WORTHINGTON — The No. 3 Westbrook-Walnut Grove boys basketball team avoided an upset from No. 6 Red Rock Central Saturday afternoon with a 48-33 win over the Falcons.

The game was a defensive battle from the opening tip. Neither team scored in the first five minutes of play. Isaac Simonson broke the scoring drought with an and-one layup to give the Falcons a 3-0 lead.

“We knew going into the game that we were playing a really good basketball team. They’re 21-4, they’re 21-4 for a reason, but our guys came into the game with a lot of confidence,” RRC head coach Colby Pack said. “We’ve played them close twice during the season and we just knew we had to execute on the offensive end.”

From there, it was a slow-paced game with both teams struggling to find any room to get off an open shot. The Chargers led at halftime 16-9.

The difference in the game ended up being WWG’s long-range shooting. Kole Curry and Adyn Vue knocked down shot after shot in the second half for the Chargers to help them pull away. The game was within reach in the final five minutes, but WWG’s offense proved too much and was able to expand its lead to 15 points before it was all said and done.

“We’ve been pretty good at making [the perimeter] shot all season. I thought we rushed a few of them tonight and maybe could have made an extra pass or took one dribble and then made a pass to get a better option, but credit to the kids for being willing to take those shots,” WWG head coach Derrick Jenniges said. “The two that Kole made late, those are really big ones. Adyn made a big one in the first half to kind of give us a little distance and let us catch our breath a little bit, but like I said, those are shots we’ve been able to make all season, and at this time of year, you’re not going to get a lot of layups against these guys with those big guys in there.”

Neither team was particularly efficient on the night. WWG shot 31% from the field while Falcons shot 24%.

Curry finished the game with 22 points and Vue finished the game with 10. Dan Kleven was the only other charger to knock down a 3-pointer and finished with 7 points.

Simonson’s presence in the paint limited the Chargers’ ability to drive to the hole. He finished with 22 rebounds in the game and 7 points. He led the Falcons to a 48-32 advantage on the boards.

Despite the Falcons’ sizable rebounding margin, turnovers resulted in WWG still finishing with more field goal attempts. RRC turned the ball over 25 times to WWG’s eight.

Hudson Jenniges was the Chargers’ leading rebounder, finishing with nine boards.

While the Falcons didn’t get the outcome they wanted, the team was still proud of how they competed in its final game of the season.

“When you have two possessions down 3 [points] with about eight minutes to go in the game and you’re the six seed going against a team that’s 21-4, that’s really all you can ask for is that chance. Our guys gave ourselves a chance,” Pack said. “To [WWG’s] credit, they made the shots when they needed to and it just wasn’t the way it’s meant to be.”

Ashton Holmen was the Falcons’ leading scorer on the night and finished with 10 points.

WWG (22-4) will face off against No. 2 Southwest Minnesota Christian in the 3A quarterfinals Thursday at 7:30 p.m. The last time the two teams faced each other, SWMC won 68-55 in Westbrook on Feb. 3

“Both times we played them, we had about a 5-point game inside three minutes and ended up losing by double figures because we didn’t score late and they did,” coach Jenniges said. “This is the seventh out of eight years that we played Southwest in the playoffs at some point. It’s a familiar opponent at this time of year. We feel like our experiences from the past hopefully have given our kids an opportunity to believe that they have a good chance to win.”

Red Rock Central wraps up its season at 12-15. With only two players graduating and all of the Falcons’ starters except for Ashton Juhnke returning, the future looks bright for RRC.

“Being a first-year coach, going back to your hometown, taking over a team that won three games and to get to 12 wins is a great accomplishment for the kids,” Pack said. “We’ve got a lot of pieces coming back. It’s going to be tough to replace Ashton, a strong guard like he is, but I’m excited about the future of our program with what we’ve built this year. Hopefully, we can build off of that in the summer months and continue to get stronger, get fundamentally sound, and hopefully next year we’ll take that next step.”