Photo by Samantha Davis: The Marshall girls basketball team breaks a huddle during the Class AAA quarterfinals against Totino-Grace, Wednesday in Minneapolis.

MINNEAPOLIS — The Marshall girls basketball team advanced past Totino-Grace in the quarterfinals of the Class AAA state tournament on Wednesday, sending the No. 3 Tigers to Williams Arena for a rematch of last year’s state title game against No. 2 Benilde-St. Margaret’s in today’s semifinals.

The Red Knights have been a Class AAA juggernaut as of late, winning each of the last three state championship games and winning their section championship each of the last four years. The sustained success comes as particularly impressive given the strength of Section 6AAA; Section foe Orono was the top-ranked team in the state heading into the section championship each of the last two years, but BSM staged the upset both times to keep on dancing.

That sort of sustained success is something this year’s group of Tigers also has. Beyond just being a dominant girls basketball team, three of Marshall’s five starters have gone to the state volleyball tournament each of the last four seasons with three state titles.

While Marshall has plenty of winning experience on its roster, the girls remain hungry for more. The fact that today’s game will be a revenge game for the Tigers after falling to the Red Knights in last year’s state championship game only adds to that.

Benilde defeated Marshall 73-57 in last year’s state championship game, pulling away in the second after leading by 6 points at halftime. Still, the Red Knights lost some key pieces; Its top two leading scorers from the game, Kendall McGee and Zahara Bishop, have both since graduated, as has Katherine Kaspner, who played 31 minutes in the game.

Marshall also lost a key piece in Paige Gillingham, who gave the Tigers strong defense and perimeter shooting. Yet, then-sophomore Danielle Nubile had a breakout performance in last year’s state championship with 6 points and two blocks, and has grown into a larger role this year as Marshall’s leading rebounder.

Both the Tigers and Red Knights head into today’s game with an abundance of scoring talent. For the Tigers, backcourt seniors Reese Drake and Taleigha Bigler both earned all-state honors after functioning as elite offensive engines, and Avery Fahl’s perimeter scoring and Avery Schneekloth’s post scoring give Marshall plenty of ways to attack.

Schneekloth, Fahl and Drake all finished in double figures in the Tigers’ 70-44 quarterfinal win over Totino-Grace with 18, 17 and 16 points respectively, and Nubile and Bigler added another 9 and 8.

For the Red Knights, Syd Friedly and Pressley Watkins both earned All-State honors, and Alivia Bell and Mirabel Wismer were Class AAA honorable mentions. Still, the Knights’ talent doesn’t stop there. Rose Kalscheur led BSM with 19 points on 8 of 12 shooting in its 88-53 win over Rock Ridge in the quarterfinals, followed by another 15 from Friedly and 12 from Watkins.

In total, BSM has six players averaging over 8 points per game and four in double figures, led by about 13 each from Watkins and Friedly. Wismer has also averaged 9 points and 10 rebounds per game on the year, while Friedly has been the team’s primary distributor with an average of 3.6 assists.

Today’s semifinal matchup will be played at the University of Minnesota’s Williams Arena in Minneapolis at 2 p.m. The winner of the game will face off against either No. 1 Stewartville or No. 4 Cretin-Derham Hall in the state title game on Saturday at 2 p.m., while the losers will play at Concordia-St. Paul’s Gangelhoff Center in St. Paul for the third-place trophy.

The state semifinal and championship games will be broadcast by Prep45, which can be found on the KSTP 5 television channel, app or website. Tickets can be bought online at MSHSL.org/tickets, with adult tickets available for $17.50 and student tickets for $11.50.