Hutchinson ? Wellsville High’s boys basketball fans stood in awe Thursday at the Hutchinson Sports Arena.

Heck, even top-ranked Minneapolis’ faithful had to be weary of what was transpiring during the first game of the Class 3A state tournament.

Wellsville guard Scott Samsel singlehandedly took over the game at the start of the second half. The 5-foot-11 sophomore drilled four three-pointers in the first three minutes of the third quarter, erasing the Eagles 10-point halftime deficit and putting No. 8-seeded Wellsville ahead, 37-35.

“We were kind of thinking upset at that point,” Samsel said. “But we thought we could play with them the entire game.”

Wellsville did, too, but after Samsel’s fifth trey of the day, the Lions let out their own roar — going on a 20-4 run to pull away for a 60-46 first-round victory.

“We battled and battled back, we just didn’t have enough down the stretch,” said Wellsville coach Dirk Over, whose squad ended its season with a 5-19 record.

Not because of a lack of effort, though.

Wellsville stayed with Minneapolis (23-1) step for step the entire second half, but after the scorching run by Samsel, who led the Eagles with 19 points, Wellsville went cold.

“I think our legs really got tired,” said Samsel, who was 5-of-10 shooting from three-point range. “Not from the up-and-down pace, because we’re use to that. But I think we had too much adrenaline going at the start and were too pumped up.”

Minneapolis, which lost to Burlington last year in the 3A title game, looked to pull away in the second quarter when guard Brandan Crum buried three three-pointers, helping the Lions jump ahead, 24-17.

Wellsville, which had 18 turnovers, didn’t take care of the ball late in the quarter, helping give Minneapolis a 33-23 halftime lead.

“We could have gave up easily after that run, but we just told everyone to stay calm and come back out and play with some fire,” Over said.

Wellsville certainly did, going on a 12-1 spurt fueled by Samsel’s fourth three-pointer from the left wing to take its first lead.

“He’s carried us a lot of times this year, but I don’t know if he’s ever been hotter than he was right then,” said Wellsville senior Dan Erlacher, who along with three other Eagles played his last game Thursday.

But as hot as Samsel was, Minneapolis quickly reversed roles.

Samsel missed his last three threes, and the Eagles, who also enjoyed eight points from junior guard Austin Bloss, misfired on their next 10 shots.

Still, for a team that had only two victories before last week’s sub-state run, Erlacher said even getting to state was an awesome accomplishment.

“We really came together a lot over the last few weeks,” Erlacher said. “We had a special run at it, unfortunately it ended sooner than any of us would have liked.”