Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Sleepy Eye’s Brayden Heiderscheidt looks for an opening while guarded by BOLD’s William Penkert (23) during the first half of a Section 2A Boys Basketball Tournament quarterfinals game Thursday at Sibley East High School in Arlington. Heiderscheidt passed 1,000 points for his career in the game.

ARLINGTON — Sleepy Eye saw its senior leader Landon Wendinger in foul trouble and the BOLD Warriors took advantage of it Thursday evening in a Section 2A Boys Basketball Tournament quarterfinals game at Sibley East High School.

As Wendinger’s fouls added up, so did the Warriors’ points as they ran away with a 79-51 win.

Wendinger, who fouled out late in the second half, had 10 points, nine rebounds and two blocks.

Robert Romberg had 13 points and six rebounds to lead the seventh-seeded Sleepy Eye, which finished the season 14-14 with the loss, while Eric Lozano had 11 points. Sophomore Brayden Heiderscheidt had 10 points, passing 1,000 points for his career. He also added eight assists and three rebounds.

No. 2-seeded BOLD’s 6-3 senior forward William Penkert led his team with 31 points, while 6-5 senior guard Jack Gross finished with 24 points.

BOLD will play Cedar Mountain in the section semifinals at 7:45 p.m. Monday night at Gustavus Adolphus College.

Sleepy Eye head coach Shane Heiderscheidt said he was upset with some of the foul calls in the game, specifically on his 6-8 forward Wendinger.

“It’s pretty devastating, especially on one side of the ball, it’s a touch foul and the next side guys are getting grabbed, pull jerseys out, but that’s not an excuse,” he said. “It just would have been nice to play at full strength.”

The Warriors did get the advantage at the foul line, getting 18 free-throw attempts to Sleepy Eye’s four.

While BOLD took an early 5-0 lead, both teams struggled to get shots to drop in the opening minutes. Brayden Heiderscheidt got the Indians on the board on a bucket in the paint, but minutes went by without a bucket before Gross got his first of three slam dunks in the game to put BOLD up 7-2. Minutes later Gross got his second dunk for a 14-6 BOLD lead.

Brayden Heiderscheidt buried a 3 with 9:15 left in the half to pass the 1,000-point milestone and have Sleepy Eye down 14-9. Sleepy Eye got its deficit down to 3 after that before BOLD started hitting shots from all over the floor, going up 32-18 on a 3 from Penkert.

The Indians weren’t aided by the fact that their big Landon Wendinger picked up his third foul in the final four minutes of the half and was forced to sit.

A basket in the paint from Penkert late in the half gave BOLD its largest lead to that point at 40-24, but Romberg hit his second 3 to help Sleepy Eye enter halftime down 40-27.

“We were 9 of 33 in the first half and we were only down 13,” coach Heiderscheidt said. “We missed a lot of bunnies, but like I said, it changes our team aspect when our best player has to sit on the bench

Less than six minutes into the second half, Wendinger picked up his fourth foul of the game, an offensive foul, making things tough on Sleepy Eye again as he was forced to sub out with his team down 49-34 at that point. Wendinger subbed back in with less than eight minutes to play, but the Warriors continued to widen the gap and went up 70-45 on a layup by Penkert. Wendinger scored inside one last time on the other end before fouling out with 4:07 left to play.

The final score was BOLD’s largest lead of the night.

While the Indians graduate Chino Luna and Wendinger, coach Heiderscheidt said he expects his young returners to pick up the pace next season and develop.

“People don’t realize we’re all freshmen and sophomores,” he said. “So these kids are going to develop, they’re going to grow and these are all gym rats.”