OVER THE DEFENSE — Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial guard Ethan Wiens (12) elevates and fires a 3-point jump shot over Maple River defender Zach Trio (2) during the two teams’ Section 2AA, South Sub-Section semifinal basketball game Thursday night at Cardinal Gym in Fairmont. Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial went on to post a 73-41 victory over Maple River to gain the sub-section finals. (Photo by Greg Abel)

FAIRMONT — Just when the Section 2AA boys basketball fans at Cardinal Gym thought Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial’s 3-point shooting had cooled, the Knights drained a few more behind the arc on Thursday night.

The South Sub-Section’s No. 1-seeded Knights scorched the Fairmont gymnasium’s nets with a 14-for-26 3-point shooting performance to flatten the No. 4-seeded Maple River Eagles, 73-41, in the South semifinals.

Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial (24-4) advances to face South No. 2-seeded Waseca (18-10) for the sub-section championship at 8 p.m. Monday night at the Taylor Center on the Minnesota State University campus in Mankato. The Bluejays collared the No. 3-seeded Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton Bulldogs (22-7) by a 74-52 decision.

Ironically, Maple River (14-14) held the lead only once — 2-0 on Aaron Pawlitschek’s right-wing 10-foot jumper — before LCWM buried three trifectas to help trigger a momentum-changing 15-0 scoring surge and never looked back.

“All of our 3s were good looks. We moved the ball extremely well tonight and our players shot with a lot of confidence,” said Knights’ head coach Logan Manska. “The extra pass proved important, especially with the way their (the Eagles) defense was able to close out on us. I thought our overall decision-making was at the playoff level.”

Jack Brockmann, who topped the Knights’ 14-assist effort with a game-best six helpers, utilized a swooping cross-over move in the paint to trigger the early double-figure run. Brockmann spotted Jamis Ulman with a skip pass for a left-corner 3-pointer before Ethan Wiens did the same in feeding Mason Anderson for the right-wing trey.

Mason Anderson, who co-led LCWM with Brockmann with 15 points apiece, converted Ulman’s pinpoint pass for a low-post lay-in to cause a Maple River timeout at the 12:27 juncture, trailing 10-2.

Brockmann’s endline spin produced two more points before Mason Anderson returned the favor by hitting Ulman for a top-of-the-key 3 to widen the gap to 15-2.

Aaron Pawlitschek ended the Eagles’ offensive drought with two free throws only to see Ethan Anderson joined the Knights’ roster of 3-point sharpshooters with a pair of treys to force another Maple River timeout at the 7:46 mark, trailing 23-8.

Mason Anderson later drilled a left-corner 3-pointer off another Brockmann assist at the 1-minute mark to extend LCWM’s lead to 34-16, but 6-foot-7 Wyatt Birr countered with an exclamation point on his last-second dunk for Maple River.

Birr tossed in a low-post jumper to keep the Eagles within 17 at 42-25 before Jack Goeringer’s 3-pointer off the Knights’ bench served as the catalyst behind an ensuing 18-0 surge that put the game out of reach at 60-25 with 10 minutes to go.

Brockmann sank a solo free throw, Ulman tossed in an 8-foot runner and Brockmann buried a 3-pointer from the right corner off one of Ulman’s three assists.

Goeringer made two charity tosses before Ethan Wiens — who scored just one first-half point — reeled off seven of his 13 second-half points to cap LCWM’s game-clinching avalanche of points. Wiens, who finished with 14 points, nailed a 3-pointer, banked in a putback basket and pocketed one of his three thefts for a layup en route to a 60-25 lead.

Zach Trio finally connected for Maple River’s only 3-pointer of the game to reach a team-best 11 points before fouling out at the 9:11 mark.

Ethan Anderson’s 3-pointer officially created running time at 67-32 with 6:35 remaining in regulation.

Ethan Anderson contributed nine points to LCWM’s winning ways, while Ulman produced solid all-around numbers of eight points, a game-best six rebounds, three steals and three assists. Goeringer chipped in nine more points off the bench.

Maple River   18-23–41

LCWM            34-39–73

LCWM (73)

Ethan Anderson 3-6 0-0 9, Jamis Ulman 3-7 0-1 8, Mason Anderson 6-8 0-0 15, Ethan Wiens 5-9 1-2 14, Jack Brockmann 6-7 2-3 15, Jack Goeringer 2-4 4-6 9, Charlie Gengler 0-2 0-0 0, Lucas Wells 0-0 0-0 0, Caden Larson 1-1 0-0 3, Nolan Nase 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 26-44 7-12 73.

MAPLE RIVER (41)

Carson Healy 1-1 0-2 2, Aaron Pawlitschek 3-8 3-4 9, Arden Pawlitschek 2-4 1-2 5, Zach Trio 5-6 0-0 11, Wyatt Birr 2-9 3-4 7, Cole Davis 0-5 0-0 0, Avery Bergemann 1-2 0-0 2, Gavin Halvorson 1-2 2-2 4, Carson Urban 0-0 1-2 1. Totals 15-37 10-16 41.

3-pointers: LCWM 14-26 (E. Anderson, M. Anderson and Wiens 3 each; Ulman 2; Brockmann, Goeringer and Larson 1 each); Maple River 1-8 (Trio 1). Fouled out: Trio. Rebounds: LCWM 20 (Ulman 6); Maple River 19 (Trio and Birr 4 each). Assists: LCWM 14 (Brockmann 6, Ulman 3); Maple River 0. Steals: LCWM 12 (Ulman and Wiens 3 each); Maple River 6 (Aaron Pawlitschek 3).