St. Paul Harding guard Tobis Williams, right, sticks to Mankato East's Ganden Gosch in the first half of Tuesday's quarterfinal. (Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Steve Solaja didn’t react like a coach whose team just lost a state tournament game by 43 points. He smiled and chuckled about what it felt like performing on the big stage.

“It’s a crazy experience,” he said.

A wonderful one, too. The final score — Mankato East 76, St. Paul Harding 33 — tells only a fraction of the story.

The details of the game won’t matter today, tomorrow or 25 years from now. The participants will carry their memories of the journey that took the Harding boys basketball team to the Class 3A state tournament for the rest of their lives.

Harding had never played in the state tournament before Tuesday. The Knights hadn’t even won a section playoff game since 2003. They had only six victories total three seasons ago.

To learn more about how the Knights delivered pride to the East Side, click here to read the story on startribune.com.

Class 3A bracket