Photo by Jake McNeill Tracy-Milroy-Balaton guard Alex Munson (right) drives to the rim for a layup during the first half of a boys basketball game against Central Minnesota Christian on Monday night. The Panthers defeated the Bluejays in double overtime, 80-73,

TRACY — Regulation wasn’t enough to determine a winner on Monday night in Tracy when the Tracy-Milroy-Balaton boys basketball team hosted the Central Minnesota Christian Bluejays. It took two overtimes before the Panthers were finally able to walk away with an 80-73 win after staving off the Bluejays’ comeback effort.

“We just had to get back to what we were doing earlier, which was getting good shots,” TMB head coach Ryan Kruse said. “We had turned the ball over quite a bit and… that’s what kind of really hurt us and gave them opportunities to get back in it. We just had to get back to making sure we get a good shot every time and keep playing defense.”

At the end of regulation, the Panthers and Bluejays found them knotted at 64 points apiece. CMC scored the first points of the first overtime but, after two scoreless minutes, Alex Munson drew fouls on consecutive possessions.

He knocked down three of his four free throws to give the Panthers a 67-66 lead and a Noah Knakmuhs steal resulted in another made free throw. Yet, Asher Wieberdink tied the game up and an over-the-back foul gave the Bluejays a chance to go ahead. The Bluejays missed both free throws but TMB was unable to rebuttal on the offensive end, forcing a second overtime period.

The teams traded baskets in the second overtime period until Knakmuhs came up with another timely steal, his third of the game, and knocked down the go-ahead layup. From there, a Trevor Smith basket and a pair of Griffin Zick free throws allowed TMB to pull away for the win.

“That’s what we were yelling at them was that somebody needs to make a play, somebody needs to get a tip, somebody needs to get a layup,” Kruse said. “Noah made two, maybe three of those tonight, but two really big ones at really big times. That was a huge, huge play for us.”

In addition to Knakmuhs’ big clutch-time points, the Panthers had plenty of scorers putting up numbers in regulation. Munson led the team with 21 points on the night while Zick and Smith added another 19 and 15 respectively. Zick was a huge part of the Panthers’ ability to space the floor on the night, shooting 5-of-10 from 3-point range. TMB shot 9-of-27 from beyond the arc as a group while CMC shot 8-of-36.

The Panthers led by as many as 18 points before CMC battled its way back into the game. The Bluejays cut the deficit back to single digits at the 11-minute mark and, with under eight minutes to play, the Bluejays converted a transition basket to make it a 4-point game, 55-51.

Zick ended the Bluejay run when Knakmuhs saved an outlet pass from going out on the baseline, tipped it to Zick in the corner and Zick picked the ball up off the ground and fired off a 3 before the CMC defense could regroup.

With five minutes to play, TMB called a timeout after Drew Duinnick found Wieberdink in the lane with a no-look pass and Wieberdink converted the midrange jumper to make it a 3-point game, 58-55. Coming out of the huddle, CMC made a stop on the defensive end and Duinnick connected with Wieberdink in the same spot to cut the deficit to 1 and Logan Roelofs’ steal gave the Bluejays the opportunity to score the go-ahead basket.

TMB’s interior defense came up with a big stop and Munson hit a layup to give the Panthers an inch of breathing room but Roelofs came right back down the court and hit a standing layup to keep it a 1-point game.

From there, Munson came up with a floater and, after the Panthers called a timeout with the Bluejays trying to trap Munson, Erbes knocked down a big 3-pointer to make it 64-59 with a minute to play.

Eli Gerdes knocked down a pair of free throws in the final minute to make it a 3-point game. The Bluejays then got a stop and Roelofs came up with a big rebound. The Bluejays called timeout just before he fell out of bounds to preserve possession with 22.7 seconds remaining. They called two more timeouts on the same possession, the latter of which came with just 6.3 seconds remaining and Wieberdink knocked down the clutch 3, tying the game at 64-64 with just 1.6 to play.

Roelofs stole TMB’s inbound attempt but couldn’t get the shot to go, sending the game to overtime.

TMB finished the game with a 48-40 advantage on the glass. Munson and Smith each grabbed 10 defensive rebounds on the night to secure a pair of double-doubles while Brian Erbes and Aidan Swenhaugen cleaned up the offensive glass with five and four offensive boards respectively. Erbes grabbed nine total while Swenhaugen added another seven.

At the opening tip-off, Munson started the game strong with a 3-pointer on the opening possession but the Bluejays quickly took control with an 11-1 run, interrupted only by a Brian Erbes free throw.

It took over four minutes for the Panthers to score their next points, a corner 3 from Zick. TMB then forced turnovers on consecutive possessions, producing a Munson layup and a pair of Trevor Smith free throws, before Zick tied the game back up at 14-14 with a transition 3.

CMC went on another 7-0 run and looked like it was really going to pull away this time. Still, the Panthers weren’t ready to give up. They worked their way back into the game until a 3-pointer and a layup through traffic by Munson put the Panthers up 24-23 with under seven minutes to play.

Zick gave the Panthers their first multi-possession lead of the game with his third 3-pointer of the first half and Brian Erbes came up with an offensive rebound on consecutive possessions — the latter of which he dived into the first row of the visitors’ section to save — to set up a putback layup for him and a pair of free throws for Smith.

With three seconds remaining in the first half, Munson drove to the basket, drew a foul and knocked down a pair of free throws to give the Panthers a 39-30 at the break.

As a team, TMB turned the ball over 18 times to CMC’s 16. In addition to Knakmuhs’ steals, Smith added another two for the Panthers. He also led the team with five assists and just one turnover.

Smith started the second half with a layup to give the Panthers their first double-digit lead of the game. The Bluejays answered but 3-pointers from Knakmuhs and Zick gave the Panthers a 16-point lead when the Bluejays called a timeout to attend to an injury.

“They’re a really good team. We wish we could’ve put it away earlier when we had the chance… we said, ‘Let’s slam the door,’ and we didn’t do that,” Kruse said. “But overall, beating that team is a good win. We made a lot of big plays down the stretch.”

After the win over the 11-7 Bluejays, the Tracy-Milroy-Balaton Panthers improved to 12-7 on the season. They’ll head out on the road to take on Renville County West (3-14) tonight at 7:30 p.m.