SPRINGFIELD — After a trio of late free throws by Springfield’s Brendon Buerkle forced overtime against Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop on Monday night, the Tigers did just enough in that overtime period to leave their home floor with a 77-74 win in Tomahawk Conference boys’ basketball action.

After Buerkle was fouled at the top of the key with 15.4 seconds left and Springfield down 69-66, he calmly approached the charity stripe and knocked down all three free throws to tie the game.

Seconds later, Springfield’s Caleb Hauger stole the ball and Tigers head coach Lance Larson took a timeout with 9.3 seconds left to play. They were called for a backcourt violation after the inbounds pass, however, giving the Thunderbirds the final shot after a timeout with 6.6 seconds left. Johnnie Ambrose’s mid-range jumper rolled in and out, though, forcing overtime.

In overtime the Tigers led by as much as 5 and held on for the win after a full-court heave by Johnnie Ambrose was off the mark.

The Tigers were without Mason Leonard, one of their leading scorers, for the end of the second half and overtime after he fouled out with 2:18 left in regulation. He scored the first four buckets of the second half for Springfield and ended the game with 19 points.

“The kids kind of took over for [Leonard] and worked hard as far as pulling together and fighting through a little adversity there at the end,” Larson said. “Brendon — to hit come clutch free throws at the end was big for us. We didn’t shoot it very well from the free throw line tonight, I think we were 17 for 32, but he made some big ones.”

Buerkle led the Tigers with 21 points, while Carter Hillesheim added 16 points and Dylan Batzlaff added 10.

For GFW, Johnnie Ambrose led the way with 26 points, while Brady Hentges had 14 points, Alex Berkner had 11 points and Logan Martin added 10. Vava Ambrose added 9 points off the bench for GFW.

In the first half, GFW erased an early 7-2 Springfield run with three consecutive 3s to lead 11-7. During that 9-0 GFW run, Johnnie Ambrose, Berkner and Vava Ambrose each hit a 3.

The Thunderbirds ended up taking a 25-17 lead after a putback bucket by Martin, their largest lead of the night. The Tigers ended the half strong in the paint, however, and led 32-31 at the half after back-to-back buckets inside by Batzlaff.

GFW led by as much as 5 in the second half, 65-60, the largest lead by either team in the second half.

Larson said that his team is a little inexperienced and has some things to work on yet as the season continues.

“We need to get better defensively, we need to get a little bit better communication-wise on the defense — that I think is going to be big for us,” Larson said. “And then not turn the ball over. We did a little bit better tonight, but we’re still turning the ball over 15, 18 times, whatever it was, it was just too many times.”

Springfield (2-1, 2-1) is at Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart on Thursday, while GFW (0-4, 0-4) is at Minnesota Valley Lutheran on Friday.