Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Springfield’s Maddy Digmann dribbles the ball while guarded by Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop’s Marti Jacobson on Thursday night in a Tomahawk Conference girls’ basketball game at GFW High School.

WINTHROP — Controlling both the pace and basketball on Thursday night played a big role for Springfield in a Tomahawk Conference girls’ basketball game with Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop.

The Tigers turned the ball over just five times against the Thunderbirds and slowed things down at the right times to pull away with a 56-52 win at GFW High School.

Brooklyn Sturm led Springfield with 23 points and 10 rebounds, while Maddy Digmann had 16 points and nine rebounds. Also for the Tigers, Tori Roiger had 6 points and eight rebounds, Megan Ploeger had 6 points and Jasmine Peterson-Novotny added 5 points.

GFW was led by Brynn Busse’s 25 points, five rebounds and three assists, while Olivia Schwarzrock added 8 points and six rebounds and Jenna Schweiss had 7 points. Halle Bleick added five rebounds and four assists for the Thunderbirds, while Taylor Haas grabbed five boards.

“I think the difference is they got more of their style of gameplay,” GFW head coach Rich Busse said. “We wanted to get into more of an up-tempo game, get into our press a little bit more and we weren’t able to do that. As a result, we ended up having to play more their style. To their credit, they got their kind of play.”

Tigers head coach Mike Kelly agreed that his squad’s ability to control the game’s pace while taking care of the ball was a key factor in the win.

“We needed to control the pace of the game,” Kelly said. “We had to keep it a little slower tonight because we were short-handed tonight and handle the ball. And we did an excellent job of handling the ball and that probably was the difference in the ball game right there.”

Springfield (5-7, 3-4) extended its winning streak to four games with the win after a rough 0-7 start to the season.

GFW (6-7, 2-6) dropped its third consecutive game with the loss.

After allowing an 8-0 run by Springfield to trail 42-36 in the second half, GFW got a brief 45-44 lead back on a straightaway 3 from Schwarzrock and led 46-44 after a free throw from Brynn Busse. The Tigers responded with a 6-0 run to lead 50-46, however, with another 3 by Sturm ending the run.

The Thunderbirds got a 3 from Schweiss with 11 seconds left to trail 55-52, but the Tigers sank another late free throw to put things out of reach.

Much like the second half, the game started out with a back-and-forth first half.

GFW grabbed the game’s first basket, but the Tigers answered with a quick 7-0 run that was capped off on a bucket in the paint from Ploeger. After a bucket by Digmann had the Tigers ahead 16-8 moments later, GFW got a 7-0 run to prompt Kelly to burn a timeout with 7:05 left in the half.

The run saw a jumper by Marti Jacobson, a 3 by Brynn Busse and a jumper from Morgan Aylsworth.

The Tigers ended the run out of the timeout and were able to push their lead back to 6, 22-16, before GFW took a 25-22 lead on a 3 by Brynn Busse that capped off a 9-0 run.

A late-half 3 by Sturm led to a 27-all game at halftime.

GFW took a 30-27 lead to start the second half on a 3 by Haas before Springfield later retook the lead, 34-33, on a 3 by Sturm. While the Thunderbirds had their moments, the Tigers controlled most of the half from there out on the way to the win.

Barring the weather, GFW hosts Cedar Mountain on Friday and the Tigers host Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s on Tuesday.