With three players in double figures, the Blackhawks held off a second-half comeback by the Nicollet Raiders, winning 86-78 in a Tomahawk-Valley Conference, Valley Division boys basketball game at Nicollet High School.

Freshman Kaydon Firchau paced the Blackhawks with 30 points, which almost matched the total points scored by Madelia’s top two senior scoring options Hayden Jones and Josiah DeMaris. Jones finished with 18 points, while DeMaris added 15.

Nicollet got four players in double figures, led by Carson Kettner’s 21 points. Keegan Hulke added 16 points and six rebounds, while Henry Kennedy had 15 points and nine assists and Henry Oscarson had 12 points. AJ Kramer added 8 points and nine rebounds.

On paper, the unbeaten Blackhawks, now 4-0 overall and 2-0 in the Valley, took the Nicollet court Thursday confident in their chances of downing the winless Raiders, now 0-4 overall and 0-2 in Valley play. But the Raiders definitely didn’t play like a winless team, overcoming a 14-point deficit in the first half to tie the game at 66-all late in the second half.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Madelia’s Kaydon Firchau goes up for a shot while guarded by Nicollet’s Henry Kennedy (2) during Thursday night’s Tomahawk-Valley Conference, Valley Division boys basketball game at Nicollet High School.

“On paper, yeah, it looks like we should win going away, but I said, ‘It’s high school basketball, sometimes your kids just aren’t locked in or ready to play,'” Madelia head coach Jeff Van Hee said. “Chris [Hulke] has got them motivated to knock off somebody that’s winning, we’re winning to start the season and we’ve got seniors.”

Chris Hulke, back as Nicollet head coach after stepping away in 2020, did have his players fired up and ready to go Thursday. However, the senior-less Raiders struggled in the first half.

“It just comes down to, we’ve started every game slow so far [laughs] and it’s getting frustrating,” coach Hulke said. “But second half we battled and we’re a young team, we play hard, but that’s the expectation in Nicollet now that I’m here. We’re going to play hard every game, we’re going to compete. It’s just, Madelia’s a really good team.

“We played well, we’re starting to figure stuff out, all new systems from last year, four years with different stuff, so it’s all new starting over again. We want to win games, though. The bottom line is we’re trying to win games. So as much as I’m excited about some of the progress, we’re getting better every day, every practice, but sometimes we’ve got to come away with a win. It’s been a bit for us.”

Madelia, who got its first 8 points of the game from Firchau, led 11-7 after a bucket in the paint from Kyle Pietsch. But Kettner was fouled from the 3-point line, which saw him sink three shots at the charity stripe, before Kennedy’s spin move in the paint ended up in a basket and a 12-11 Nicollet lead. Firchau got a fast-break layup to give Madelia the lead back before a 3 by Jones put the Blackhawks up 16-12 to force a Nicollet timeout with 8:25 left in the first half.

An and-one by DeMaris with 2:35 left in the half gave Madelia its largest lead of the half and night, 36-22. The Raiders got their deficit into single digits with some free throws, but Pietsch banked in a 3-point dagger to beat the halftime buzzer and give Madelia a 41-30 lead heading into the second half.

Madelia scored to start the second half and go up 13, but the Raiders hung around and cut their deficit to 58-52 on a 3 from Oscarson. Jones answered with a 3 of his own, but Keegan Hulke kept the Raiders within arms reach at 61-55 with a 3. Noah Fitzner then got a steal for a layup before a pair of free throws by Kettner had the Raiders down 61-59.

After Kettner and Madelia’s Tony Zaleski exchanged and-ones moments later, Kettner sank a 3 and drew the foul, setting up a 4-point play opportunity. Kettner hit his free throw to tie the game at 66-all.

Madelia’s experience came up big seconds later as DeMaris scored inside to give his team the lead back, which it never lost after that. Firchau added a layup and a 3 to give the Blackhawks a 73-66 lead.

Despite the point total put up by Madelia, Nicollet’s 2-3 zone defense did force some turnovers for fast-break points that kept the Raiders in the game. Coach Hulke said even with what he thought was a pretty good defensive effort from his squad, Madelia was just too talented of a team in the end.

“They’ve just got that much talent,” coach Hulke said of Madelia. “We kept saying on the bench that we think we’re playing pretty good defense, but we gave up [41] in the first half and [45] in the second half. But it felt like they have such good talent and we are a zone team a little bit, we’ve been trying some different stuff, but I like the way we played our zone tonight. We play pretty aggressively because we’ve got some guys that can get out there. Unfortunately giving up [86] points, I still feel like we played pretty decent.”

While he was happy to move to 4-0 on the season, Van Hee said his players have the ability to be better yet and they’ll continue working to show that each night.

“I try to look at the positives, we did a lot of good things tonight,” Van Hee said. “Our shot selection was really good, it’s just we weren’t knocking some shots down that I think we’re normally going to shoot and knock down, but we have to be prepared defensively to withstand that. We shouldn’t have four guys on the perimeter typically that are going to shoot poorly, we didn’t have great shooting tonight, but our defense allowed them to stick around in the game with our shooting that was average. …

“I’m excited about the win, and guys are going to be excited about the win, but they’re going to be a little disappointed about how it went down. But at the same time, I’d rather have that than going away with a couple of the teams we played that are struggling a little bit with younger teams. This reminds these guys that you can’t just show up. You’ve got to go through everything. Details.”

Madelia hosts Martin County West for another Valley Division game on Tuesday night, while Nicollet hosts Granada-Huntley-East Chain/Truman/Martin Luther for a Valley Division game Friday night.