Staff photo by Ari Selvey Sleepy Eye’s Kadence Hesse pulls up for a jumper during a Tomahawk Conference girls basketball game against Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart Thursday at Sleepy Eye High School.

SLEEPY EYE — Sleepy Eye needed every single one of its 46 second-half points as it came back from a 17-point deficit to defeat Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart 66-65 Thursday in a Tomahawk Conference girls basketball game.

“I think we just locked in,” Sleepy Eye point guard Kadence Hesse said. “It took a little while for us to get comfortable, and you can tell it’s our first couple of games of the season, you’ve got a lot of adrenaline going. But I think, after a couple of those timeouts, we just needed to breathe and remind ourselves we’re OK, relax and play our game, because were letting them beat us up a lot.”

Kadence Hesse led the Indians with 24 points, six rebounds, four steals and four assists. Brea Mertz added 16 points and 12 rebounds for the Indians, while Cadence Okerman had 13 points, six rebounds and four steals. Paige Haala totaled nine points and five rebounds for Sleepy Eye.

Sleepy Eye didn’t defeat the defending Tomahawk Conference champion Mustangs in the previous season, so getting the win was important in establishing its position in the conference.

“It’s huge,” Kadence Hesse said. “It definitely sets our eyes on the right place, and if we can beat a team like this, the conference is in our hands if we can show out and play our game. If we all play like we did tonight, and maybe even a little better, we’re going to be tough to beat.”

Sleepy Eye head coach Sarah Hesse added that the win against a top opponent gave the team a big boost in confidence.

“It gives them a ton of energy and a ton of confidence,” coach Hesse said. “It was a big win for us … It’s great for our momentum.”

The game opened with a lot of hard-nosed defense and high activity levels from both teams. Okerman opened the scoring with a pull-up mid-range shot to spark an 8-2 run from the Indians. BLHS responded with an 11-2 run of its own, including 5 by Lily Hubin, to take a 13-10 lead, forcing a Sleepy Eye timeout.

Led by the trio of Rachel Kottke, Kristi Kottke and Hubin, the Mustangs continued to build on that lead though smart passing to attack the Indians’ zone defense while capitalizing on Sleepy Eye turnovers with transition buckets. By the end of the half, BLHS was up 30-20.

Sleepy Eye came out of the half looking frustrated, with a few more turnovers and missed shots allowing BLHS to take a 44-27 lead. But Sleepy Eye’s halftime adjustments started to kick in, and the Indians began their comeback.

“We switched defenses,” coach Hesse said. “They were getting too many open looks with our 1-2-2, so we switched to man. And then we just had to settle in. We were playing helter-skelter in the first half, and we just needed to calm down. We went in at halftime, we said we were beating ourselves at this point, they’re not beating us. We’re turning the ball over, we’re not making our layups. We just needed to calm down, take a breath, and then come back out. We had a lot of time to get a stop, get a score, get a stop, get a score, and that’s what we did.”

Once again, it was Okerman who scored with a pull-up jumper from the nail to start the scoring. Mertz scored on a putback and converted an old-fashioned 3-point play on back-to-back possessions to cut the lead to 10 and force a Mustangs timeout.

Kadence Hesse converted on her own and-one to continue the run before Kristi Kottke hit a transition 3-pointer to push the lead to 47-39.

Rachel Kottke and Kadence Hesse both hit tough layups through contact in succession, and the teams traded baskets for a few possessions. Sleepy Eye continued to creep closer to the lead, and by the time BLHS called another timeout, the Mustangs were only up 56-54.

A few possessions later, Kadence Hesse converted on another and-one, and after a defensive stop, Mertz dished a pass to Sam Price for a layup and the lead as the Indians went up 64-63 with under a minute left.

Rachel Kottke hit a floater to retake the lead for the Mustangs, but Kadence Hesse made a turnaround shot in the paint to give it back to Sleepy Eye. BLHS took a timeout with 11.9 seconds to go in the game, and Rachel Kottke’s final shot was rushed and missed left as the Indians pulled off the upset.

Sleepy Eye improved to 4-0 on the season after winning their previous three matchups fairly comfortably. Coach Hesse said she was proud of how her team dealt with the challenges of being down big against a strong opponent.

“They did a good job,” she said. “I think changing our defense helped, then we just needed to figure out when to help and what players to focus on. It’s the mentality of we have to get a stop, then we have to get a score. You have to break it down and think of it in those thoughts, or you can’t overcome it. They did a great job, very proud of them.”