The fourth-seeded Blackhawks didn’t let those two prior losses get in their way of winning when it mattered most as they took down the top-seeded Tigers 69-63 in the Section 2A Boys Basketball Tournament semifinals at Gustavus Adolphus College.

Springfield defeated Madelia 84-58 in Madelia on Feb. 10 and then again in Madelia on Feb. 25 by a score of 70-68 to win the Tomahawk-Valley Conference title.

But Monday the Blackhawks got the win when it mattered most, led by freshman Kaydon Firchau’s 28 points.

“Great team win,” Firchau said. “Everyone played their role, everyone did what they did, a great team win. I’m so proud of my guys and we played through the adversity. The last five minutes there was so much adversity, we just played through it.”

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Springfield’s Parker Kuehn, left, battles with Madelia’s Kyle Pietsch while Brecken Heiling dives for the loose ball during the second half of Monday’s Section 2A Boys Basketball Tournament semifinals Monday at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter.

Madelia will now play second-seeded BOLD at 6 p.m. Thursday for the section title and right to go to the state tournament. The game will take place at Minnesota State University, Mankato’s Bresnan Arena.

The Blackhawks had a 13-point lead at one point in the second half, but to be expected the top-seeded team in the section wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

Firchau had the final bucket of the game for the Blackhawks and more than made enough plays for his team, but there may not have been a bigger and more underated play in the game than what came from junior Tate Becker in the final 30 seconds. With the Tigers down 3, Madelia senior Hayden Jones was fouled and had a chance to put his team up by two possessions with a one-and-one free throw opportunity. Jones couldn’t get the first free throw to go, but Becker, who finished with a team-high 11 rebounds, got around a box-out and grabbed the loose ball off the miss, allowing his head coach Jeff Van Hee to take a timeout with 28.8 seconds left.

“Earlier in the game I tried to just go straight to the rim when [Brayden] Sturm was boxing me out, and that didn’t work at all,” Becker said. “So I was like, ‘I might as well try to go around him.’ I took a jab step in, spun around and the ball came right to me, I got it dribbled out, perfect bounce.”

After the timeout, Becker got fouled and had his chance to put his team up by two possessions. While he missed his second free throw, he hit his first and the Blackhawks were able to hold off the Tigers from scoring while adding a game-icing layup by Firchau in the final seconds.

“I’m like the worst shooter on the team, so when I’m hitting shots, you know we’re going to win,” Becker joked. “Hitting that first free throw was huge, it gave our team some surge for the last 30 seconds.”

Jones finished with 20 points also for Madelia, while Josiah DeMaris had 10 points.

Springfield was led by Bryan Buerkle’s 18 points, four rebounds and three assists, while Brayden Sturm had 17 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. Parker Kuehn added 12 points, while Brecken Heiling had 6 points and seven rebounds.

A corner 3 by Jones gave Madelia an early 14-9 lead, but Sturm answered with a corner 3 of his own before Buerkle’s turnaround fadeaway tied the game. Firchau then cashed in on a 3 and a layup by DeMaris put Madelia up by 5 again.

Madelia took its biggest lead of the half at 28-22 on a bucket inside by DeMaris and after the Tigers tied it at 28-all on a pair of Buerkle free throws, the Blackhawks got a 3 from Jones and a steal by Dalton Tatro that led to a layup from Firchau in the final minute to take a 33-28 lead at halftime.

Back-to-back buckets by Kuehn to start the second half had Springfield within 1, but Madelia got a 9-0 run to lead 42-32 before Buerkle stopped the run with a big bucket inside. Becker knocked down a 3 moments later, however, giving Madelia a double-digit lead for the second time. A Jones bucket minutes later put Madelia up by its largest total of the game, 57-44.

The Tigers were tasked with losing their starting point guard Isaac Fredin, who went down with an aparent ankle injury with a little more than five minutes to play. He did not return to the floor.

Despite that blow, the Tigers made another late run and Madden Lendt put some energy into his team with a putback dunk to trail 61-54. Lendt hung on the ring a little too long, however, drawing a technical that gave Madelia a chance to get the points back. Firchau made one of the two technical free throws.

Firchau then added a jumper for a 64-54 Madelia lead.

“Obviously no one knew me my eighth-grade year, and I put a bunch of work in and a bunch of time in the summer,” Firchau said. “I just want it, I want this competition. I want to go against the older guys and I want to win.”

After a bucket from Heiling, Sturm got an and-one to have Springfield down 64-59. Kuehn had a chance to make it a 2-point deficit for the Tigers after a layup while drawing the foul, but he couldn’t hit his free throw. Firchau scored again with a little more than a minute left before Sturm hit a pair of free throws on the other end to set up the game’s final events.

“We’ve never beaten Springfield in anything ever, so it feels amazing,” Becker said. “It’s hard to beat a team three times, so third time’s a charm.”

Van Hee said that the game plan wasn’t any different this time around, but the confidence was there.

“It’s a confidence thing,” Van Hee said. “Our game plan wasn’t any different from the second game. We just were confident that we were the more experienced team, the veteran team and we knew that we could play with them because we played with them the first half a little more in the first game and most of the second game. We just needed to be there. Those games were invaluable for us.”

While the Blackhawks will be riding high knocking off the top-seeded and state-ranked Tigers, Firchau said it will be key to refocus quickly before Thursday.

“We got one day, one night of celebration and we’re back to work the day after practice,” Firchau said. “We’re getting right back to work.”