No. 3 seed Cass Lake-Bena (30-1) went ahead to stay on Ethan Brown’s two free-throws with 9.8 seconds left in the second overtime.

Brown’s calmness at the line belied the two wild shots that kept Rushford-Peterson (23-8) alive.

Payton Hahn’s three-pointer tied the game 49-49 at the end of regulation. Teammate Ben Ansell’s rebound and put-back forced a second overtime.

“I felt really good about our chances there,” Ansell said. “But you’ve got to give credit to them because they just kept fighting.”

Rushford-Peterson’s staying power did not faze the Panthers.

“We said each overtime that it’s a brand new game,” Cass Lake-Bena senior guard Arnold Kingbird said. “If we score more than them, we win.”

Brown went to the free-throw line with a 61-60 lead and made the first.

“I went up to him and said, ‘Come on, bro. One more,’ ” Kingbird said.
Brown sank the second and this time, Rushford-Peterson could not respond.