So much for first impressions.

Fifteen seconds in Friday, Apple Valley’s Dustin Fronk was left all alone in front of Lakeville South’s bench and drained a statement-making three-pointer in the Class 4A, Section 3 championship at the Skoglund Center at St. Olaf College in Northfield.

The excitement didn’t last.

Fronk was left alone on the perimeter again when four minutes remained in the game, but by that time the Cougars had built a 10-point lead. It blossomed to a decisive 74-58 victory for Lakeville South’s first trip to state since 2007.

“We knew if we could weather their storm we’d be OK,” Lakeville South senior forward Alex Richter said. “This is the section championship game; they were going to get some [scoring runs]. There’s only so much you can do. We stuck to our stuff.”

The feistiness of the fourth-seeded Cougars was a nice complement to a seemingly automatic scoring touch at times in the second half after a mini breakdown.

Up by as many as 13 points in the first half, Lakeville South’s cushion deflated to only four over the third-seeded Eagles at the break, yet the mood in the locker room as surprisingly upbeat. That was partially because of a strong move to the bucket by Richter as time expired.

It gave him 18 points. He finished with a game-high 31, his sixth 30-point game of the season.

“I trust the kids,” South coach John Sheehan said. “And that’s huge.”

The Cougars responded by not allowing an Eagles’ basket from the field for nearly six minutes into the second half.

“We didn’t do a good stopping them at the end of the half, and therefore the defensive intensity [in the second half] was huge for momentum,” Sheehan said.