WINTHROP — Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop rolled past Buffalo Lake-Hector-Stewart 82-40 in the first round of the Section 2A boys basketball playoffs Friday.

GFW was led by Cole Jacobson who had 30 points, while Easton Taylor had 13 points and Alex Johnson had 10 points.

BLHS was led by Chase Hubin with 15 points, while Carter Macik had 13 points and Alex Taylor had 9 points.

No. 6-seeded GFW will travel to No. 3-seeded BOLD for an 8:01 p.m. playoff game Tuesday night.

BLHS started out the game strong, getting out to a 7-4 lead. GFW started to calm its nerves, hitting more shots and playing sound defense to create multiple BLHS turnovers. The Thunderbirds led as much as 24 in the first half, going on 16-6 and 24-6 runs.

GFW started off a little slow but then found their stride during the first half.

“We were very fortunate tonight,” coach Ryan Jacobson said. “Defensively, we had a very good effort we did a very good job rebounding the basketball. When you do those two things and are efficient on the offensive end, that’s what you are looking to do.”

The second half was much of the same for the Thunderbirds as they led as much as 43 points and went on a 14-3 run to end the game.

This win was not only important because it kept the Thunderbirds’ season alive, but it also gave them momentum for their game against BOLD on Tuesday.

“We were off for 10 days before tonight, so there was some nervous jitters to start the game,” coach Jacobson said. “But the boys were ready to play. We played BOLD a few weeks ago and only lost by 1. But they have a couple guys on that team that can score 30 on you.”