When an entire starting lineup gets hot, it’s a whole new game.

The No. 2 Madelia Blackhawks showed that Thursday night with five players in double figures to hold off Cole Jacobson and the No. 7 Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop Firebirds in a Section 2A Boys Basketball Tournament quarterfinals game at Sibley East High School.

Jacobson scored the Firebirds’ first 19 points and finished with a game-high 32 points, but the Blackhawks did enough to limit him in the second half and countered with a balanced offense and strong defense to hang on for the win.

Bryce Borkenhagen led the way for Madelia with 19 points, seven rebounds, six assists, three blocks and two steals, while Kaydon Firchau had 17 points, nine rebounds, eight assists, six steals and four blocks.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Madelia’s Caden McMullen gets the ball on the low block while guarded by Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop’s Matthew Lee during the first half of Thursday’s Section 2A boys basketball playoff game at Sibley East High School in Arlington.

“That’s when we play our best basketball,” Borkenhagen said. “We love having five guys in double digits all the time. I mean, Kaydon’s gonna go out there and get his 30 balls here and there, but we play our best games when all five of us are in double digits. Like at Springfield when we got the 13-point win. When we spread the ball and we’re playing as a team, we’re pretty hard to beat.”

Tate Becker also had 16 points, four rebounds and two steals for Madelia, while Dalton Tatro had 14 points and seven rebounds and Caden McMullen had 10 points and six blocks.

Madelia, now 22-5, moves on to the section semifinals Monday night at Gustavus Adolphus College.

GFW, which also saw Kaden Rieke finish with 15 points, Owen Swenson score 10 points and Eric Hererra add 8 points, ends the season 16-12.

McMullen, Madelia’s 6-7 senior forward, made a big impact on both sides of the ball, especially on defense with his six blocks.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop’s Luke Bastian grabs the ball in front of Madelia’s Tate Becker (3) during Thursday’s Section 2A boys basketball playoff game at Sibley East High School in Arlington.

“Our defensive definitely did better, holding Cole to this amount of points was better than the last time playing [GFW],” McMullen said. “So that’s what helped us out a lot out there.”

Despite racking up as many blocks as he did, McMullen kept out of foul trouble with just one foul in the game, much to his surprise.

“I don’t think I keep [my fouls] really low, I probably have the most fouls on the team [laughs],” he said. “But I just go in there and get the ball.”

Much like the two team’s prior meeting at GFW’s new high school in Gibbon on Feb. 20, when Jacobson scored 20 consecutive points after Rieke scored to open the game, Jacobson did much of the same on Thursday, scoring his team’s first 19 points to keep them in front.

Madelia spread it around to stay afloat, countering Jacobson’s buckets with multiple different players. After a 3 from Jacobson, Tatro buried a corner 3 to have the Blackhawks down 12-11. Jacobson added a pair of free throws after that, but Borkenhagen answered with a 3 to tie the game up at 14-all with less than 11 minutes left in the half.

The Firebirds took their largest lead of the half after Jacobson stole the ball off a dribble and dished it to Rieke for a fast-break layup to give them a 21-16 lead.

Madelia turned it up a notch moments later. After Borkenhagen scored inside, Tatro put back his own miss to give Madelia a 27-26 lead late in the half, its first lead since leading 4-3. McMullen scored shortly after, which was followed with a 3 by Firchau, a free throw by Borkenhagen and a Borkenhagen alley-oop pass to Firchau to close the half with a 12-0 Madelia run and 35-26 Madelia lead.

The Blackhawks pushed their lead to double digits in the second half, leading by as much as 16, but the Firebirds still hung around.

After Borkenhagen canned a corner 3 to give Madelia a 64-53 lead with just minutes to play, Matthew Lee scored a layup to bring it back to single digits. Borkenhagen answered on the other end inside, but Rieke sank a 3 to have GFW down 66-58.

Madelia got layups from Tatro and Firchau to lead by 12, but GFW made a late push in the final three minutes. After a 3 from Rieke had GFW down 70-66, Borkenhagen made a pair of bonus free throws with 23.8 seconds left. Jacobson ran down the floor and got a 3 to bounce in after that, but Firchau hit four bonus free throws in the closing 15 seconds to preserve the win.

“Cole’s obviously a great player, but they have other guys that surround him as well,” Borkenhagen said. “He’s a great shooter as well, but if you can hold down Cole, you’re looking pretty good, but their QRF value does now show what he team truly is. They are a hard competitor and they’ve been close to us every time. They give us a bump in the road every time, they give us a tough game every time, that’s a way better team than a seven seed.”