UPDATED: Cadets Fall in Section 4AAA Semifinals Against Second-Seeded Hill-Murray

The 2010-11 boys basketball season came to an end for St. Thomas Academy on Tuesday night as the Cadets fell 57-50 to Hill-Murray in the Section 4AAA semifinals at St. Paul's Washington Middle School.

"The season was so much fun, it's hard to see it come to an end," STA head coach Mike Sjoberg said.

It was the third loss for STA in as many games against the Pioneers. Hill-Murray, seeded second in the section, also bested the third-seeded Cadets in both regular-season matchups this winter.

The Cadets set out to a 5-3 lead after the first couple of possessions of the game.

However, the Pioneers quickly knotted the score at 5-5, then moved ahead in points three minutes into the contest, never to relenquish their lead.

Hill-Murray used a noticeable height advantage to control the ball off the offensive and defensive rebounds and benefited from STA's ice-cold outside shooting during the contest. Hill-Murray was able to hold the Cadets at arm's length over the next 33 minutes—building its lead to nine points in both the first and second halves—before claiming the seven-point victory.

"We knew going in that we had to come up with the loose balls and didn't do that," Sjoberg said. "We can't give a team like Hill-Murray as many second chances as we did."

The Cadets were led on the scoresheet by guard Thomas Sjoberg's 20-point effort, with the junior recording all three of the Cadets' three-point field goals in the game.

"We didn't have an inside presence and knew that we had to make our shots from the perimeter," Sjoberg said. "We had one player go 3-for-7 from three-point range and the rest of the team went 0-for-17."

One of Sjoberg's backcourt classmates, John Gould, scored eight points, while senior forward Jordan Krueger chipped in seven points in his final appearance in an STA uniform.

The defeat wraps up the Cadets' campaign with a 16-10 record. They notched their final win of this season March 11 with a 69-55 defeat of sixth-seeded St. Paul Harding.

"It's a hard-working group of guys," Sjoberg said. "We probably over-achieved by winning 16 games." 

St. Thomas will see just two seniors—Krueger and fellow forward Paul Kempainen—graduate this spring, setting the stage for eight seniors and seven juniors to return for the 2011-2012 season.

"We made a lot of progress this season and hopefully, we can build on this for next year," Sjoberg said. "I'm looking forward to starting it up again next year."

With the win, Classic Suburban Conference champion Hill-Murray advances to the sectional championship game Friday night against top-seeded St. Paul Johnson—the No. 1-ranked team in Class AAA.