File photo by Ari Selvey Springfield’s Bryan Buerkle takes a shot while defended by Madelia’s Kyle Pietsch (11) during a Tomahawk-Valley Conference crossover boys basketball game on Feb. 10 at Madelia High School.

By Travis Rosenau

trosenau@nujournal.com

MADELIA — On paper, the Springfield Tigers’ 84-58 win at Madelia on Feb. 10 may have looked like a one-sided game, but the Blackhawks’ high energy in the first half tells a different story.

The Blackhawks trailed just 42-38 at halftime in that game, but a big second-half swing allowed the Tigers to leave with a convincing win.

With the two teams scheduled to meet in the first-ever Tomahawk-Valley Conference Boys Basketball Championship at 7 p.m. Tuesday night, Madelia head coach Jeff Van Hee knows how important it will be for his players to keep their energy high against a balanced Springfield squad that is ranked eighth in Class A.

“When we make shots at any level, you have more energy,” Van Hee said. “We can play with them, we can compete every possession, that’s been our motto all year — one possession at a time. Just win that possession, don’t think about the one we just got done playing on offense, think about the one we gotta play on defense and that possession, think about the next one on offense when we get there.”

The Blackhawks made their shots in the first half of that Feb. 10 meeting, but the Tigers buckled down in a big way defensively and held the Blackhawks to 20 points in the second half.

“Key for us was that we needed to limit their second-chance points and we won the battle on the boards the first game and that’s something throughout the season … we’ve only been outrebounded one game all year,” Springfield head coach Lance Larson said. “So if we can continue to do that well, try and limit their touches for a couple of their good plays, make somebody else that maybe isn’t as comfortable scoring try and beat us, and then just keep coming at them, wear them out.”

Larson said being less familiar with Madelia due to the brand-new Tomahawk-Valley merger took his players a little longer to adjust when they finally got to take on the Blackhawks in that first meeting.

“It was a different team that we’re not as familiar with, so seeing them only a couple of times on film and not knowing what to expect, and they have some skilled players,” Larson said. “That freshman point guard of theirs [Kaydon Firchau] is probably legit top three kids in the whole section. They have some skill, they definitely ain’t no slouches.

“Second half became, maybe we were a little deeper than they were and they got tired and didn’t make shots. … It’s a different thing, now they’re going to come and probably be a little more fresh, obviously they’ve got something to prove, they want to show that the first game was a fluke and maybe they just didn’t shoot it well or whatever the case may be.”

The Tigers have been a balanced bunch all season, with four players averaging double figures. As of Thursday night, Bryan Buerkle was averaging 15.1 points per game, while Brayden Sturm (14.7 ppg), Brecken Heiling (14.4 ppg), Parker Kuehn (10.7 ppg) and Isaac Fredin (9.2 ppg) have helped shore up the Springfield offense.

But Van Hee has known for a while the Tigers’ go-to leader for the past several years has been their now-senior Sturm. Sturm is also averaging 9.1 rebounds, 5 assists and 2.8 steals per game, all team highs.

“Brayden … second half he got real aggressive, he makes things go,” Van Hee said. “I know they’ve got some others, Heiling is tough and they do some good things, but Brayden is the heart and soul for them. He’s a good guard, good point guard and that’s what they do. … He was a freshman playing against Ja’Sean, I think we was a freshman when we upset them over there [in Springfield] in the [section] tournament.”

That section tournament game was a 66-59 win for the Blackhawks at Springfield on March 8, 2022.

“We had to try to take the mental side of the game away from focusing on what [Sturm] was trying to do and think about how we were playing him and we were able to do that a little bit,” Van Hee said. “That’s the youth. I think Kaydon goes through, too, they get physical with him and try to make it so it’s not easy for him like last year or the year before when he was unknown, but Brayden definitely makes them go. And Buerkle, he’s a tough match for us. But that’s great. They should be tough. We want it to be competitive and play the best with our best.”

However, Sturm tweaked his ankle before halftime of the Windom Area game on Tuesday night in Springfield. The Tigers won that game 75-61.

Sturm didn’t play in Friday night’s game at Tracy-Milroy-Balaton, a 66-63 win for the Tigers, and any more setbacks may force Larson to keep his senior leader rested ahead of playoffs.

As for the Blackhawks, who beat Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop Friday night by score of 75-67 to move to 19-5, freshman Kaydon Firchau has quickly gone from almost unknown to almost unstoppable. Through Madelia’s first 23 games, Firchau was averaging 22.4 ppg, 6.3 rpg and 4.7 apg.

Senior Hayden Jones, who scored his 1,000th point in the Feb. 10 game with Springfield, is averaging 19.1 ppg and is shooting 37.1% from beyond the arc. Fellow career 1,000-point scorer and senior Josiah DeMaris is averaging 11.6 ppg and shooting 42.1% from the 3-point line, while senior Kyle Pietsch is averaging 8.9 ppg and team-high 7.7 rpg. Tate Becker is adding 7 ppg for the Blackhawks this season.

Van Hee said winning the Valley title was a goal for his team from the beginning of the season. Taking a page out of the 2022 Madelia baseball team, which won the Valley title for the first time in program history, this season’s Madelia boys basketball team also won the Valley for the first time in program history.

The Blackhawks dropped a game at home against another top Tomahawk Division team in Cedar Mountain Thursday night by a score of 76-56, so Van Hee is well aware of others seeing Tuesday’s rematch with Springfield as an uphill battle for his team. Van Hee and his players welcome the underdog label, however, and know that the bigger picture is competing at their highest level in preparation of the Section 2A tournament, which could easily see the Tigers and Blackhawks battle again in a few short weeks.

“We feel like an underdog … and I think everybody here feels like an underdog going into this game just because of the fact that they beat us here and we really got it taken to us [Thursday] night against Cedar Mountain,” Van Hee said. “As far as win or lose, that’s not even on our mind, it’s win the possession. … At the end of the day, it shakes out however it shakes out because we still have the section tournament.

“[The conference championship] matters, it matters because we want to win the conference championship and we want to make a statement that we’re ready to compete for the section, but even if we don’t win the conference championship, we’re still ready to compete for the section.”

Larson said he’s also looking forward to the Section 2A tournament, but a conference championship would be a nice feather in the team’s cap.

“It’s the first one and it’s something new and different,” Larson said. “The thing we’re not looking forward to is we just played them a week ago and seedings will come out next Tuesday right before we play, and they’ll probably get a four seed, so two games into the playoffs we’ll probably have to play them again. It’s just, how much do you want to show or whatever the case may be. Take nothing away from what it is, it’s fun for the kids, it’s an extra game. We had some little bumps and bruises [Tuesday] night … so that might carry into that game on Tuesday depending upon how fast we heal, but I think the kids are excited about winning the overall conference championship, I think that would be fun for them.”

Madelia has one more game on its schedule before hosting Springfield again when it hosts Medford on Monday night.

The Tomahawk-Valley Conference title game winner will be presented with a traveling trophy that will have the winning team’s name engraved at a later date.