Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Nicollet’s Henry Kennedy puts up a shot over Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop’s Easton Taylor (1) in the second half of Monday night’s Tomahawk-Valley Conference crossover boys basketball game at GFW High School in Winthrop.

WINTHROP — This season has been all about seeing improvement and hitting goals for the young Nicollet Raiders boys basketball team.

On Monday night, sophomore Henry Kennedy had a career night to help lift the Raiders to their 10th win of the season. With a career-high 32 points from Kennedy and three of his teammates in double figures, the Raiders held off the Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop Thunderbirds 86-76 in a Tomahawk-Valley Conference crossover game.

Kennedy also hauled in seven rebounds in the Section 2A win, but it was his strong first half of scoring set the tone for the Raiders and his clutch play late that sealed the deal.

“I struggled shooting earlier this year and now I’ve amped it up a little bit later in the season,” Kennedy said. “It feels good, big section win.”

Henry Oscarson had 17 points for Nicollet, now 10-12 overall, while Carson Kettner had 16 points and Keegan Hulke had 13 points and seven rebounds. AJ Kramer added 6 points.

Nicollet getting its 10th win of the season may not jump off the page, but it’s a goal head coach Chris Hulke set before the season for a young Raiders squad with no seniors on the team. Last season, the Raiders finished the year without a win.

“When I took the job [back], a lot of people were laughing when I told them I thought we could win 10 games, well tonight was our 10th win and it’s pretty satisfying because those kids earned it and they work hard,” coach Hulke said. “They didn’t know what winning was like, a lot of those kids had never won a varsity game, they were freshmen and sophomores this year. … This is a big thing. We’ve now won more games this year than the previous three years together. They’ve earned it. They share the ball, great team chemistry, they don’t care who gets the credit.”

GFW was led by Cole Jacobson’s 27 points, while Easton Taylor had 25 points, Carter Klages had 15 points and Layton Hamre finished with 7.

The Thunderbirds (7-13), who have a gauntlet to go through this week with a game at New Ulm Cathedral on Tuesday, a home game with Wabasso on Thursday and a gme at Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s on Saturday, worked hard to keep up with an early 3-point attack by the Raiders in the first half and eventually tied it and took a small lead in the second half.

But the Raiders got hot again late in the game, led by Kennedy’s consistent shooting.

“Our message is always just to take care of the things that we can control,” GFW head coach Ryan Jacobson said. “Give yourself a chance to be competitive and be in the game at the end … I thought we did that tonight. We had a couple buckets inside that just didn’t go and that just happens sometimes. But I was proud of how they competed, [Nicollet] just made a few more than we did.”

After Klages scored the first bucket of the game in the paint for a 2-0 GFW lead, Keegan Hulke dropped in back-to-back 3s to get the Raiders going in the first half. A steal by Kramer and lob pass to Oscarson in transition for a layup put Nicollet up 18-7, the largest lead of the half.

While the Raiders hit the 3 early on and worked the ball inside as the first half went on, the Thunderbirds took the opposite approach and got their shots inside first before hitting 3s later in the half to keep pace. A 3 by Taylor had the Thunderbirds down 28-25 with less than two minutes to go in the half, but the Raiders got an and-one before the half by Kettner to lead 34-27 at the half.

The Raiders went up double digits again early in the second half on another Keegan Hulke 3 and after Klages scored inside on the other end, Keegan Hulke found Kramer for a bucket inside and a 41-31 lead.

The Thunderbirds hung in, however, coming back to tie it at 44-all on a 3 by Cole Jacobson. After a Nicollet timeout, Keegan Hulke added a free throw to get the lead back for Nicollet, but it was short-lived as Cole Jacobson scored inside for a 46-45 GFW lead. Jacobson then found Clayton Karg under the hoop with a pass that Karg put in with a reverse for a 48-45 lead.

Oscarson tied it with a corner 3, but Cole Jacobson was in rhythm as he responded with a basket inside on the other end for a 50-48 lead. The Raiders got a 6-0 run after that to take the lead for good, getting buckets from Kennedy, Kettner and Kramer for a 54-50 lead.

The Raiders stretched their lead to 61-52, but the Thunderbirds battled back to trail 61-58 after a bucket from Hamre. The teams went back and forth with four consecutive 3-pointers before Kennedy scored inside for a 69-64 Nicollet lead. After dishing it it to Kettner for a 3, Kennedy scored again for a 74-64 lead.

The Raiders led by as much as 12 after that as they hung on for the win.

“We’re on a four-game win streak right now with no practices, we’ve had four straight games,” Kennedy said. “It means everything. It’s sweet having all these guys here, too.”

The Raiders hosts Medford on Tuesday before hosting Cathedral Friday night.