, and is looking for its fourth straight title and state appearance. The Cougars, who are also ranked first in the coaches poll, are riding a 25-game win streak since their 87-75 to Class 4A No. 1 Hopkins on Dec. 7.

Mankato East went on to become the 2024 state runner-up, facing a 73-64 loss to Totino-Grace.

“There’s going to be moments in the game where Mankato East makes runs, and we have to slow down those runs. There’s going to be opportunities for us to make some runs on them, and we have to maximize,” Carroll said. “We feel that we have improved a lot from where we’ve been at in December when we played them earlier.”

The Tigers, who have won as many as eight games consecutively this season, last won the section in 2020, but the state tournament was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. No one on the current roster has appeared in the championship game.

“We’ve had a strong tradition in Marshall basketball over the years, and we’ve had a tough stretch the last few years. It’s exciting to get back to this point in the season and get back to the section final,” Carroll said. “None of these kids have been on a section final team. It’s a good experience for everyone, and it goes back to having fun and enjoying the scene tomorrow.”

The Tigers and Cougars met at the beginning of the regular season on Dec. 12 with Mankato East walking away with an 85-40 win, which was its third game of the season and Marshall’s fourth.

Carroll said the main points going into tonight will be managing Mankato’s transition and getting points inside.

“From the first time we played them, our kids have done a much better job of being focused on getting paint touches on offense. The first time we played, we got away from that early and the game got away from us in the first half,” Carroll said. “Mankato East is a really strong team in transition, and a lot of that comes down to us taking care of the basketball, and us taking good shots in terms of getting our paint touches.”

Both teams meet with an older, more experienced roster with Marshall holding six seniors and four juniors to Mankato East’s six seniors and six juniors. Although, the Cougars return a handful of players that have state tournament experience.

Specifically, the Tigers will have to look to hold off junior Braden Petzel, who stands at 6-foot-9 for the Cougars. Marshall sophomore Jayden Meister comes the closest at 6-foot-6.

“He’s [Petzel] a big kid inside and he’s going to look to be in the rebounding areas and looking to get paint touches. It’s important that we box him out. They will run some screen and roll actions, and we have to make sure that we are there with our help defenders,” Carroll said. “There’s definitely some players that we know their strengths, and we have to understand defensively where we need to be in order to take away their strengths, and have them take shots that may not be as comfortable for them.”

In the semifinals matchup against St. Peter, the Tigers trailed nearly the entire game by a few points until late in the second half. Marshall committed a handful of turnovers to start the game, which it spent time making up for as the Saints continued to take advantage.

“We would like to have a positive assist-to-turnover ratio after the game, where we have more assists than turnovers. We had a negative assist-to-turnover ratio in the game on Saturday night, and that’s something we need to definitely clean up going into this game,” Carroll said.

Carroll also said Marshall will need to have a strong rebounding performance like they did on Saturday, where it outrebounded St. Peter 37-24.

“It’s a fun opportunity to play at Gustavus in the section final,” Carroll said, “It’s important that our kids believe … The kids worked really hard to get to this point in the season, and not every year we get to this point. It’s always exciting to see the kids get to this stage of the season and have an opportunity.”

Tip-off for tonight is slated for 7 p.m. The quarterfinals for the Class AAA state tournament begin March 18.