WARRIORS WIN!! — North Union’s Kody Irmiter (far right), Aiden Lofstrom (23), Dan Fothergill (2) and head coach Alex Fisher (middle back) celebrate the Warriors’ overtime win over South O’Brien during Saturday night’s Iowa Class 1A, Substate 1 basketball championship game in Spencer, Iowa. North Union’s Kyan Jones and Preston Guerdet (black knee brace) share a celebratory hug as the team qualifies for the state tournament. (Photo by Greg Abel)

SPENCER, Iowa — North Union senior forward Aiden Lofstrom’s putback layup sent the Warriors’ Iowa Class 1A, Substate 1 championship basketball game with the South O’Brien Wolverines into an extra session Saturday night.

Lofstrom finished with 17 points and teammate Preston Guerdet supplied 13 more to help guide North Union to a 58-51 overtime victory over South O’Brien to advance to the state tournament in Des Moines, Iowa.

North Union (22-3) opens Class 1A state quarterfinal action against Top of Iowa Conference rival Lake Mills (24-1) at 3:45 p.m. Monday, March 4, at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa.

Warriors head coach Alex Fisher was thrilled with the outcome.

“You know Aiden has come a long way just from the toughness aspect. You know when he was playing for us as a sophomore, he’d lose his head often and it just shows the growth he’s had,” Fisher said.

The Warriors got out to a great start to open the game with a 9-4 lead a few minutes into the first quarter.

The Wolverines would push back after taking the opening blows, and took a 13-12 lead to end the opening period.

Warriors senior big man Kody Irmiter came out aggressive with six first-quarter points. Irmiter would finish the night with seven points and seven boards.

The second quarter was hotly contested as was the theme of the game.

The Warriors came out firing yet again, gaining a 21-16 lead with 3:55 left before the half. The Wolverines got themselves into some foul trouble that contributed to the Warriors’ advantage.

Wolverines junior guard Derek Paulsen got a steal and converted his layup on the other end to cut the lead to 21-20 with 3:22 remaining in the second.

Lofstrom came to life in the second after having a slow start to the game. He converted on all three of his shots and finished the second quarter with eight points heading into the break.

The Warriors held a slim 26-25 lead entering intermission.

In the third quarter, the Warriors heated up from down town. Preston Guerdet, Grady Madden and Drew Henderson all nailed deep shots to propel the Warriors to a 42-34 lead with a minute remaining in the period. That was the largest lead of the night for either squad.

The Wolverines would convert before the end of the third to take the game into the fourth with a score of 42-36.

The fourth quarter was a tale of two outcomes. The Warriors, who had scored well all night, failed to find consistency on the offensive end and the Wolverines clawed their way back into contention.

Senior Willie Conley converted on a putback layup half a minute into the fourth to cut the Warriors lead to 42-38. Paulsen then nabbed a steal and streaking back down the court for a layup to cut the deficit to just a point for the Wolverines.

The score stagnated at 44-43 until senior forward David Bottjen of the Wolverines drilled a contested 3-pointer to give them a 46-44 lead with 1:35 left in regulation.

The score remained unchanged for much of the backstretch until an offensive rebound and putback layup from Lofstrom lifted the Warriors to even at 46 with 6.8 seconds remaining.

Wolverines’ forward Jaden Kreber missed a last-second trey ball and the game was headed for overtime.

In the extra period, it was all Warriors. Guerdet and Madden nailed a pair of 3-pointers to get things started and then senior Dan Fothergill hit a leaning mid-range shot to push the advantage to 54-48 in North Union’s favor.

Guerdet went 3 of 4 from the charity stripe down the stretch and the Warriors came out victorious at 58-51.

“It’s incredible because if you go back and watch some of the biggest games we’ve been in this year, we struggled from the free throw line and let it end closer than it should’ve been,” Fisher said. “Felt like we lost the game at home against Lake Mills because of free throws and we knew it was going to come down to it tonight, knew it was going to be a close game, so it was really nice to see them fall down the stretch and build on our lead.”

NU  12-14-16- 4-12–58

SO   13-12-11-10- 5–51

NORTH UNION (58)

Lofstrom 8-10 1-1 17, Guerdet 3-8 4-6 13, Fothergill 3-9 2-2 9, Irmiter 2-4 3-5 7, Madden 2-11 0-0 6, Henderson 1-3 0-0 3, Ky. Jones 0-3 2-4 2, Kh. Jones 1-1 0-0 2.

SOUTH O’BRIEN (51)

Paulsen 8-11 2-5 18, Conley 5-14 3-3 13, Bottjen 4-16 2-3 12, Kreber 2-4 0-0 5, Woodall 1-5 0-0 2, Wittrock 0-1 1-2 1.

Big South Showcase

Fairmont 66, St. James Area 47 — The Cardinals rallied to outscore the hometown Saints by a 39-18 margin in the second half to pocket a 19-point comeback win in their Big South Showcase game Saturday.

Ironically, Fairmont’s trio of Oliver Tordsen, Logan Junkermeier and Levi Pooley combined to match St. James Area’s total team point production.

Tordsen tossed in a game-best 20 points and neared double-double territory by grabbing nine rebounds to go with three blocked shots.

Junkermeier tallied 14 points and pulled down six boards, while Pooley generated 13 points, doled out four assists and pocketed five steals for the Cardinals.

Blaze Geiger doled out four assists for Fairmont, which made 20 of 42 shots from 2-point range, 6 of 22 behind the 3-point arc and 8 of 12 at the free throw line.

Fairmont (13-13), the No. 4 seed, plays host to No. 5-seeded Luverne at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 2 in their Section 3AA opener.

Blue Earth Area 87, Windom Area 86 (OT) — Max Loge drained the once-in-a-lifetime three-quarter court game-winning 3-pointer in overtime to cap the Bucs’ one-point victory over the Eagles during Saturday’s Big South Showcase game in St. James.

Loge nearly produced a rare triple-double performance by generating team-leading totals of 23 points — including four trifectas, 12 rebounds and eight assists.

Sullivan Dahlberg also connected for four 3-pointers to pace his 17-point effort to complement his six boards for BEA, while Jacob Grandgenett hit three treys to highlight a 15-point game to go with distributing six assists.

Taylor Davids made three 3s en route to a 14-point performance for the Bucs, while Gage Barker collected 10 points and four steals.

Blue Earth Area (10-12) travels to Waterville-Elysian-Morristown on Thursday night.