Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Sleepy Eye senior forward Landon Wendinger finishes a slam dunk in the second half of Saturday afternoon’s Tomahawk-Valley Conference crossover boys basketball game against Nicollet at Sleepy Eye High School.

SLEEPY EYE — Even though the Sleepy Eye Indians had to put a less-than-100% Landon Wendinger on the floor Saturday, the 6-foot-8 senior still gave his team all he had to offer.

Finding the rim three times with dunks in the second half and finishing with 23 points, 18 rebounds and five blocks, Wendinger led the Indians to a 71-50 win over the Nicollet Raiders on Saturday in a Tomahawk-Valley Conference boys basketball crossover game.

Wendinger didn’t really get going until the second half, but he did see a tight double team by the Raiders almost every time he touched the ball on the low block.

“Guys get into the habit of trying to pass him the ball all the time instead of scoring first, being aggressive scoring and then get the dump-downs and making the help come,” Sleepy Eye head coach Shane Heiderscheidt said. “One of us are going to be open if they’re double-teaming.”

Thankfully for the Indians, Wendinger was far from alone in his efforts as Brayden Heiderscheidt added 15 points, four rebounds, four steals and three assists and Robert Romberg had 13 points and four rebounds. Braylon Nelson got the start for Sleepy Eye also and finished with 12 points and three rebounds.

“We got into the paint a little bit and Robert did a really good job of scoring for us and then you can’t double [Landon] anymore, then the dump-off is there and there are not too many people that are going to stop him,” coach Heiderscheidt said. “And then we shot the ball decently well. Braylon, obviously his first start, he came in and played well. … What people don’t realize is we’re young, too, they look and see Landon, but we’re also playing with freshmen and sophomores. But [Landon] is sick as a dog, he can hardly breathe.”

As Wendinger battled illness and got more substitutions than he’s used to seeing because of it, the Indians stayed aggressive. Nelson hit three quick 3-pointers to help give the Indians a 16-9 lead early on before a 3 by Brayden Heiderscheidt made it a 10-point game.

Keegan Hulke, who led Nicollet with 17 points and eight rebounds, answered moments later with a bucket inside and a 3 to have his team down 20-15. Brayden Heiderscheidt responded with a 3 of his own before Keegan Hulke hit a pair of free throws and another 3 to have the Raiders down 23-20. Henry Kennedy had a pair of layups late in the half to have Nicollet down 29-24 before Wendinger and Romberg scored to close the half with Sleepy Eye up 33-24.

“Shane’s a good coach and he’s got them playing really well,” Nicollet head coach Chris Hulke said. “I think Landon had 6 at halftime, obviously a huge focal point for us, our guys did a great job. Second half we just wore down, they moved the ball a little quicker and we just don’t have a lot of answers for a 6-8 guy. We’ve got some good players, we didn’t shoot it very good, but once Landon got that high-low going, we struggled a little bit with that. It was tough to keep the ball out of his hands.”

A slow first two minutes of the second half for both teams prompted a Nicollet timeout. Sleepy Eye started the second-half scoring with a layup by Brayden Heiderscheidt before a free throw by Keegan Hulke got the Raiders back in the scoring column.

Without a slam dunk in the first half, Wendinger was finally able to get some space inside and put down his first dunk of the game for a 50-41 lead with less than eight minutes to play.

After Keegan Hulke added two more free throws to have the Raiders down 50-43, the Indians came to life with a corner 3 by Romberg being followed up by a Wendinger and-one. Brayden Heiderscheidt then added a free throw before Eric Lozano, Nelson scored and Wendinger each scored inside to complete a 13-0 run with a 63-43 lead.

Henry Oscarson ended Sleepy Eye’s long run with a 3 to have the Raiders down 63-46.

Wendinger then got his second dunk of the game and moments later found Chase Zufall open on the wing for a 3 as Sleepy Eye started to have fun. Wendinger’s third dunk of the half and game with less than two minutes to play led to subs entering and the final score.

Carson Kettner also had 16 points for Nicollet, while AJ Kramer pulled in 10 rebounds. However, Keegan Hulke stepped up for the Raiders and at times scored on the 6-8 Wendinger.

“I thought Keegan played a great game today, he went at Landon and wasn’t scared,” coach Hulke said. “We’re trying to get that mentality in our team — go at them, make some shots, make it work. He played his butt off, I don’t know what he had for points, but when I see stuff like that as a coach and as a dad, it makes me pretty proud.

“Once we get five guys believing in it, we’re going to be pretty good. And two wins in the last 52 games and now we’ve got three in our first eight, turnaround is pretty good, so we’ll take what we can get. But again we’ve talked about it a lot — moral victories we’re kind of done with them. We’ve changed the culture, now we’ve got to win games.”

Sleepy Eye’s Saturday win moved it to 5-5 on the year, while Nicollet dropped to 3-6.