Photo by Samantha Davis. Wabasso's Caden Frericks pushes his way inside the lane in the second half against Minneota Thursday night at Minneota High School. Frericks finished with 10 points in the Rabbits' 83-82 win.

MINNEOTA — Both the Minneota and Wabasso boys basketball teams overcame double-digit deficits in their Thursday night matchup. However, after fixing early mistakes and fighting a slow start, the Rabbits came out victorious with an 83-82 win behind Brayden Guetter and Tavyn Larson’s combined 38 points, who finished with 19 each. The Vikings have now dropped five consecutive games.

“We played hard. I just told the guys to keep fighting,” Wabasso head coach Scott Leopold said. “It got pretty dirty in there, and it was pretty physical. We had to fight through it, and they played well.”

Guetter also finished with 10 rebounds to his 19 points for a double-double, as did Caden Frericks with 10 points and 14 rebounds. Calvin Hanna followed with 12 points. Guetter also went 7 for 7 at the free throw line.

For Minneota, both Lincoln Jerzak and Lucas Rybinski tallied 20 points apiece. Brody Larson followed with 12. Both Larson and Rybinksi shared a team-high three 3-pointers. Hunter Carstensen had a team-high 11 rebounds, and Tate Peterson led with six steals.

Both teams had their shooting struggles in certain areas. Minneota shot just 30% from the field, 23% from the arc and 64% at the free throw line. Wabasso shot at 51-26-63% marks.

Although Wabasso had a sluggish start, it quickly caught up from a double-digit deficit to begin the game. Minneota was aggressive with its offensive rebounding and steals off a full-court press to create an early 11-0 advantage, but the Rabbits caught on and turned the dial up to present a closely-contested matchup early on.

“We just weren’t playing our game. We were in a funk,” Leopold said. “I think we were shell-shocked because they scored a couple of quick buckets, and then we just didn’t respond.”

Minneota had to resort to fouling and putting the Rabbits at the charity stripe in the final minute, which solidified the game for Wabasso.

Both teams amped up their defense in the second half and forced a handful of steals and other turnovers on one another. The Vikings finished with 22 turnovers to Wabasso’s 34.

Coming out of the half trailing by just 2 points,Guetter sank a 3-pointer to give the Rabbits their largest lead yet, following a floater down the lane by Griffyn Hillesheim with a feed from Hanna for a 43-37 advantage.

Minneota called a timeout, to which Wabasso went into a zone defense out of. The Vikings were able to make a few 3-pointers throughout the half since they were forced to look at the perimeter.

“[We wanted] to just trying to throw them off,” Leopold said. “Try to make them uncomfortable, so that we could get into our rhythm, and play our speed and our style.”

The Vikings collected several steals, but oftentimes struggled with getting shots to fall on the break away layups. They finished with 17 steals to Wabasso’s seven.

“We are struggling to convert a lot of points,” Minneota head coach Chad Johnston said. “You score 82 points, and you’re like, ‘What do you mean you’re not putting up points?’ Well, our shooting percentage is not stellar.”

Wabasso eclipsed a double-digit lead after back-to-back fast break layups from Rohlik and Nolan Leopold, 53-40.

Another Minneota defensive stop forced an over-and-back call on Wabasso followed with a Tavyn Larson 3-pointer kept the Vikings within reach.

Guetter became one of the primary playmakers to help the Rabbits keep a slight edge. He grabbed a pair of blocks on the same defensive possession and hit a midrange jumper on the offensive end.

“He [Guetter] played a great game. He’s our go-to guy when we need a bucket, and he calms us down and gets us in our rhythm,” Leopold said. “He did that for us tonight and played awesome. It was impressive.”

With just over a minute to go, Jerzak hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key to bring Minneota within 5 points at 78-73.

Both teams were in bonus, and the Vikings began to put Wabasso at the line to try and save the game.

Rybinski made a 3 himself with 43.7 seconds to go as the Rabbits held an 81-76 edge.

With 25 seconds to go, Jerzak got the defensive board off a Wabasso free throw, and Tavyn Larson drilled in the 3-pointer to bring the Vikings within a possession 82-79.

Drew Kemp was put at the line for Wabasso, and made 1 of 2 free throws to create a 4-point edge, which saved the game with just enough buffer room, as Rybinski nailed a 3-pointer as the final buzzer rang.

Minneota started the game hot and went on an 8-0 run in the first minute of the game with three steals off a full-court press to force an early Wabasso timeout.

The Vikings increased on an 11-0 run and kept Wabasso scoreless for three minutes until Jayden Remiger scored off an offensive rebound putback.

“We needed to start like that. We’ve had a couple games now where we’ve started slow, so we needed that start,” Johnston said. “Obviously, Wabasso did a nice job of weathering that storm and working themselves back in the game … We struggled to score.”

Jerzak and Rybinski combined for 12 of Minneota’s first 15 points, with 6 apiece.

“They are senior leaders, and they need to be,” Johnston said. “I think sometimes they put a little extra pressure on themselves to be those people. But, I also understand that we expect that out of them too. They have to be those senior leaders. Those are the two guys with the most experience.”

The Rabbits began to first find their rhythm as Hanna sank a 3-pointer from the right way to cut into a 15-7 deficit. Joseph Rohlik then drew a charge on the defensive end to give Wabasso the ball back.

A long pass to the other end of the court off the inbound to an open Rohlik, which Wabasso did twice in the first half, brought the Rabbits closer.

Rohlik had 7 of Wabasso’s first 12 points, and made another field goal to cut Minneota’s lead to 17-12. He finished with 8 points.

The score became tied at 17 after Tavyn Larson made a 3 midway through the half.

Minneota was able to pull away slightly 30-23 after another Jerzak layup, but Wabasso’s Jack Burns drew an and-1, Hanna drilled in another 3-pointer, and Tavyn Larson also converted an and-1 with the made free throw for a 30-29 deficit.

The Vikings went into halftime up by a basket 34-32, behind 10 points from Jerzak.

Rohlik and Tavyn Larson also each had 10 points for Wabasso heading into the locker room.

“We definitely need to be more physical. We need to learn how to handle that physicality in that game,” Leopold said. “Hopefully we can learn from that and make our physical attempts a little better so we don’t shy away from contact.”

Minneota falls to 3-6 and will look to get a win when it next hosts Canby (0-8) on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.

Wabasso improves to 6-3 and has a quick turnaround to host Lester Prairie (2-7) today with a 7:30 p.m. tip off.