Staff photo by Jeremy Behnke Springfield’s Isaac Fink dribbles between Nevis defenders in Springfield's Class A state boys’ basketball quarterfinals win on Thursday at Williams Arena. Fink had 20 points, 10 rebounds and six assists.

MINNEAPOLIS — While it didn’t look very promising for Springfield going into halftime of Thursday’s Class A state boys’ basketball quarterfinal game against Nevis, there certainly was no reason to panic.

Springfield started the second half trailing 31-22, but a 10-0 run to start the half put it ahead. It stretched the lead into double digits before a Nevis rally, but Springfield held on for a 73-65 win to advance to the state semifinals.

Springfield (29-2) will face top-seeded Minneapolis North, a convincing 93-46 winner against Red Lake earlier Thursday.

Kale Meendering led Springfield with 22 points and Isaac Fink had 20 points, 10 rebounds and six assists. Tanner Vogel had 15 points, Decker Scheffler finished with eight points and Branden Flock had seven points.

Michael Landquist led Nevis (28-2) with 24 points and Griffen Chase, the team’s leading scorer going into the tournament, scored 14 points. He scored only two points in the first half.

“We really worked hard the last few days on jumping the ball screens with him,” Springfield coach Lance Larson said. “He had a hard time finding people off that. Usually when he did it, they were screening off of their big, tall kid and we didn’t feel he was a big offensive threat so we could really cheat off him a bit.”

It was the second game in a row where Springfield went into halftime facing a significant deficit. But like it did against Cedar Mountain/Comfrey in the Section 2A finals, Springfield tightened up defensively and hit some big shots in the second half.

“We knew it was going to be a lot tougher this game, we stressed getting up and down the floor like coach said and if we could do that, we knew that we would be fine,” Meendering said.

The Tigers shot 54 percent for the game, but shot only 37.5 percent in the first half. They used their run-and-gun style to open up the game, something Nevis didn’t allow in the first half.

“Pretty much the whole game we didn’t shoot well, we kind of had to fight through that,” Fink said. “Defensively we turned it up second half. Just getting out on the fast breaks really helped us. They were slowing it down in the first half and we had to dictate the pace in the second half.”

Springfield opened the second half with a big run to grab the one-point lead. At one point, Springfield went on a 36-12 run, a run that was spread out in both halves.

Springfield eventually built the lead to 56-42, but Nevis rallied late to cut it back to single digits. Nevis had the lead down to four points, but Springfield was able to hold on with less than a minute to play to advance.

Now, Springfield turns its attention to the Target Center, where it will meet Minneapolis North (30-2) on Friday.

“It feels awesome — it’s been a dream since we were little, it’s a dream come true basically,” Meendering said. “It’s just a great feeling.”

Fink shared the sentiment. He watched his older brother, Alex, compete for Springfield during the 2011 state championship run and Meendering was a student manager on that team.

“Just going there and watching as we grow up and watching all the teams and thinking that we want to play there, now that we are, it’s just an amazing feeling,” Fink said.

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Springfield 22 51 — 73

Nevis 31 34 — 65

SPRINGFIELD (73)

Vogel 5-8 5-8 15, Fink 6-14 8-10 20, Meendering 10-14 2-2 22, Beckman 0-1 0-0 0, Flock 3-6 0-0 7, N Bertram 0-0 0-0 0, Scheffler 3-6 0-0 8, Buerkle 0-1 1-2 1. Totals 27-50 16-22 73.

NEVIS (65)

Dudley 0-2 0-0 0, Chase 6-18 1-1 14, J Landquist 3-7 6-8 13, M Landquist 9-18 3-3 24, Wormley 4-5 1-3 9, Henry 0-2 2-2 2, Kramer 1-4 0-0 1. Totals 23-56 13-17 65.