Thriving defensively, Cretin-Derham Hall will again be crossing the Mississippi River for more basketball.

Smothering its opponent early led to a comfortable cushion, resulting in a second half that was never in doubt, and the Raiders beat Tartan 59-45 in the Class 4A, Section 4 final Thursday.

Monteff Dixon scored 14 of his team-high 16 points in the second half, Anthony Knight had 15, and Miles Bollinger overcame early foul trouble to net 12.

It’s the second-lowest point total of the season for the Raiders. But it was enough.

“We knew they were going to play Joe Mitchell tight, so other guys had to step up offensively. And then trying to keep Tartan to one shot and out was the biggest thing for us. So getting stops on defense, executing on offense kind of putting a complete game together,” Knight said.

Mitchell, a Division I prospect who averages nearly 20 points a game, had eight.

It’s the third section title in four seasons, and sixth in eight years for Cretin-Derham Hall (24-4). The Raiders lost to East Ridge in a section semifinal last year.

Big school state tournament quarterfinals are scheduled for Wednesday at Target Center. Brackets are to be announced Saturday.

“It’s fun. I’m excited. I’m short for words,” Bollinger said.

In its semifinal win over St. Paul Central, the Raiders were down 12 early. They had a much better start in the final. Mitchell had five points, and four Raiders scored in a 13-2 run for 25-11 lead.

Playing with a bruised heel, Knight scored with 5.6 seconds left in the first half for a 33-18 lead.

“He’s our senior, he’s our competitor, and he just answered the bell today,” said coach Jerry Kline. “We knew they weren’t going to guard him. … He stepped up. That’s what seniors do in March.”

A 3-pointer by Bollinger made it 41-23 early in the second half, and Tartan got no closer than 14 at the end.

Dixon, a 6-foot-5 junior in his third year of basketball, had just one first-half bucket, but scored 14 of the final 18 Cretin-Derham Hall points, including short jumpers, a scoop, layup and a steal and dunk.

“He’s an animal. He’s tough, he’s big, He was relentless tonight,” Kline said.

Cedric Banks led the Titans (24-5) with 17 points, but Tartan was held to its lowest point total of the season and scored fewer than 60 for just the third time.

“We just overall didn’t play very well,” said coach Mark Klingsporn. “Our defensive game plan was fine. We held them to 59 points on their home court. We just didn’t perform on offense.”

Looking to make the tournament for the first time since 2014, Tartan struggled with turnovers, poor outside shooting and couldn’t get it to the big men inside.

“We played so unselfish, we played so hard. We’re where we need to be and we just played with a lot of fight and a lot of energy,” Kline said.

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In a last, desperate push to make the playoffs, the Wild are taking care of their own business, and it finally appears to be paying dividends.

Zach Bogosian and Kirill Kaprizov scored goals, and Marc-Andre Fleury earned his 75th career shutout as the Wild beat the Anaheim Ducks, 2-0, on Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center.

The Wild jumped idle St. Louis for ninth place in the Western Conference, and within four points of eighth-place Vegas pending their 8 p.m. puck drop in Calgary. Minnesota plays the Golden Knights twice more among their final 15 regular-season games.

Fleury, who has started the past three Wild games, made 17 saves and improved to 9-2-0 in his past 13 games, 11 of them starts, since Jan. 13.

With his second shutout of the season, Fleury is one shy of tying Tony Esposito for 10th on the NHL’s career list. Already this season, Fleury has become the fourth NHL goalie to play 1,000 games and passed Martin Brodeur for second in career wins, which is now 560.

It was a tight defensive effort against the Ducks, who didn’t get their 11th shot on goal until 2:16 into the third period. They briefly appeared to pull within a goal early in the third period, but the Wild challenged and it was waived off for offsides.

The Ducks pulled goaltender Lukas Dostal with 2:31 remaining but Minnesota was active in its end, clearing the puck a few times and getting line changes as the Wild preserved the shutout.

Minnesota completed a three-game homestand against Anaheim, Arizona and Nashville 3-0 and has improved to 12-4-2 since returning from the all-star break on Feb. 7. In their last two games before the break, and closer to a playoff spot then held by the Predators, the Wild failed to earn a point against Nashville and Anaheim.

Day to day

The Wild were without Joel Eriksson Ek on Thursday after he left Tuesday’s 4-1 victory over Arizona early with a lower body injury, and it was unclear whether he would travel with the Wild for Saturday’s game at St. Louis.

Still, the Wild have to feel good about their top center’s status. “I would call it day to day right now,” coach John Hynes told reporters after Thursday’s morning skate.

That prognosis hasn’t always been followed by a quick return, but the Wild do expect Eriksson Ek — who leads the team with a plus-16, and is second in goals (29) and points (60) — back for most of the team’s last 15 regular-season games.

Briefly

Center Marat Khusnutdinov made his NHL debut on Thursday. Playing center on the third line with Marcus Foligno and Freddie Gaudreau, the young Russian who just finished his fourth KHL season, played 11:54. He didn’t register a shot but won 6 of 9 faceoffs. … Foligno, who has been playing with a nagging lower body injury, missed his second straight morning skate on Thursday — and it will probably be that way for the rest of the season. “I would think so,” Hynes said. “Particularly on morning skates, that he will not skate and just be ready for the games.”

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Minnesota’s new top line was born out of necessity. Wednesday night at Xcel Energy Center it had the look of a keeper.

Taylor Heise, Kendall Coyne Schofield and the latest addition, Michela Cava, combined for three goals and five points as Minnesota beat Boston 4-0 before an announced crowd of 4,669.

Cava replaces Abby Boreen, who has played out her second 10-day contract and will not be available for the remainder of the regular season.

