Bishop Ryan’s Izaac Strandlien blocks a shot from Wilton-Wing’s Kaleb Benning during a Class B state qualifier on Saturday, March 14, at the Minot Municipal Auditorium. Mike Kraft/MDN

By the skin of its teeth, the Bishop Ryan boys basketball gave itself the opportunity to play for a berth in the state tournament.

By that same razor-thin margin, the Lions will get a chance to defend its state title.

Jack Passa knocked down a floater along the baseline with 2.8 seconds remaining and a desperation 3-pointer from near half court went begging, sending Bishop Ryan to the state tournament in a 55-53 victory over Wilton-Wing in a state qualifier on Saturday, March 14, at the Minot Municipal Auditorium.

“It was unreal,” Passa said. “The stakes are high. We know what’s on the line here. We wanted to get one shot and not let them get the ball again and we made the right play at the end.”

The Lions (20-6) led throughout the majority of the game, but found themselves trailing for the first time in the fourth quarter following a 7-0 run by the Miners. A 3-pointer by Hudson Wolff gave Wilton-Wing its first lead of the game with 4:35 remaining in regulation and William Bergquist added a bucket to push the lead to 50-47.

Bishop Ryan responded by scoring the next six points. Hayden Seay trimmed the deficit to one and Passa put the Lions in front 51-50 with 1:39 left before Seay hit another shot for a three-point lead with 1:13 to go. Wolff connected on another critical 3-pointer to pull the Miners even at 53 with 23.7 seconds left.

With one last opportunity to win the game in regulation, Seay got the ball to Passa in the corner. Passa pump-faked to get his defender in the air and drew contact, hitting the floater and getting the foul call. Passa missed the free throw and Teigan Earsley’s half-court heave was off target.

“We’re being as mentally tough as we can,” Seay said. “We’re all trusting each other. We were all willing to pass and willing to take the shot. Whoever got it, we knew it was going in. We did our thing. I got downhill, got it to Jack and he did the rest.”

Despite being the defending state champion, many projected this season to be more of a rebuilding year for the Lions following the graduation of all-state players Ramsey Walz and Jett Lundeen, two key pieces in their run to a title. But Bishop Ryan believed it would be back.

“I’m just so proud of them,” Bishop Ryan coach Broderick Bosch said. “That’s everything we talked about on Day 1 is nobody expects us to go back and thought that we lost those studs from last year and that there would be some other team going to state from this region and didn’t expect us to be there. We always knew we could do it and we pulled it off.”

The Lions advanced to state after winning their last two games by a combined margin of three points. They were a shot away from their season ending in the Region 3 Tournament third-place game against Velva, squeaking past the Aggies 39-38 in their lowest scoring output of the season.

“We have guys like me, Hayden and Izaac (Strandlien) that have been in games like this, so we can lead our team when it’s close and keep the positive energy going,” Passa said.

To say Bishop Ryan and Wilton-Wing are unfamiliar with one another would be putting it mildly. The two programs have not met at all in more than a decade. But the Lions knew that they would have to contend with Bergquist – all 6-foot-6 of him – in the post and Earsley leading the offense at point guard.

“We knew we had to stop their point guard and (Bergquist) and we did a good job on Earsley,” Bosch said. “He’s got to be one of, if not the best point guards in the state. He sees the floor so well and he can score and is one of the better passers. Their big guy, we knew we had to keep him off the glass. We did a much better job of that in the second half and we knew they were surrounded by shooters and we had to close gaps and get out to shooters as soon as possible.”

The Lions leaned on their 3-point shooting in the first half, knocking down seven. Hayden Seay hit three 3s in the opening half and Peyton Seay and Strandlien each hit a pair. Peyton Seay hit back-to-back 3s late in the first quarter for an 18-11 lead – their largest of the game.

The Miners (18-8) battled back to tie the game at 23 with 3:13 left in the opening half after two quick buckets from Kaleb Benning, but two 3s from Hayden Seay helped Bishop Ryan reclaim its lead. The Lions led 31-28 at halftime.

“We showed a lot of mental toughness sticking with their runs and having some runs of our own and not getting too high or too low,” Bosch said. “To be tested like that in the last two games is huge going into this tournament.”

Hayden Seay led all scorers with 22 points. Peyton Seay and Strandlien each added nine. Strandlien finished one point shy of a double-double, grabbing 11 rebounds.

Bergquist had just four points at the break, but scored Wilton-Wing’s first eight points of the second half to finish with 14 points and nine rebounds. Earsley finished with a double-double, scoring 13 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.

In a game where most of the statistical categories were a wash, points off turnovers proved to be the difference. Bishop Ryan turned the ball over just six times, but Wilton-Wing didn’t score a single point from those. The Lions turned over the Miners 10 times, converting those into 12 points.

The Lions improved to 3-0 in state qualifiers, defeating Garrison in 2025 and Washburn in 2024. Bishop Ryan’s win gives Region 3 three representatives at state once again, with Our Redeemer’s and Ray also making the field.

“We’ve worked so hard,” Hayden Seay said. “Nobody expected us after losing two people that were on the all-state team, our tournament MVP and all that, nobody expected us to be here and we just persevered through all this hard work and we’re back.”

The Lions will face a familiar foe as they begin their title defense, matching up with crosstown rival Our Redeemer’s in the quarterfinal round at the state tournament on Thursday, March 19, at 2:45 p.m. at the MSU Dome.