Photo by Samantha Davis. Minneota’s Lincoln Jerzak goes up for a layup off a steal in the second half against Renville County West Tuesday night at Minneota High School. Jerzak finished with 13 points in the Vikings’ 75-72 double overtime loss.

MINNEOTA — In a gritty, down to the wire game that saw several lead changes and an intense matchup, the Minneota boys basketball team fell to Renville County West 75-72 in double overtime Tuesday night. Five Vikings scored in double digits.

“That was a hard fought battle … Heck of a game against a good team,” Minneota head coach Chad Johnston said. “It was a good learning experience for us, and a learning experience for me and how to handle those stressful situations.”

Lucas Rybinski led Minneota with 15 points, followed by Lincoln Jerzak with 13 points, Tate Peterson with 12 and both Leo Hennen and Easton Johnston with 11. Both Rybinski and Johnston had a trio of 3-pointers.

Minneota shot 32.2% from the field going 28 for 87, and went 8 for 35 from beyond the arc for a 22.9% clip. RCW finished shooting 39.4% from the field and 51.4% at the 3.

“Not the most stellar 3-point night for us. We’ve been pretty fortunate to be in that 30-something percent,” coach Johnston said. “But tonight, we were at 23%.”

Although the Vikings defeated RCW on both occasions last season by 32 and 34 points, that didn’t hold much meaning going in as the Jaguars have been on a hot start, beginning the season 5-0 after they finished 2023 7-19 overall. Three of its wins this year have also been decided by 19 or more points.

Since dropping its season opener to Tracy-Milroy-Balaton 92-67, Minneota won each of its last three games by 10 or more points. The Vikings have been doing so by playing a deep rotation and spending most games in a full-court press, which is exactly what the team did again on Tuesday.

“Last night, we spent a lot of time working on the press and trying to fix our rotations,” coach Johnston said. “That was our focus, was more from a defensive standpoint.”

The first half showcased an even match, and Minneota went into the locker room with a one possession 36-34 lead. Neither team allowed a large deficit to occur, and responded on small runs.

The Vikings’ biggest struggle in the first 18 minutes was fouling and sending RCW to the charity stripe for free points. Minneota had six fouls to the Jaguars’ one midway through.

Jerzak got the action started with a left-handed layup, but RCW hit a 3-pointer immediately after.

RCW was generally able to break through the Vikings’ full-court press by fast passing up the court and beating Minneota’s defense.

“A couple times, I thought we should get out of the press and all of a sudden, boom, you get three or four possessions of turnovers, and it keeps you going,” coach Johnston said. “So, obviously we stuck with it.”

Jerzak and Rybinski shared Minneota’s first 10 points, each with 5 apiece. The two each finished with a team-high nine rebounds as well.

Henned ended a small scoring drought with a floater down the middle, and Johnston hit a 3 for a 15-13 Minneota edge.

Two visits to the free throw line, including an And-1, for Brody Larson brought the Vikings back within a point after trailing by 5. Right after, three offensive boards and the putback on the same attempted basket from Hunter Carstensen brought Minneota up 20-19.

The half went on to be tied at 31 after a corner 3-pointer from Johnston, and the scrappiness grew on both ends as the game picked up a faster pace.

RCW started to get chippy on defense, and grabbed a couple steals and executed on offense.

The half ended with a 3 from Peterson to give Minneota the uphand.

Minneota fought early struggles coming out of the half, as RCW’s defense frustrated them and with returning the press and two steals. The Jaguars made a fast break layup to tie it up at 36.

Rybinski began to heat up with a field goal down low and a 3-pointer from the right wing to put Minneota back on top by 5 points.

But, continuing the night’s trend, RCW went on a 6-0 run to take back the point advantage.

The Vikings responded on a run of their own, with a pair of jump shots from Peterson and a steal that resulted in a fast break layup for Jerzak for a 49-42 lead with just over 11 minutes to go.

RCW began to climb away late with a growing effort on both ends. Effective ball movement that led to finding open holes down low in the paint, a few steals on defense and crashing the board on the offensive end made the difference.

But, Minneota didn’t give up and fought back to stay within reach.

Johnston hit a 3-pointer to bring the game within one, but RCW made the same shot in response.

A Rybinski 3-pointer with less than a minute to go tied the game at 60 on the next play, which ultimately sent the game to overtime.

“Just keep battling,” coach Johnston said regarding what he told the team going into overtime. “I mean, part of the problem is, once again, we’re getting late in the game, and we’ve got a group of people out there that don’t really practice together. We’re improvising on offense a little bit.”

Rybinski drew a charge on defense and Hennen hit a 3 to start the extra period, as the Vikings’ gym and bench erupted in support.

With Minneota up 68-66 and 14 seconds left, RCW hit the once again game tying jumper to send the game to a double overtime.

Jerzak made the go-ahead layup with a feed from Larson to keep Minneota’s spark going, and Peterson sank a pair of free throws after getting fouled with a 72-20 lead.

However, RCW tied it up again with an open look down low.

The Jaguars made two free throws to grab the 74-72 edge and got a steal on defense, and were sent to the line with 12.6 seconds after a Minneota foul.

RCW made 1 of 2 free throws to bring the game to 75-72.

“I was pretty, extremely happy about things when we went to overtime,” coach Johnston said. “It would have been nice to make an extra free throw, but they missed a couple too.”

Minneota ended the night shooting 44% from the line, going 8 for 18, compared to the Jaguars’ The Vikings had possession with 9.9 seconds to go and were forced to take a deep 3-point shot off an inbound play after being trapped in the corner, which didn’t fall and ended the night.

“What we will take from this is a good experience, things that we did well, and things we need to work on,” coach Johnston said. “It was a learning game.”

Minneota (3-2) will next look ahead to Friday when it travels to play Lakeview (2-4) on Friday at 7:30 p.m.