With five players in double figures and two with 9 points apiece, the Tigers earned an 82-74 win over the Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s Knights in a Tomahawk Division boys basketball game.

Parker Kuehn captained the Tigers with 17 points and five assists, while Madden Lendt had 13 points and a game-high 18 rebounds. Isaac Fredin added 12 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals for Springfield, while Bryan Buerkle had 11 points and four rebounds and Aiden Moriarty had 10 points and seven rebounds. Brecken Heiling and Dylan Simonson each chipped in 9 points.

Making the extra pass and getting as many players involved on offense has already been a staple for the Tigers this season, but they amped that effort up on Thursday when they needed to most against a quality Tomahawk foe in the Knights.

“Right now with Bryan back, we’re pretty deep,” Tigers head coach Lance Larson said. “It probably takes away from a guy that’s maybe going to be a Player of the Week or something like that, and I think our guys are buying into sacrificing that. Everybody works their butt off when they’re on the floor and good things happen.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Springfield’s Dylan Simonson dribbles to the hoop while guarded by Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Cooper Walter (1) of a Tomahawk Division boys basketball game on Thursday night at St. Mary’s High School.

“It doesn’t matter who’s going to score, somebody’s going to step up and might get one or two close to 20 and have two or three in that 10-, 12-, 13-point ranges. As long as they’re OK with it, it sure doesn’t matter to me. It makes us harder to guard and I think in the long run, it’s probably better come playoff time.”

St. Mary’s was led by Cooper Walter, who dropped in six 3s on the night to help finish with a team-high 22 points. Adam Steffensmeier added 15 points, while Eli Christensen had 13 points and Brecken Hulke added 8 points.

Knights head coach Judd Walter said the Tigers played Thursday’s game similarly to how they did when they defeated the Knights on Dec. 12 in Springfield. The Knights dropped that game 84-59, making Thursday’s game a big improvement for the Knights on their home floor.

“I like the way we competed against a really good team,” coach Walter said. “You’ve gotta do a lot of the little things right. I thought we did a lot of little things we talked about. We talked about finishing possessions with rebounds, I think some of their second and third chances really got us.

“But, overall, I liked the way we competed against a really good team. It was one of them games where we knew it would be an uphill battle to stay and compete with them, but I liked the fight tonight.”

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Cooper Walter scores on a layup in the second half of a Tomahawk Division boys basketball game against Springfield on Thursday night at St. Mary’s High School. Walter finished with six 3-pointers and 22 points.

St. Mary’s had an early 3-point lead, 9-6, following a jumper from Michael Balko, and the Knights kept that lead until the Tigers went on a 12-0 run midway through the half. During the run, Lendt scored inside to get it going, while Buerkle’s drive inside put the Tigers up. A baseline drive off the glass by Kuehn had Springfield up 16-13 before a layups by Lendt and a steal by Fredin and pass to Kuehn was finished with an easy fast-break layup for a 20-13 lead. Kuehn missed a layup his next chance to score, but Fredin cleaned it up with a quick putback to have the Tigers up 22-13.

Hulke scored inside on the other end to stop the run.

Cooper Walter dropped in back-to-back 3s moments later to bring the Knights within 3, 24-21, but Kuehn sank a corner 3 and Simonson hit a long corner jumper for a 29-21 lead. The Knights got a nice run of their own after that, with Balko scoring on a layup before stealing a pass and finding Steffensmeier open for a fast-break layup. Another stolen pass under the hoop by Christensen allowed the Knights to slow things down and continue the run, which they did when Cooper Walter buried his third 3 of the night to have the Knights down 29-28.

Buerkle put back his own miss for a 31-28 lead and Christensen answered with a bucket to make it a 1-point game again. The Knights tried to slow it down and have the final possession and chance at a bucket, but Fredin stole the ball and scored on a layup for the final bucket of the half, giving Springfield a 33-30 edge at the break.

Steffensmeier scored early in the second half to make it a 1-point game for the final time as Moriarty answered to kick off what turned into an 11-0 Springfield run and 44-32 run. The run was highlighted with a one-handed slam dunk by Lendt on a fast break.

After 3s by Heiling and Simonson put Springfield up 52-36, the Knights stayed with it and got a 3 from Cooper Walter, a layup by Christensen and another 3 by Cooper Walter to trail 52-44.

The Tigers ended up creating more turnovers with less than eight minutes to play and that helped them get their largest lead of the night, 70-51, following an 8-0 run. Landry Folkens banked in a 3 to have the Knights down 77-67, and Cooper Walter’s sixth 3 of the night had the Knights down 78-70, but Cooper Walter was forced to foul with less than 30 seconds left to stop the clock and send the Tigers to the line. That ended Cooper Walter’s night as he fouled out.

Fredin ended up sinking a pair of free throws after that foul and time ran out on the Knights.

“They’re a dangerous team, especially when they shoot it well,” Larson said of the Knights. “They’ve got some guys that can really shoot it and if they get rolling, they put enough pressure on you defensively to make it hard, so they’re definitely up and coming because they’re pretty young.”

Springfield outshot the St. Mary’s 50% to 49.2% in the game.

The Knights fared better from the 3-point line as they hit on 10 of 23 (43.5%) shots from beyond the arc to Springfield’s 4 of 15 (26.7%), but the Tigers were 13 for 22 at the foul line (59.1%) as St. Mary’s went 2 for 7 (28.6%). The Tigers also controlled the battle on the boards 45-24.

The Tigers (12-3, 9-1) are next scheduled to host Cedar Mountain in a Tomahawk game Monday night, while the Knights (9-5, 6-3) travel to Winthrop to take on Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop in Tomahawk action Monday night.