Photo by Jake McNeill: Minneota forward Landon Esping (33) drives past a defender during a Camden Conference boys basketball game against Lakeview, Friday in Cottonwood.

COTTONWOOD — Despite a pair of ferocious comeback bids by Lakeview, the Minneota boys basketball team staved off the Lakers on Friday night for a 72-65 Camden Conference win. The Vikings led by as many as 19 points in the second half before Lakeview trimmed the deficit to 5, but Minneota made shots when it mattered most to claim the victory.

As the Lakers tightened up the game to make it a 5-point game down the stretch, Easton Johnston stepped up to stop the bleeding with a layup through contact to bring the score to 63-56 with two-and-a-half minutes to play. Braylon Breyfogle responded with a layup of his own to cut the gap to 5 once again, but the two teams remained locked in a stalemate for the next minute.

Evan Jerzak came up in the clutch with a fadeaway from the wing to bring Minneota’s lead back to 7 with a minute to play, and the Vikings drew a charge on the defensive end to effectively ice the game as they knocked down their free throws down the stretch.

“We went through a little spell there where we were making about one or two passes and trying to get a shot off, and it’s like, we’ve got the lead, let’s make them work a little bit. We don’t need to take five seconds off the clock, let’s take a little more time,” Minneota head coach Chad Johnston said, adding that he felt his team played a bit more efficiently and patiently down the final stretch. “We kept trying to get to the rim. Fouls are getting called and we got to the free-throw line. It wasn’t perfect, but we definitely hit some of those when we needed to.”

Jase Sorensen knocked down a 3 to bring the Viking lead to its apex 57-38 with 11 minutes to play in the second half, but Lakeview wasn’t ready to accept defeat yet.

A free throw and a putback basket from Cody Helmke helped spark Lakeview, and a layup through contact from Breyfogle bookended by a pair of free throws brought the score to 59-47 with just under seven minutes to play.

The Lakers continued to chip away when Helmke got a bucket in the low post, Trevor Tusberg knocked down a midrange jumper, and Ian Taylor pushed the ball in transition to draw a foul in the paint. He made the first of his two free throws before missing the second, but Tusberg got an offensive rebound and knocked down the putback attempt to cut the deficit to 61-54 with six minutes to play.

With five minutes left, Taylor came up big with another transition layup and a Helmke blocked shot sent the crowd into a frenzy, prompting a timeout with Lakeview trailing 61-56.

“These kids have a lot of heart. They know that they’ve got to fight every minute they’re out there, and we talked about that after the game,” Lakeview head coach Jared Keaveny said. “We could have easily rolled over and said, ‘That’s enough.’ We battled back and gave ourselves a chance. We had opportunities, just didn’t convert, but this group, I don’t know if they know the meaning of the word quit. They’re just a fun group to be around. They rose to the occasion and did everything they could to give themselves a chance.”

Minneota’s shooters got off to a flaming-hot start from beyond the arc. Over the first two-and-a-half minutes, Johnston knocked down a pair of 3s, and Ian Myhre and Tristen Sussner each added another for a 12-2 lead.

“The early part of the game, the chess match was that we go a little smaller, they go bigger, so it became, ‘Are they going to be able to play defense on us?'” coach Johnston said. “Are we going to be able to play defense on them? We started off in zone right away because we couldn’t match up with the two big guys [Helmke and Jackson Staab], they started in zone because I’m sure they didn’t want two big guys running around in man-to-man against us. The key thing was that we hit a couple 3s, got confidence… and as things got going, we had to actually be a little bit more efficient in our offense.”

Johnston finished the night with a game-high 17 points, shooting 6 of 12 from the field with three 3-pointers to tie Landon Esping for a game-high. Sorensen and Sussner finished with 15 and 14 points, respectively, while Esping also finished in double figures with 11.

Lakeview called a timeout after the fourth of those 3s but started to get into a rhythm from there. Helmke used his size and strength to get a bucket down low, drew a foul before knocking down a pair of free throws on the next trip down the court, and Breyfogle came up with a steal and converted another free throw after being fouled in transition to cut the deficit in half to 12-7.

