“We knew coming in here it’s a different atmosphere,” Madelia head coach Jeff Van Hee said. “[St. Mary’s has] very good shooters from the perimeter, in their own gym especially. They did a good job defending, and we were able to use our size advantage as we moved on … They’re a gritty team. They get after it.”

After a Cooper Walter 3 cut the lead to a single point, Madelia’s Dalton Tatro hit a floater, followed by a driving layup from Kaydon Firchau and a free throw from Tate Becker. St. Marys’ Mike Balko hit a corner 3 with 1:20 to play, but Firchau hit a layup and a quick turnover led to a layup from Bryce Borkenhagen made it a 68-61 game. St. Marys’ Brecken Hulke split a pair of free throws, but with under a minute to play, Firchau was able to make all four of his shots in the double bonus down the stretch for the victory.

“I think that our experience came through,” Van Hee said. “We have three seniors out there and guys that have been to the section championship last year with Kaydon Firchau out there. Those moments, they know what to do to get it done.”

Firchau led all scorers with 33 points on the day, along with 10 rebounds and four assists. Becker had 15 points and seven rebounds, while Tatro had 10 points and seven rebounds. Caden McMullen added 8 points, seven rebounds and five blocks.

Staff photo by Ari Selvey Madelia’s Kaydon Firchau (0) shoots over Sleepy Eye St. Marys’ Adam Steffensmeier (2) during a nonconference boys basketball game at St. Mary’s High School.

Adam Steffensmeier led the Knights with 20 points and six assists, while Balko had 12 points and four rebounds and Hulke had 11 points and 16 rebounds. Walter added 9 points for St. Mary’s.

Firchau is now less than two weeks removed from returning from a knee injury, and as Madelia looks forward to the rest of the schedule, reintegrating him into the team will be key for the Blackhawks, who improved to 19-4 with the win.

“We were rolling when he went out, and we’re trying to get back to that,” Van Hee said. “This is a step in that right direction. Obviously it always feels better to win a game regardless. There’s some things we’re still going to work on. The biggest thing is we need to shore up our defense and we’ve got to continue with our relentless effort. That’s going to be key for the playoffs.”

With Firchau out for about a month, Madelia was able to develop confidence in its other offensive options while improving its effort on defense.

“I think some guys got more aggressive offensively and realized that they needed to cover for some of his defense,” Van Hee said. “People think, oh, [Firchau] scores 30, 40 points a game, but he plays both ends of the floor, he plays a complete game. Having him not out there for a while made some other guys step in there defensively and try to replicate what he was doing defensively. He changes the game on both ends of the court. We got to really work on our defensive effort. It’s hard when you’ve got five guys today, and I know there’s some times when you take a little bit of a mental break and you don’t get out, but we did enough tonight, and Kaydon carried the offensive load.

“We were able to isolate some guys in the paint, which was good. Overall, those guys that gained some experience when Kaydon was out when we needed a go-to, we can go to them. Not that we ever doubted that anyway, but now they’ve got the confidence to do it. We’ve got Tate, who’s a guard but can take his guards to the paint, we’ve got Bryce, who’s strong, and Dalton’s Dalton, he’s going after everything. Besides Caden McMullen. So We’ve got options to get into the paint. If they’re going to go after Caden as hard as they do, we have to have guys that step in and score too.”

Madelia started the game with a 14-6 lead, courtesy of a 3 from Becker. A paint shot from Firchau had the Blackhawks up 17-8, but St. Mary’s responded with a 7-0 run, with Steffensmeier hitting two layups and Walter making a 3, to cut the lead to 17-15.

A putback from McMullen ended the run, but Steffensmeier got out in transition for another layup and Hulke made a shot in the paint to tie the game at 19. A Hulke free throw gave the Knights the lead, but Madelia took it back with a quick 6-0 run, including an and-one from Firchau, to go up 25-20. Hulke and Steffensmeier each got a pair of layups to go, and a 3 from Balko tied the game at 27, but a pair of Firchau free throws gave Madelia a 29-27 lead going into halftime.

Balko opened the second half with a 3 to hand the lead back to St. Mary’s, and a layup from Eli Christensen made it a 32-29 game. Madelia tied it again with a layup from Becker, and the teams went back and forth, with a 3 from Tyler Mathiowetz giving the Knights a 38-34 lead. Another 3 from Balko had St. Mary’s up 41-36 as Madelia called a timeout with 12:20 to play, and Firchau and Walter traded 3s as the Knights held a 46-41 advantage. Madelia went on a 8-2 run and took a 49-48 lead on a pair of Borkenhagen free throws, but Steffensmeier took the lead back with an acrobatic layup. A putback from Firchau and a layup through a foul from St. Marys’ Landry Folkens set the score at 52-51, and shots from Becker and Steffensmeier flipped the score once more. Becker tied the game at 55 with a pair of free throws, then Firchau scored back-to-back layups for a 59-55 lead as St. Mary’s called a timeout with 3:39 to play. Walter hit his 3 to cut the lead to 59-58, but the Blackhawks were able to execute down the stretch to come away with the win.

Madelia plays at Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop in Gibbon on Friday before heading to Lake Crystal Wellcome Memorial on Tuesday for its final regular season game.

“[GFW] is going to be a challenge also,” Van Hee said. “Especially coming off of a tight game here. But the games are the games, and you play them when they’re there. Hopefully the guys can recover. Looking forward to the playoffs, but at the same time, we keep trying to work on our defense and our offense.”

St. Mary’s (14-11) hosts St. James Area on Saturday.