Photo by Emily Daniels Lakeview’s Kailen French goes in for the shot during their Section 3A quarterfinal game against Dawson-Boyd on Thursday. The Lakers won 60-58.

MARSHALL – With a trip to the semifinals and a date with the No. 1 seed Minneota Vikings on the line, both the No. 2 Dawson-Boyd and No. 3 Lakeview boys basketball teams knew it was going to be a fight to the finish on Thursday night in their quarterfinal matchup.

The game went exactly that direction, as the Blackjacks and Lakers went down the wire, and Lakeview was able to emerge with a hard-fought 60-58 victory over Dawson-Boyd to keep its season alive.

With the game going down to the final seconds, Lakeview senior Jarod Goepferich knew his team was going to put up a fight if they wanted to reach their goals.

“We knew that we’ve worked too hard throughout the season for it to end like that,” said Goepferich. “We just kept working and telling ourselves that we got it and we did that.”

The Lakers and Blackjacks both had one goal in mind coming into the game and that was to win. The aggression shown right from the start from both teams set the pace for the night and that didn’t stop anytime during the entirety of the game. Lakeview got the game started with a 5-2 lead and continued to grow that lead after a 3-pointer from Tyler Imes that brought the Lakers to an 8-2 lead with 12:42 on the clock. Dawson-Boyd played aggressive on the offensive end but couldn’t find the connection they wanted until Jake Lee came alive on the 3-point line and ended the Lakers six-point run. Lakeview wasn’t fazed by the Blackjacks 3-pointer as Parker Hoffman responded with his own connection from beyond the arc which put the Lakers ahead with a 14-4 lead. Lakeview continued to hold its own on the court until the Blackjacks found the spark they needed to start closing the gap on the Lakers with a 3-pointer from Alex Swenson that closed the gap to four points at 16-12 with 5:35 remaining in the first half. Lakeview’s Aaron Loe found a big chance to put more points on the board for the Lakers as he broke away and put up a shot that led to a foul and Loe then finished off the 3-point play to grow the Lakers lead to 21-14 with 4:29 remaining in the half. Swenson then found his opportunity to put up back-to-back shots for the Blackjacks, closing the gap on the Lakers to 23-21 with 2:43 left to play. Falling just two points behind Lakeview, Dawson-Boyd’s Bentley Boike put up a shot that tied up the score at 23-23 with just under two minutes left on the clock. The Lakers showed big defense in the last minute of play in the first half, but it was a slip of a pass that Romell Horton took away from Lakeview on an inbounds play that put the Blackjacks behind 28-27 at the half.

A small lead for the Lakers meant they had to do everything they could if they wanted to find themselves on top and the Blackjacks needed to respond to them by playing the game they know how. Swenson continued his hot streak on the arc by putting one up just seconds into the second half that put Dawson-Boyd ahead 30-28. It was the battle of the lead going back and forth from team to team and that lead to game being tied back up at 37-37 with 13:53 on the clock. Dawson-Boyd’s Lee found his shot on the 3-point line as he sank one to put the Blackjacks ahead 42-39. The Lakers responded to that with aggression and looked at the Blackjacks one-point lead as an opportunity to fight back, and they did that with another 3-pointer from Hoffman as the Lakers found themselves back with the lead at 44-42 with 10:30 remaining in the game. Goepferich was a big asset under the basket for the Lakers, and that showed immensely when he helped bring his team up with a seven-point lead over Dawson-Boyd at 49-42 with 8:54 left.

The Blackjacks knew that if they wanted to keep themselves in the game they were going to need to fight back harder than they were before and it started to show as they picked up the pace and the aggression on the floor, closing the score to a three-point gap at 49-46. The score stood still for moments as both teams couldn’t seem to find the connection on the offensive end that they wanted, but the spark came back alive as Lakeview’s Jon Wyffel put up a 3-pointer to grow their lead to 54-48 with 4:13 remaining on the clock. The Blackjacks were looking for an opportunity to find a shot and close the gap and Boike did that, as his shot closed the gap to 54-52, which was then followed by a shot from Horton that tied up the score at 54-54 with 2:38 remaining on the clock. The teams found themselves back at a tie again at 56-56 until Dawson-Boyd took back the lead at 58-57 with just 1:06 left in the game. The tension on the court grew, with just a minute left on the clock both teams had to be all in. As the clock ticked down the last few seconds of the game, the Lakers saw what they wanted and got it as Wyffels put up a shot that put Lakeview just one point ahead at 59-58 with 49.3 seconds left to play. The Lakers held their own on the defensive end and held on for the tight finish.

Lakeview was led by Varpness who finished the night with 18 points followed by Wyffels with 13, Hoffman with eight and Imes and Goepferich contributing six each. Another key moment for the Lakers was senior Tate Varpness hit the 1,000-point mark in the second half. Boike with 23 points followed by Swenson with 16 and Lee with 10.

One of the things that stood out to Lakeview coach Jared Keaveny was how much the team is there for each other, whether they step on the court once or not at all. They are always there for each other and that’s something that helped the team stay in it.

“We’re a very unselfish team and we move the ball very well. That’s one thing that we do,” said Keaveny. “Another thing we have guys that really care for each other, whether they get in the game for a minute or not at all. One of my favorite parts of tonights game was when the referee told the bench to sit because they were cheering so much and to me that’s what makes coaching fun.”