“I thought they had good chemistry,” coach Ken Klee said. “I’ve watched Michela Cava play, and she doesn’t have a lot of points but she makes good plays every night. So, to me, if I can get Kendall and Taylor with a player who can get them the puck and make plays, they’re going to get chances.

“And I thought they did. A couple of really nice plays.”

Minnesota goaltender Nicole Hensley made 20 saves to pick up her first shutout of the season and lower her goals-against average to 1.79.

The victory moves Minnesota into a tie for first place with Toronto and Montreal in the Professional Women’s Hockey League standings.

The 29-year-old Cava, who played her final two collegiate seasons at Minnesota Duluth,  entered the game with one goal and one assist in 16 games. She said she felt comfortable playing alongside two of Minnesota’s most gifted players.

“We all use speed,” Cava said. “I felt like we supported each other really well. We were trying to move together, and got a lot of pucks to the net. It’s huge honor and awesome to play with the two of them.”

Boreen, who began the season on Minnesota’s reserve list while she attends pharmacy school, scored four goals in nine games and was one of Minnesota’s most effective forwards. Should Minnesota make the playoffs, the former Gophers star can sign one more 10-day contract.

In the meantime, she will be missed.

“She brings an element that we don’t have a lot of,” Klee said, “with that hard-nosed, gritty winger type of player. But at the time, when we were short two centers, it was the time to activate her.”

Coyne Schofield got the scoring started at 18:12 of the first period, taking a centering pass from Heise out of the right-wing corner and beating Boston goaltender Aerin Frankel on a wrist shot from the slot for her fifth goal of the season.

Cava scored at 6:43 of the second period. She corralled the puck near the Boston goal after a wide shot from the point caromed off the boards and banked it in off of Frankel from a sharp angle.

Grace Zumwinkle added a power-play goal at 14:43 of the third period, her team-leading eighth goal of the season. Heise closed out the scoring with an empty-net goal at 17:57.

Minnesota’s victory came in the second game of a four-game homestand that began with a 4-3 overtime win over Ottawa on March 5. The homestand will take Minnesota into a month-long break for the Women’s World Championship.

Minnesota will have only five regular-season games remaining following the break. Klee said there was no need to emphasize to the team how important this stretch of games will be.

“They know when you’re home you’ve got to win games,” he said. “Our last five, we play four out of five on the road. We’ve got a couple more games at home before the break and we just have to try to get as many points as we can.”

Offered Hensley; “We’re looking at a pretty long break, and obviously you want to go into that break with momentum. Enjoy today, but shift our focus to New York (on Saturday) here pretty quick.”

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Yoán Moncada pulled a double into the right-field corner during the second inning of an April 2 game against the Houston Astros last season at Minute Maid Park.

The Chicago White Sox third baseman doubled again — this time pulling a grounder that just stayed fair down the first-base line — in the sixth inning. Batting left-handed again, the switch-hitter capped the day by going the other way with a two-run home run to left field in the ninth.

Moncada had a strong start to the season, going 8-for-18 (.444) with two homers and four RBIs in the series against the Astros as he built off his All-Tournament Team performance for Cuba during the World Baseball Classic. Then came the back issues that led to two trips to the injured list.

“During the first half of that season, it was painful, stressful,” Moncada said through an interpreter Thursday at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago in Bridgeport. “I couldn’t do anything. I wanted to do stuff and help the team but I couldn’t. It was a really tough time for me.”

He was out from April 11-May 12 with lower back soreness and again June 14-July 25 with lower back inflammation.

Moncada rebounded after returning from the second IL stint, slashing .280/.323/.430 with two home runs and 12 RBIs in August and .298/.344/.560 with six home runs and 12 RBIs in September.

“Once I started getting better and stronger, I felt much better and I felt good,” Moncada said. “That was why I was able to finish the way that I did and that’s how I feel right now.”

The 28-year-old is aiming to use that late-season bounce back as a springboard for 2024.

“He feels great, the back feels great, he’s motivated,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “He’s going to get to spring training early on the 31st of January or first of February, which is a great sign and he’s going to put himself in a position to have a great year. We need Moncada.

“He’s motivated to having a full season under his belt, which is good for him.”

Moncada slashed .260/.305/.425 with 11 home runs and 40 RBIs in 2023. After appearing in 144 games in 2021, Moncada played 104 games in 2022 and 92 in 2023.

His offseason work has included strengthening his abs, back and legs to “get all that core really strong,” he said.

“The way I’m preparing myself for this coming season is to play 202 games,” Moncada said, when asked about attempting to play as close to 162 games as possible. “That’s an exaggeration, but that’s how I’m preparing myself.

“I want to be healthy. I want to be on the field every day.”

Moncada said he is motivated and excited because he’s healthy.

“That’s the only thing I want — if I’m healthy, I know I can do a lot of good things in the field,” Moncada said. “I’m excited right now to get to spring training and start working.

“I think God has saved something good for me. Hopefully we are going to see that. Hopefully I’ll be able to be healthy and really show and really display all I can do on the field.”

Moncada’s best season was in 2019, when he established career highs in several categories, including OPS (.915), doubles (34), home runs (25) and RBIs (79). He signed a five-year, $70 million extension in March 2020 — a deal in which the Sox hold an option for $25 million in 2025 with a $5 million buyout.

The solid defensive third baseman knows he’ll be fielding questions from reporters about the future.

“I would love to stay with the White Sox if they want me here,” Moncada said. “I’m very thankful for the White Sox for the opportunity they have given me after I was traded from the Red Sox (in December 2016). They’ve been treating me very well. I like the organization, I like the city, I like the fans. I would like to stay here.”

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