It shouldn’t have come as a surprise to Red Lake, after facing Minneapolis North in the Class 1A state tournament a year ago, that the Larry McKenzie-coached Polars can attack with shark-like intensity.

The No. 1-ranked Polars had 27 points on the board before Red Lake made its first basket, and was well on their way to a 93-46 running-time victory in the Class 1A quarterfinals Thursday at Williams Arena. In the semifinals last year, the Polars, who are the defending state champion, scored 13 of the first 15 points against Red Lake en route to a 21-point victory.

“We wanted to get off to a fast start,” McKenzie said. “We have gotten off to a fast start in our last five games,” when their average margin of victory was 69.4 points per game.

From the outset Thursday, the Polars (30-2) used a swarming defense that got the offense quickly in transition en route to a 27-3 lead. Junior guard Tayler Johnson started the onslaught, after a steal, with a two-handed dunk, the first of two in the opening half. 

Two of the Warriors’ first three points stemmed from a Polars mistake – a technical foul on senior guard Isaac Johnson.

“Defensively, we played great,” said Tayler Johnson, who scored 18 points to go with seven rebounds, four steals, three blocked shots and two assists.

The Polars didn’t let up after senior center Robert Beaulieu III’s layup following an offensive rebound with 10:51 left in the opening half. They scored 62 first-half points while shooting 62 percent from the floor in building a 33-point cushion. Both Johnsons had 15 points and junior center ODell Wilson IV had 11 at the intermission.

Wilson finished with a double-double (21 points and 11 rebounds). Isaac Johnson wound up with 20 points.

“We wanted to start hard, and finish even harder,” Wilson said. “We’ve been here before. This isn’t anything new to us.”

Senior guard Rob McClain Jr. led the Warriors (25-5) with 12 points.

“Having played them before we were very familiar with them,” McKenzie said. The Polars also beat Red Lake 78-70 during the regular season when their top three scorers were only a few weeks removed from their Class 1A football state championship run. “Our guys were well prepared.”