Photo by Samantha Davis. Wabasso's Brayden Guetter dribbles around the screen and toward the basket in the second half against Minneota in the Section 3A tournament second round Saturday afternoon at Montevideo High School. Guetter finished with 18 points and 18 rebounds in the Rabbits' 76-64 win.

MONTEVIDEO — The fifth-seeded Minneota boys basketball team overcame a few double-digit deficits, but No. 4 Wabasso held on at the free throw line to come away with the 76-64 victory in the Section 3A tournament second round Saturday afternoon at Montevideo High School.

“They [Minneota] always give me a heart attack, that’s for sure. I wish it wouldn’t have been that close, but we finished at the end,” Wabasso head coach Scott Leopold said. “[Minneota’s] Coach [Chad] Johnson is an amazing coach, and his team always comes to fight. I knew it was going to be a battle, but we came out on top.”

After Wabasso built up a 38-30 halftime edge, the game got tied up at 50 with eight minutes to go. Both teams ended up in the bonus with six minutes of gameplay left and made several trips to the free throw line through the final minutes, where Wabasso was able to execute proficiently.

“I’m always proud of our effort, I don’t ever have to second guess that,” Johnston said. “Just unfortunately, sometimes we get into points in the ball game where the ball doesn’t want to go in for us … Then, we had to foul and put them on the free throw line, they were making their free throws, and we just could never really get back from that.”

Wabasso shot 18 of 33 from at the line, where Minneota shot 4 of 9.

Lincoln Jerzak and Adam Dalager fouled out for the Vikings, while Joseph Rohlik fouled out for the Rabbits.

Wabasso’s Brayden Guetter showed up big in the final few minutes to help secure the win for the Rabbits, but had to play cautiously with four fouls.

“He [Johnston] put the pressure on, and they [Minneota] started getting on a run. I knew we just needed to calm down and play our game, play our rhythm,” Leopold said. “Also, Calvin Hanna did a great job of calming us down, taking it to the bucket and helping us out there.”

After hitting two consecutive field goals, Guetter then drilled in back-to-back 3-pointers near the baseline to give Wabasso a 64-54 lead, beginning to pull away with just under five minutes to go.

Rybinkski kept his hot-hand going with a 3 to stop the Rabbits’ run and cut into a 64-57 deficit with 3:44 to go.

Minneota’s Lucas Rybinski had a successful night offensively, finishing with a game-high 27 points behind five 3-pointers, and had 20 of the Vikings’ 30 first-half points. But, he also had to play carefully and sparingly after picking up three fouls in the first half.

“He’s [Rybinksi] a kid who, all year long and his whole career, he just busts his butt off. You never second guess his effort,” Johnston said. “He showed up to play, and that’s what you expect out of your senior leader.”

Jerzak fouled out with 2:49 left after hitting a midrange floater, trailing Wabasso 67-61, as the teams began to trade visits to the charity stripe the rest of the way, in which the Rabbits sealed the win.

“We did it about 18 times in practice every single day this week, we were working on free throws,” Leopold said. “So, they were hopefully ready to handle it and do the free throw game and try to keep us ahead enough to win.”

Along with Rybinski, Leo Hennen scored 14 points with four 3-pointers and a pair of free throws.

For Wabasso, Guetter finished with an 18-point and 18-rebound double-double, while Caden Frericks finished with 25 rebounds to his 15 points. Drew Kemp and Hanna also tallied 14 and 12 points respectively, with Jack Burns distributing a team-high five assists and three steals to his 10 points.

“All in all, I’m pretty happy with how we handled it [the game],” Johnston said. “Unfortunelty, we couldn’t get them to miss a couple free throws at key times, or if they made it, we were fortunate to make it, but we just weren’t gaining any ground.”

Saturday was bound to be a competitive matchup between Minneota and Wabasso, as the Rabbits picked up an 83-82 road win in the final seconds when the two last met on Jan. 2.

Showing competitiveness early on, the game stayed at a 9-7 Wabasso advantage for a few minutes with both teams on a scoring drought until Kemp hit a 3-pointer. Johnston called a timeout after Wabasso nearly forced a 10-second violation off its press.

Although both teams played in a full-court press, the Rabbits’ press flustered the Vikings a bit more, grabbing a handful of steals to revert back to points.

“The boys definitely bought into what we were trying to have them do this week,” Leopold said regarding the success of Wabasso’s press. “They worked hard and did what we wanted, and the plan worked.”

Minneota’s first double-digit deficit came at 18-7 after Wabasso’s Burns got back-to-back steals off the press for a 3-pointer and open layup.

Rybinksi got the Vikings’ scoring going on an 8-0 run himself with two straight 3-pointers at the right wing, and a layup on the next play after shaking off his defender to catch up by one possession, 18-15.

The first half ended with traded 3’s, with Rybinski sinking one and immediately responded by Kemp.

Minneota finishes its season 11-16 overall and graduates seniors Jerzak, Brody Larson, Rybinski, Tate Peterson and Truthton Fales.

“It’s probably not the way they wanted their senior year to go … But as far as leadership and effort and all those types of things, that’s what this group provided for us,” Johnston said. “Hopefully the younger kids in our program see that out of them. It was a tough season for us, but we’re still new. This is only my third year, we’re still working hard on trying to get to be a consistent program. Those guys had a big part of that.”

Wabasso (15-11) will next look to upset top-seeded Dawson-Boyd (24-3) in the subsection semifinals today at 6 p.m. at Montevideo High School. The Blackjacks defeated MACCRAY 80-36 Saturday morning.

“They’re a team that looks pretty unbeatable, but we’re going to go in and we’re going to fight,” Leopold said. “We’re going to give it our best shot. We’ve got nothing to lose.”