Cherry The Team to Beat

NSO NEWS RELEASE

cook

If you’re looking for the boys basketball team from Cherry High School this weekend in the Twin Cities, don’t go to the Mall of America or any other typical tourist attraction. They’re in town but they’re not fooling around.

The top-seeded Tigers are playing in the state tournament for the third year in a row and their focus is on winning three games and finally taking a championship trophy with them when they return to the Iron Range. Step 1 came Thursday when they defeated defending state champ Russell-Tyler-Ruthton 78-46 in the Class A quarterfinals at Target Center.

Cherry (29-2) will face fifth-seeded Nevis (24-7) in the semifinals at noon Friday at Williams Arena.

“This feels different than the past two years,” Cherry coach Jordan Christianson said. “The guys even said this is a business trip.”

In past years the team has used down time to explore the mall, visit restaurants and even experience an escape room. Not this year.

“The first time we were pretty happy to be here,” Christianson said. “I feel like the celebration after the section championship the first time was pretty wild. Everyone was pretty happy we got down here and we were excited to be down here. And of course you come down here wanting to win. But now we’re down here for one thing and only one thing.”

Thursday’s win was decisive even though the Tigers’ scoring total was relatively low. They had scored at least 94 points in their previous nine games, with a high of 114.

Isaac Asuma, the team’s star senior who will continue his basketball career at the University of Minnesota, is always in the spotlight so it was no surprise to see Gophers coach Ben Johnson and assistant Dave Thorson sitting in the first row at Target Center during Cherry’s game. They also were in Hibbing on Friday night when the Tigers defeated Mountain Iron-Buhl 99-55 in the Section 7 championship game.

Isaac had his usual strong game Thursday, with 20 points and 13 rebounds. The only senior starter on the team, you know how much he wants to raise that first-place trophy.

“I think it’s a little bit more motivation,” he said. “It’s my last go-around, my last time to win it. It was a great experience to be down here the last two years. We want to get it done.”

Ninth-grader Isaiah Asuma led the Cherry scoresheet with 26 points on 11-for-13 shooting.

“I was just running the floor,” Isaiah said. “I know my team’s going to find me and we’re going to play together. We’re family. We’re always with each other. We’re brothers and we feel like we always know where each other is going to be. We’ve got that team chemistry.”

The Tigers were talking shortly before the second semifinal between Nevis and Mountain Lake Area/Comfrey. Their plans after the interview session were pretty simple.

“We’re going to watch this game,” Christianson said, “head back to the hotel and get in the film room and get ready for tomorrow.”