Photo by Samantha Davis: Tracy-Milroy-Balaton's Griffin Zick (right) pushes off Braylon Breyfogle against Lakeview Thursday night in Cottonwood. The Panthers defeated the Lakers 76-64. 

COTTONWOOD — In a competitive game that came down to the final minutes, Griffin Zick and Emery Xiong’s combined 47 points helped lift the Tracy-Milroy-Balaton boys basketball team to a 76-64 win over Lakeview Thursday night in a Camden South Conference matchup. Zick led all scorers with 28 points, while Cody Helmke finished with a 13-point, 14-rebound double-double for the Lakers.

“​​I think we had a great effort on defense, just everything from rebounding to putting the hand up when you’re closing out. We all played great. It was just a hard fought battle,” Xiong said. “We’re a real gritty team. We are always going to come out and give a 100% effort.”

TMB had a 5-point halftime edge after a back-and-forth opening half, and the Panthers’ defense made the difference down the stretch, outrebounding the Lakers 38-30, primarily on the defensive end.

“I honestly thought we got out-worked tonight. Got to give a lot of credit to TMB. They were ready to go, they dictated how the game was going to be played,” Lakeview head coach Jared Keaveny said. “We played their pace and came back, we came back, but couldn’t respond. I thought our guys did everything we could, but just too many mistakes. We weren’t comfortable with that pace of the game.”

With tension building midway through the second half, Lakeview’s Trevor Varpness hit a 3-pointer from the right wing to tie the score up 57-57 with 6:50 to play.

TMB switched to a 2-3 zone defense, as Helmke responded with a putback off his own offensive rebound after Zick hit a free throw for a Lakers’ 59-58 lead.

“We hadn’t played zone yet this year … We went to it earlier than I was hoping to, but we did an OK job. I think the second half, we really kind of figured out what we needed to do, and how to take away. Our goal was to take away those two big guys [Lakeview’s Jackson Staab and Helkme] in the middle. I thought we did a good job of that,” TMB head coach Ryan Kruse said. “And, being able to contest the shots from everybody else. We rebounded really well from it, which is tough in the zone, so that was good for us.”

Yet, Zick got TMB back in front 65-59 with back-to-back layups to force a Lakeview timeout with 4:39 left.

The Panthers’ defense flustered Lakeview on a few late possessions with pokes out of bounds or steals, including a steal and layup from Zick to put TMB up 71-62 with just over three minutes left after baskets from Emergy Xiong and Eli Lightfoot.

A pair of free throws from Zick gave TMB a 73-64 edge with two minutes to go, beginning to pull away as the Panthers’ started to win the rebounding game on the other end of the floor as well.

Jackson Kruse nailed a 3 from the right wing with 1:44 to go for the night’s largest lead, 76-64, to sway the game into Panthers’ control. TMB ran the clock down from there to seal the win.

Xiong followed Zick with 19 points, behind 3-for-6 shooting at the arc. Zick also had a game-high eight assists, and the duo had a trio of steals on the night as well. Aidan Sanow led with 10 rebounds.

“We moved the ball well, and when your teammates can set you up with nice, open shots, the least you can do is make it,” Xiong said of his and Zick’s offensive production, laughing.

For Lakeview, Braylon Breyfogle had a team-high 18 points, while Ian Taylor followed with 14 points and seven assists.

Overall, TMB shot 45% from the field while Lakeview stayed close with a 40% mark.

The competitive atmosphere was apparent from the start, with Xiong and Zick each drilling in a 3-pointer to start the scoring for the Panthers, as did Staab and Helmke for the Lakers with back-to-back buckets.

“Griff’s had two great games already out of three scoring wise. He did a really good job attacking tonight, getting to the basket and to the foul line,” coach Kruse said. “Emery made some huge shots in the first half when we were kind of struggling. I thought he kept us in the game for a little bit until we got some other people shooting it.”

Continuing to trade baskets, the score locked up 20-20 before the half came to an end with Breyfogle hitting a 3 with 45 seconds to go, as Zick found a quick response with a feed to Xiong on a fastbreak after grabbing the defensive rebound to give TMB a 37-32 halftime lead.

Zick led all scorers at the half with 14 points, while Breyfogle led Lakeview with 9 points followed by Helmke’s 8.

The Lakers won their first two games of the season over Red Rock Central and Yellow Medicine East, with its first loss coming by the hands of Wabasso last Thursday.

Lakeview has returned an experienced core of seven seniors this year while looking to make deeper strides after finishing last season 10-16 overall, including the return of centers Helmke and Staab at 6-foot-4 and 6-foot-3, respectively, and guard Breyfogle.

“Those big guys are our keys. We need them to play well, and they obviously create a lot of attention,” Keaveny said of Staab and Helmke. “That’s where we got to have some guards step up and make some shots. I thought the guys did that early, we got some good looks late, just need to knock them down, and they [TMB] made their shots at the end.”

The Panthers also won their season opener over Red Rock Central before falling to Renville County West last Friday.

Similarly, TMB is also returning a strong group led by four seniors, while looking to manage the loss of since-graduated starters in Trevor Smith and Alex Munson, both of whom reached 2,000 and 1,000 points last season, respectively. TMB had a successful 2024-25 campaign going 21-7 overall.

“We got what we got, and I think we are trying to get better every game,” coach Kruse said. “Today, we took a big step. If we just keep taking steps, I think we’ll be all right.”

“I love playing with every single one of these guys,” Xiong added about looking ahead into the season. “They’re my brothers, blood or not.”

Lakeview (2-2) is in the midst of playing three games in three days, and will hit the road today to Westbrook-Walnut Grove (1-1) today at 8 p.m. to begin a weekend tournament, before taking on Heron Lake-Okabena Fula (0-3) on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.

“We’ll see what the guys are made of. They’re great guys, they’ve worked really hard. Hopefully they’re ready to respond,” Keaveny said of the stretch. “They’re going to work hard. Hopefully they’re ready to respond and play another very physically competitive game tomorrow.”

TMB (2-1) will next return to the court on Tuesday at home taking on Canby (1-1) with a 7:15 p.m. tipoff.