Photo by Jake McNeill: Murray County Central guard Gavin Gillette (1) shoots a midrange jumper over a Lac qui Parle Valley defender during a prep boys basketball game in the Holiday Classic at Southwest Minnesota State University’s R/A Facility on Monday afternoon.

WORTHINGTON — In a battle of teams fresh off upset victories in the subsection quarterfinals, the sixth-seeded Murray County Central Rebels took on No. 7 Edgerton in the 3A South boys basketball semifinals on Thursday night. While the Rebels trailed by 9 points at halftime, they rallied after the break to claim a 63-53 victory.

The game, originally scheduled to be played on Tuesday before a weather postponement, was set up by MCC’s 48-47 win over No. 3 Tracy-Milroy-Balaton after Aidan Swenson hit the game-winner at the buzzer. Edgerton, meanwhile, also picked up a one-possession victory by taking down No. 2 Russell-Tyler-Ruthton 64-61.

“It speaks to the depth [of the section]. Edgerton had a really, really good season and they’re playing their best basketball during Sunday’s win against RTR and then the way they played the first half, especially against us,” MCC head coach Tim Cariveau said. “That is a tough team to beat. They’re a tough out. So credit to them on their season and credit to our guys too for just being sturdy and winning that second half.

Edgerton carried a 33-24 lead into halftime and held it until Gavin Gillette drained a 3-pointer to give MCC its first lead after the break, 43-40, with nine-and-a-half minutes to play. After Tanner Thompson answered with an and-1 and Kade Moffit gave Edgerton the lead back with a pair of free throws, Gillette hit another 3 to put the Rebels back on top.

Gillette had the hot hand in the second half to finish the night with a team-high 20 points on 6 of 10 shooting from beyond the arc. Aidan Swenson added another 19 points on 6 of 14 shooting, with 11 of those points coming in the first half.

“We like to have that balance so it’s not all on one guy,” Cariveau said, adding that the team was looking to highlight Swenson early in order to open up shooters. “And Gavin just reads the defense so well, and he was talking to us during timeouts and at halftime about, ‘It’s coming, I can see the little openings.’ And then he took the shots, especially when we needed them the most in the second half to keep us in the game and then take the lead.”

The back-and-forth exchanges continued as Blake Schultz hit a midrange jumper to give the Dutchmen the lead back, but Tristan Behrens knocked down a contested layup to give the Rebels control again and Aidan Swenson converted an and-1 to make the score 51-47 in favor of MCC with under six minutes remaining.

Swenson continued to heat up from there, pivoting his way into a foul against Edgerton before draining another free throw to give MCC a 5-point cushion.

Edgerton called a timeout after Behrens drained a corner 3 off the feed from Gillette with two minutes remaining, extending the Rebels’ lead to 8 points.

Michael Gunnink hit a layup to cut MCC’s lead to 6 points and, after a pair of missed Rebel free throws, a loose-ball foul against Gillette on the offensive rebound attempt sent Thompson to the free-throw line for a 1-and-1. Thompson made both to cut MCC’s lead to 4 points with 1:40 remaining, but Hudson Schryvers hit a pair of free throws on the other end MCC outlasted Edgerton in the free-throw game from there to hold onto the win. 

“It was just about getting refocused, almost,” Cariveau said when asked about the Rebels’ second-half turnaround. “I thought we played to the momentum and to the crowd, and we were getting a little too worried about things we couldn’t control. Then in the second half, we went back to playing our game.”

Swenson led MCC on the glass with 11 rebounds to secure a double-double in the win. On the defensive end, he also logged three blocks while Behrends added another. Dylan Kluis also came away with a pair of steals for MCC.

Aside from Gillette and Swenson, Behrends, Max Miller and Schryvers added 9, 8 and 7 points respectively in the win. Schryvers also dished out four assists while Gillette contributed another three with seven rebounds.

MCC improves to 18-10 overall on the season with the win while Edgerton finishes its year at 11-16. The Rebels will now turn their attention to top-seeded Hills-Beaver Creek, the No. 9 team in Class A. 

MCC and HBC have faced off twice this season so far, with the Patriots first defeating MCC 81-47 on Jan. 28 and by a narrow 70-68 margin on Feb. 4.

“Hills is outstanding. They’re full of athletes on that roster, good basketball players, and that’s a great combination,” Cariveau said. “To get to this point in the playoffs, you have to play well. There really is no other way around it, so we’ve got to bring our best. If we do that, hopefully we’ll be happy with the results no matter how it turns out for us.”

The 3A South subsection championship game is scheduled to be played at Southwest Minnesota State University’s R/A Facility on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.