ARMSTRONG — The 3-pointers fell in the second half and the North Union Warriors took a 63-58 Top of Iowa Conference basketball victory over the North Iowa Bison on Friday night in Armstrong.

North Union hit 5 of 12 3-point shots in the third and fourth quarter to build from a halftime tie at 28.

The Warriors started a run early in the third quarter.

Robert Ortman hit a 3 from the wing off an Avery Krantz assist to give North Union its first lead of the second half, then Brendan Anderson grabbed an offensive rebound and powered his way through a defender to get 2 more points.

Riley Sabin answered for the Bison with a mid-range 2, but a Gage Madden steal-turned-layup and a Braden Pierce 3 gave the Warriors a 6-point lead with five minutes left in the third quarter.

Aidan Fries hit a 3 and Madden, Noah Morphew and Anderson each contributed two points through the remaining minutes to give the Warriors a 47-41 lead heading into the fourth.

North Union built its lead to 57-45 before the Bison stormed back.

Sabin contributed six of his team-high 16 points in the final quarter, while Dominyk Price also hit two layups and two free throws to help North Iowa’s comeback attempt.

After Price’s free throws, the Warriors’ lead was down to one point with 1:30 left in the matchup.

The Warriors called their final timeout and tried to hold on to the ball for the remainder, but the Bison’s press defense forced a turnover and gave North Iowa a chance at the lead.

The Bison missed the opportunity and fouled, sending Morphew to the free throw line.

Morphew hit the first, then missed the second and grabbed his own rebound before passing to Madden, who went to the charity stripe after a flagrant foul.

Madden hit both tries to put the Warriors up 4 with 9 seconds left. Anderson was fouled on the ensuing inbounds pass and hit one of two attempts.

Madden grabbed the final rebound off a desperation 3 and the clock expired, leaving the Warriors with their first win of the season.

“It was fantastic when it comes to effort and our mindset,” North Union head coach Alex Fisher said. “We got thumped on Tuesday, plain and simple, Martin County West took it to us. We came back and had a great day Wednesday and a great day Thursday and it showed tonight. We matched North Iowa’s energy, I thought we were really gritty tonight and we hustled all over the floor. I thought we played some really good team ball.”

Ortman led the game with 20 points to complement his five rebounds, while Madden had 13 points.

The teams stayed close in the first half.

Ortman contributed 5 of the Warriors’ 12 first-half points. Sabin led the Bison with 6 of their 14 points before the first break.

North Union held Price, North Iowa’s leading scorer, and Cedric Frerichs, who scored 26 points in last year’s meeting between these teams in Armstrong, to a combined 28 points on 12-for-25 shooting.

“We knew the Price kid is one of the better players in the conference and he’s hurt us in the past,” Fisher said. “We did some different things to try to take him out of his offense. And Frerichs, we know he can shoot after he scored 26 on us last year. We didn’t want to get those guys started and to be honest we were a little upset with our defense from Tuesday night. We can’t do stuff like that against good teams like them so we worked hard on it in practice and we brought it tonight. … I was really proud of the response.”

Morphew led the Warriors with seven rebounds and four assists.

The Warriors hit 23 of 49 shots from the field, including 7 of 21 from behind the 3-point arc, while making 10 of 14 free throws.

North Iowa combined to make 24 of 56 attempts from the field, including 2 of 13 from 3, the Bison made 8 of 16 free throw attempts.

North Union (1-1, 1-0 Top of Iowa) goes to Forest City, Iowa, for a 7:30 p.m. game Tuesday, while North Iowa (1-2, 1-2) plays host to Rockford.

NIA 14 14 13 17 — 58

NU 12 16 19 16 — 63

NORTH IOWA (58)

Riley Sabin 8-14 1-3 17, Frerichs 6-11 1-2 14, Price 6-14 2-2 14, Hobbs 2-5 1-2 5, Beenken 1-6 2-4 4, Logan Sabin 1-3 0-0 3, Tyler Murray 0-1 1-3 1. Totals: 24-56 8-16 58.

NORTH UNION (63)

Ortman 7-14 3-5 20, Madden 5-10 3-3 13, Anderson 4-5 1-2 10, Pierce 3-4 0-0 8, Morphew 2-10 3-4 7, Fries 1-3 0-0 3, Heinen 1-2 0-0 2. Totals: 23-49 10-14 63.

3-pointers: North Iowa 2-13; North Union 7-21 (Ortman 3-6). Fouled out: Kade Hobbs (NI), Avery Krantz (NU). Rebounds: North Iowa 24 (Riley Sabin 6, Tyler Murray 6); North Union 24 (Morphew 7, Ortman 5). Assists: North Iowa 7 (Price 4); North Union 12 (Morphew 4, Ortman 3). Steals: North Iowa 18 (Price 5, Frerichs 4); North Union 8 (Madden 3).

Truman/Martin Luther/ GHEC 75, Hope Academy 52 — Sophomore center Adam Heckman produced a double-double performance to fuel the Jaguars’ second-half comeback over Hope Academy in first-round Tipoff Tournament action Friday night in Madelia.

Trailing 31-29 at intermission, the Jaguars outscored Hope Academy 46-21 in the second half to pull away for the 23-point triumph.

Adam Heckman delivered 22 points and 10 rebounds to complement three assists, while teammate Cayden Fischer supplied 16 points and distributed a game-best six assists in the win.

Cael Jaskulke netted 10 points, pulled down seven rebounds, doled out four assists and blocked three shots for the Jaguars, while Matt Heckman chipped in nine points, six boards and four assists.

Carter Spear added nine points for the Jaguars, who made 22 of 36 shots from 2-point range for 61.1 percent, 6 of 17 behind the 3-point arc and 13 of 22 at the free throw line.

The Jaguars held Hope Academy’s Caleb Hoilien to seven points as he erupted for 45 points against Le Sueur-Henderson on Monday night.

The Jaguars (2-0) face Madelia in the Tipoff Tournament’s championship game at 2 p.m. today in Truman. Madelia advanced via a 76-55 win over Glenville-Emmons on Friday night.

Blue Earth Area 75, Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial 48 — Cameron Anderson netted 15 points, four steals and three assists to steer the Bucs to a 27-point non-league triumph over the Knights on Friday night in Blue Earth.

Gavin Storbeck contributed 10 points to Blue Earth Area’s balanced winning performance, while Austin Thielfoldt delivered nine points and four rebounds.

Braden Gudahl collected eight points and four steals for the Bucs, while Sam Keister generated seven points, five rebounds and three blocked shots. Will Howard chipped in seven points, Zach Herrmann scored six points, while Grant Strukel added four points and four steals.

The Bucs, who made 13 of 17 free throws, built a 42-18 halftime lead over the Knights.

Miles Flack generated a game-best 21 points to top LCWM.

Blue Earth Area (1-0) travels to Trimont on Tuesday night to face Martin County West.