Helmke was a force to be reckoned with on the interior all night long. He finished with a game-high 20 points, shooting 6 of 16 from the field and 8 of 10 from the free-throw line. His 13 total rebounds were also a game-high, and his six offensive boards tied Tusberg for a game-high, and he blocked three shots on the defensive end.

“The amount of abuse that Cody and Jack [Staab] take inside… Other teams know we try to get the ball inside to our bigs and we knew they were going to do everything they could to take it away,” Keaveny said of his front court duo. Helmke stands at 6-foot-4 while Staab is 6-3. “Our bigs really responded. I thought they finished, did a good job of trying to get position, because man, it was a physical game. Credit to Minneota, they didn’t back down and they made everything tough on Jack and Cody inside. Forced our guards to have to do a little bit more tonight, but it is what it is. Jack and Cody had an outstanding effort, proud of how they handled the physicality.”

Despite the Lakers’ interior presence, Minneota mustered a 42-41 edge on the glass behind eight rebounds from Esping and another seven each from Johnston and Sussner.

The Lakers continued to chip away at the Minneota lead until Breyfogle made an athletic step-through finish and Taylor assisted Staab down low to bring Lakeview within a point, 16-15.

After the Vikings called a timeout leading by a point with 10 minutes to play, Jerzak knocked down a midrange jumper for the Vikings’ first 2-point make of the game and Leo Hennen followed with a 3 to bring the Laker lead to 6 points.

“I kind of said to them, it’s a 1-2-2 [zone defense], there’s still a big open spot in the middle of the zone. We’ve got to attack that, we can’t just forget it, we’re not going to make 3s all night long,” coach Johnston said with a laugh. “We started off hot, we hit the good shots, even a couple of times we did throw it in but kicked it out, so it was good. It worked.”

Trailing 21-15, Lakeview went on an 8-0 run to take its first lead of the day. Helmke hit a push shot down low and three free throws to cut the gap to a point, and Breyfogle got to the cup for a go-ahead layup with seven minutes to play. Helmke then blocked a shot and Taylor pushed the pace with a pace upcourt to Trevor Varpness for a layup, prompting the Vikings to call a timeout trailing 24-21.

Minneota regained its momentum after the timeout. Johnston got a layup to go down in close and drew a foul to go for the line for 1-and-1. While he missed the front end, the ball went out on Lakeview and Sorenson drew another foul, making both shots for a 27-26 Minneota lead.

Tusberg answered with a go-ahead bucket of his own for Lakeview, but Esping came back with a 3 to give the Vikings a 2-point edge.

With two minutes left in the half, Breyfogle was subbed out after he joined Staab as the second Laker to pick up three fouls in the game. The Vikings capitalized on his absence with an 8-2 run, led by a pair of 3s from Esping, to go up by 8 points. Taylor hit a free throw with 12 seconds left, but the Vikings still went into halftime with a 38-31 lead.

“When [Breyfogle] got his second foul and we had to pull him out trying to save him, you could see our offense start to go stagnant,” Keaveny said, citing not only Breyfogle’s scoring prowess but also his ability to move the ball. “He commands so much attention that other teams have to pay attention to him. I thought our younger guys, they executed well, they got the ball where it needs to be, but sometimes the basketball just doesn’t go in the hole.”

Breyfogle finished the night with 11 points and tied Tusberg for second on the team with 11 rebounds.

The Vikings continued to build up their lead in the second half, with a 3 each from Johnston and Sorenson bringing the gap back to double digits. Nash Bigler answered with a corner 3 for the Lakers, but midrange buckets from Sussner and Johnston and a pair of free throws from Esping gave Minneota a 50-36 edge.

Minneota improves to 8-15 on the season and closes the season with a three-game homestand, starting with a matchup against Class 2A Pipestone Area (6-17) on Monday at 7 p.m.

Lakeview falls to 8-15 with the loss and heads out on the road to take on Canby (5-16) in its penultimate regular-season game on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.