In baseball terminology, Waconia threw Holy Family Catholic a curveball in Thursday night's Section 6AAA championship game.

The Fire hit it out of the park.

Holy Family Catholic downed Wright County Conference foe Waconia 69-57 and is heading to the state tournament for the first time since 2007, which was also the school's last championship.

"It's awesome," senior forward Colton Stenerson said about reaching the state tourney. "We knew at the beginning of the year we had the potential to do it, we just had to win games in the playoffs."

Stenerson scored 13 points in the Fire's victory, with 11 of those coming in the first half. Holy Family (27-2) needed that spark after a slow start because of the Wildcats' unseen defense.

The curveball the Wildcats(18-9) tossed came in the form of a zone defense, something they hadn't shown the Fire in the teams' first two meetings, or anyone else for that matter, all year.

"We talked about if they were going to zone us or not, and I didn't know if they would," Holy Family coach Matt Thuli said. "They came out (running zone). We thought that they might, so we were ready for it, but I think it was still a little bit of a shock."

Thuli said the zone initially slowed his team, requring some tweaking in the game plan. That came in the form of 6-foot-4 Stenerson.

The senior's big first half didn't really develop until Waconia tied it at 18 with 5:17 to play. Stenerson attempted two 3-pointers just a few seconds apart, both times missing but getting his own rebound and scoring some valuable second-chace points for the Fire.

Thuli said he has plenty of set plays to get Stenerson the ball, but what he really likes about him is his well-rounded game.

"He's not just a jump-shooter," Thuli said. "When he hits a couple and people fly at him, he's willing to put the ball on the floor, try to get into the lane and he can create in there for us as well."

Stenerson, who averaged 9.4 points coming into the game against Waconia, also cleaned up on the glass and got into passing lanes to disrupt the Wildcats' offense.

Thuli said Stenerson has been showing these flashes of a complete player all season and he brings a little bit of "nasty" to a stout Fire defense.

"He'll get in (the paint), and he'll work hard and rebound," Thuli said. "He doesn't mind banging in the blocks. He'll get out and defend and try to jump a passing lane. It's hard to get upset at guys who maybe take a rushed or maybe not the best shot because they're giving so much on that other end."

Holy Family Catholic has been relying on a defense that only gave up 48.5 points per game. That defense will help them at Target Center next week. Stenerson said it's been the key to the Fire's now 10-game winning streak.

"It all starts on defense," Stenerson said."We've just got to play good D, we'll get our points offensively then. That's been our mentality all year, and it's worked for a majority of games."

The state tournament birth has been a long time coming for the Fire. Last year they lost a tough, close game to Blake in the section finals, so this feels pretty good for the Holy Family Catholic community.

"(The players) came in this year with focus and determination … they've earned it," Thuli said. "For our school it's great. It's tremendous that we get our name out there again and be able to be seen. I'm happy for (my players) and really happy for our school … I'm just happy. I'd love to do it every year, but I guess if we do it every seven, I'm alright with that."