Playing in its biggest game of the season so far, Howard turned to the biggest players on its roster Thursday afternoon at Wachs Arena.

The Tigers controlled life in the lane on both ends of the floor on the way to a 51-38 victory over Wessington Springs in the opening round of the Class B Boys’ Basketball State Tournament.

With 6-foot-8 Kolt Koepsell, and 6-4 Luke Koepsell setting the tone on offense and defense for Howard, the Spartans were forced to play from behind all game.

“Their bigs kind of owned the game,” said Wessington Springs coach Kenny Huether.

The duo combined for 37 points, 16 rebounds and five blocked shots in the contest.

“I really credit the two Koepsells. They played outstanding today,” Huether said. “We knew coming in, Howard is a great team defensively. Once again they showed it. You don’t get anything easy against them.”

Luke Koepsell nailed a 3-pointer just 15 seconds into the game and the Tigers never trailed after that, exploding for 21 points in the opening quarter.

“Luke started the game off with that three and got us off to a good start,” said Howard coach Nick Koepsell. “We hit some shots in the first half that sometimes we hit ’em and sometimes we don’t, but we always play inside out.”

Dumping the ball inside to Kolt Koepsell, the Tigers wait for opposing defensive help to arrive and when it does, are prepared to find open shooters.

“We throw the ball to our posts and that’s the way we play. There’s not many teams in the state that play that way anymore,” Coach Koepsell said. “We work through our posts. When they get double and triple teamed, we kick it out to our perimeter guys and when they’re hitting shots, we’re really tough to beat.”

Kolt Koespsell said finding the best passing angles was a major difference from the first time the teams played when Howard won by just five points.

“The big thing was that we started to figure out how to control our ways with the double team when they came in on me and Luke.” Kolt said, “When we first played them, I believe it was our second game, and they started doubling down on me and Luke, so we finally figured out how to run through that and help our outside guys knock down shots for us to open it all up for us.”

Kolt Koepsell scored a dozen first-quarter points, including a last-second 3-pointer just before the buzzer.

“Sometimes the shots fall for you, sometimes they don’t,” he said, “and it was just one of those days for me.”

Luke Koepsell added nine points in the first period as the Tigers opened up a 13-point advantage. From there, it was major uphill climb for Wessington Springs.

“It’s hard to remain patient. That’s the hard part about playing them, the way they defend,” Huether said. “When you’re behind, it’s hard to be patient, because you’re trying to play catch up and so sometimes you end up forcing a little.”

That was the case for the Spartans, who never really got on track in the contest.

“We were forcing way too much,” said Spartan sophomore Parker Graff. “We were more just one pass and try to score, and we should have tried to move the ball around at least three or four times (around the perimeter).”

With Kolt Koepsell locking down the lane, it forced the Spartans to look for other shots farther from the basket.

“The big thing was staying down on my feet … if they get around me, trust my teammates will be there to help me,” the center said, “because if I go over to help someone, I trust they will be there to help me, also.”

Staying on the floor is something that the senior has heard repeatedly through the years.

“He hears me say it a hundred times before games, stay down, stay down, stay down,” Coach Koepsell said. “He can be effective literally by just getting his hands up and being big, and it gives our perimeter guys confidence to know that if they do get beat off the dribble, that we’ve got him down there to clean up their mess.”

Kolt Koepsell finished with 20 points, 14 rebounds and five blocks. Luke Koepsell added 17 points.

Meanwhile, Graff led the Spartans with 14 points, but had to work for every one of them.

“Parker Graff is an all-state guard in my mind and they’ve got good players all the way around. We stuck our best perimeter defender on Graff, and Colby’s done that all year long,” Coach Koepsell said. “Colby Claussen, he makes things tough. You’re not going to hold a kid like Graff down to single digits. He’s going to find ways to score, but Colby just makes things tough for him and it was great all the way around.”

Ryder Michalek added 10 points to the Wessington Springs total. The Spartans (22-2) face Viborg-Hurley in consolation action at noon today.

“We just have to keep our heads up and be ready to play them,” Graff said, “and hopefully we can play a little bit better than we did this game.”

Howard, which improved to 21-3, takes on top-seeded White River at 6 tonight in the semifinals. The two met in the SoDak 16 last season.

“We know what they’re made of. We know they’re obviously a very good team,” Coach Koepsell said.

Howard will look to gain a measure of revenge during this matchup of Tigers.

We’re going to get prepared,” Coach Koepsell said, “and we’re going to give them everything we’ve got.”

HOWARD (21-3): Logan Mentele 1 1-2 4, Taiden Hoyer 0 0-4 0, Luke Koepsell 7 2-4 17, Kolt Koepsell 8 3-3 20, Carson Hinker 4 0-1 9, Austin Severson 1 0-0 3. Totals 21-41 6-14 53.

WESSINGTON SPRINGS (22-2): Blake Larson 1 2-4 4, Parker Graff 6 0-0 14, Brock Krueger 3 0-0 6, Colby Flowers 2 0-0 4, Ryder Michalek 2 5-6 10. Totals 14-45 7-10 38.

Howard 21 34 41 53

Wessington Springs 8 19 28 38 3-point field goals – Mentele, L. Koepsell, K. Koepsell, Hinker, Severson; Graff (2), Michalek. Fouled out – Flowers. Total fouls – Howard 15; Wessington Springs 13. Rebounds – Howard 30 (K. Koepsell 14); Wessington Springs 23 (Michalek 7). Turnovers – Howard 14; Wessington Springs 12. Assists – Howard 12 (K. Koepsell 4, L. Koepsell 3); Wessington Springs 6 (Larson 3). Blocked Shots – Howard 6 (K. Koepsell 5); Wessington Springs 2. Steals – Howard 5 (Hinker 2); Wessington Springs 6 (Larson 2, Michalek 2).