Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Springfield’s Bryan Buerkle goes up for a layup during a Tomahawk-Valley Conference, Tomahawk Division boys basketball game against Sleepy Eye on Thursday at Sleepy Eye High School.

SLEEPY EYE — In a physical game Thursday night, the Springfield Tigers used what they have been able to rely on all season to leave Sleepy Eye High School with a win.

Depth.

With a lineup full of playmakers, the Tigers used a big second half to run away with a 73-52 win over the Indians in a Tomahawk-Valley Conference, Tomahawk Division boys basketball game.

Bryan Buerkle, a 6-foot-4 junior forward, led the way for the Tigers (9-1, 6-1) with 21 points and 11 rebounds. While he has been one of the Tigers’ go-to players this year and Thursday was no exception, he hasn’t had to worry much about hitting a specific point or rebound total this season for Springfield to see success.

“Any given night, anyone can drop 20,” Buerkle said. “It’s great, it’s a great thing to have on our team. When someone’s going, we’ll know it and we’ll find them and keep them going.”

Parker Kuehn was another leader for the Tigers on Thursday with 14 points, five rebounds and four steals, while Brecken Heiling had 11 points, Brayden Sturm had 7 points and 13 rebounds and Madden Lendt had 7 points and six rebounds.

Sleepy Eye’s (6-6, 4-3) 6-foot-8 big Landon Wendinger had another strong game with 16 points, 13 rebounds and eight blocks, while Brayden Heiderscheidt led the Indians in points with 20 while adding seven rebounds.

The Indians racked up 11 fouls in the first half and Wendinger picked up his fourth foul with a little less than 12 minutes to play, giving Sleepy Eye another challenge to deal with.

The Tigers finished with 17 fouls to Sleepy Eye’s 16, but Tigers head coach Lance Larson said his team’s depth paved the way in the victory.

“We wore them down a little bit, staying aggressive defensively with the full-court pressure, it just wears on you and wears on you,” Larson said. “[Sleepy Eye] came out strong and made some shots and Landon’s a force and he intimidates our guys and all the sudden we’re short-handing shots and not making them. We didn’t finish really well. I told them if we made half our bunnies, we probably win by 40 and that’s a learning thing. You’ve got to go at guys like that and play defense without fouling. He’s really good at not doing that but we did get [four] on them … but you can’t be scared, you’ve got to keep going at him.”

The Tigers have also been without forwards Lucas Milbrath (6-2) and Aiden Moriarty (6-3), who are both out for the season with injuries. While Larson would have liked two more big bodies in the post to match up with Wendinger, Buerkle was able to hold his own and the Tigers’ depth came through.

Wendinger did make an immediate impact by making his first three buckets of the game in the paint for a quick 6-1 Sleepy Eye lead. The scoring slowed down after that as a Buerkle and-one tied the game at 8-all.

Wendinger scored inside to take the lead back before a Brayden Heiderscheidt 3 gave Sleepy Eye a 13-8 lead. The Indians pushed their lead to 16-10 moments later on another 3 by Brayden Heiderscheidt and kept the lead until a corner 3 from Kuehn and a pair of free throws from Sturm put Springfield up 26-25. A 3 by Heiling closed out the scoring in the first half with the Tigers ahead 31-26.

“I thought we came out a little slow right away, but we played great as a team, it was a team effort,” Buerkle said. “We came out in the second half and we wanted to go from there.”

The Tigers built their lead to 41-32 early in the second half, but the Indians hung around and cut their deficit to 43-38 after a baseline bucket from Brayden Heiderscheidt. But after Wendinger committed his fourth foul of the night, the Tigers increased their fast-break approach even more, forcing Sleepy Eye head coach Shane Heiderscheidt to periodically sub Wendinger out the rest of the game.

After a Wendinger bucket in the paint and a pair of free throws by Brayden Heiderscheidt, the Tigers ran wild with an 18-0 run to lead 64-42, getting buckets from five different players during the run.

Despite the loss, coach Heiderscheidt was happy with his team’s defense in what was a closely-contested game for the majority of the time.

“I like where we’re at, I like how we played defense,” coach Heiderscheidt said. “My boy Brayden did a really good job on Sturm, who is considered a Player of the Year candidate, held him to 7 points, so our defense is right there. I would have liked to have seen if we could have played at 100% and not in foul trouble.”

The Tigers are at BOLD for a nonconference game on Monday, while Sleepy Eye travels across town to Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s for a conference battle with the Knights on Monday.