MANKATO — When the Crusaders pulled away, they pulled away for good.
That’s exactly what you want out of a team in March. Mankato Loyola boy’s basketball did just that on its home floor Tuesday in a 74-53 section 2A first round win over Lester Prairie.
“We have a great group of kids. We’ve won 12 of our last 15, I believe, so it was fun to get an exciting win,” Loyola head coach Sam Carlson said. “Lester Prairie wasn’t a good matchup for us. They’re super scrappy. They get all the loose balls, and we decided to do that after about 10 minutes, finally. And once we did, we played really well.”
The Crusaders advance to play Springfield in the section quarterfinal round. That game is slated for 7:45 p.m. Thursday at Sibley East High School.
After four ties and four lead changes Loyola saw its lead shrink to 20-19 off a hook shot from Bulldogs junior Eli LaMott. That ultimately was the last made shot from the floor Loyola allowed in the first half.
And the Crusaders took full advantage. Behind five points from senior TJ O’Malley, triples from senior Mason Hanel and junior Breydon Stoffel and four points from junior Christian Barker, including a layup which sent his defender flying like someone used the hit stick on Madden, Loyola used a 17-4 run to take a 37-23 lead at the half.
“We finally were meeting switches and doing our job,” Carlson said. “We stopped them from getting in the lane, and we forced them to shoot some shots that they aren’t accustomed to shooting. So that’s really what helped us, and we didn’t give them second chance points.”
Covin Winter, one of four Crusaders to finish in double figures, led the team with 20 points. Christian Barker added 17 points with 13 coming in the first half. Stoffel finished with 13 points and O’Malley netted 10 points.