Gage Madden

WEST BEND, Iowa — The Warriors’ comeback fell just short.

The West Bend-Mallard Wolverines beat the North Union Warriors, 50-45, during Iowa Class 1A, Substate 2 District 3 boys basketball play-in action Friday night in West Bend.

The Wolverines (6-15) move on to face Iowa Class 1A No. 2-ranked and undefeated Lake Mills (19-0) at 7 p.m. Monday night in Lake Mills. North Union ended its season with an overall record of 2-19.

After a low-scoring third quarter for the Warriors, the Wolverines entered the final quarter with a 41-28 lead.

Trailing 45-33, the Warriors went on a run.

Nick Schiltz scored four of five points for the Warriors with a layup and two free throws, while Gage Madden hit one of two free throw attempts to reduce the Warriors’ deficit to 45-38.

Teagan Fothergill then hit a 3-pointer before teammate Carter Anderson sank a putback 2-pointer to bring North Union within 45-43.

Jared Schmidt hit a layup for two of his game-high 23 points to extend the Wolverines’ lead back to three, but Madden hit a 2 to bring the Warriors within a point for the first time since the beginning of the second quarter.

With only 30 seconds remaining, the Warriors needed to foul after not stealing the inbounds pass. Sam Fehr and Noah Gerber combined to hit four of six free throw attempts during the final 20 seconds to seal the game for the Wolverines.

North Union jumped ahead in the first quarter when Madden scored five of the team’s first seven points, while Schiltz added a 3 and Logan Odegaard and Jay Heinen each produced two points to put the Warriors up 12-11 at the first break.

Schmidt went on a run of his own for the Wolverines at the end of the first quarter and into the beginning of the second, scoring 13 consecutive Wolverine points.

WBM took a 27-22 lead into halftime, then dominated the third quarter to build its lead.

Schmidt and Sam Fehr combined to score all 14 Wolverine points in the third, while the WBM defense held the Warriors to just six third-quarter points and forced six turnovers in the segment.

NU 12 10 6 17–45

WBM 11 16 14 9–50

Blue Earth Area 69, St. James Area 54 — Cameron Anderson and Ashton Lloyed neared double-double performances to power the Bucs to a 15-point Big South Conference win over the Saints on Friday night in St. James. Anderson scored 18 points and brought down nine rebounds, while Lloyd dropped 15 points and also grabbed nine caroms.

Austin Thielfoldt scored 12 points and dished out a game-high seven assists, while Braden Gudahl scored 11 points and grabbed nine boards for BEA. Gavin Storbeck brought down six rebounds and dished out four assists for the Bucs, while Will Howard had four rebounds.

Steven Balbuena led the Saints with 14 points, while Hayden Jones scored 12 and Connor Jones dropped 10.

BEA shot 27-for-64 overall, including 8 of 30 attempts from 3, while making 7 of 10 attempts from the charity stripe.

The Bucs outrebounded the Saints, 40-21.

Blue Earth Area (8-1) travels to Lake Crystal for a nonconference game against Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday night.

BEA 40-29–69

SJA 26-28–54

Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial 51, Truman/Martin Luther/Granada-Huntley-East Chain 35 — Adam Heckman was the lone Jaguar to reach double-digit scoring during the Jaguars’ 16-point Valley Conference loss to the Knights on Friday night in Lake Crystal.

Adam Heckman totaled 17 points, while bringing down four rebounds and dishing out three assists.

Cael Jaskulke neared a double-double with a team-high nine rebounds to complement eight points, while Owen Wolter scored seven points and poked away four steals.

The Jaguars (6-3) travel to Nicollet for a Valley Conference game at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday night.

TMLGHEC 14-21–35

LCWM 22-29–51