DARLINGTON — The Division 4 section 3 regional road ran through 2-seed Darlington (24-2), as it bested 7-seed Brodhead (13-13) in a regional semifinal on March 1, 77-57, followed by a regional final win over 3-seed Belleville (13-13) on March 2, 65-54.

For the second-ranked Redbirds’ coach, Tom Uppena, the defensive scheme was relatively simple — make the Cardinals’ leading scorer junior Cullen Walker work for his points.

“The game plan coming in was to make Walker work for everything,” Uppena said. “He’s a dynamic scorer with the capability of scoring 30 or even 40 on any given night, so we needed to make sure that didn’t happen. Carter Murray was phenomenal on Walker all night.”

Darlington was largely successful in its execution, as Walker remained scoreless over the opening 12 minutes of Friday’s contest. He scored just four points in the first half while missing his first five shots.

The Redbirds’ efforts were bolstered by a 9-point run over four minutes in response to an opening field goal by Brody Riese 30 seconds into the contest.

A two and a three from Nathan Engen and Gabe Bockhop, respectively, returned the game to a 2-point split favoring Darlington. Then the Redbirds locked down, not allowing a single point from Brodhead over six minutes until Walker drained his first points at 6:12 via a pair of free throws.

The lone hiccup for Darlington came at the 10:38 mark. Broker Buschor was called for traveling in transition, as he passed the ball to Taggart Gille. Gille went up to the hoop as the whistle was blown, but he came down badly on his ankle, taking him out of the game.

The Redbirds weren’t just stopping the Cardinals from making shots, they were making their own to the tune of 14 unanswered points. Scoring duties were split among Carter Murray, Will Murray, Zeke Zuberbuhler, Buschor, and Brady Long. Buschor and Carter Murray led the quintet with five points over the stretch.

Zuberbuhler bookended a field goal from Walker at 5:11 with a pair of 2-pointers, and Reagan Jackson found Dante Glendenning in transition for a two along the baseline 20 seconds after.

Glendenning was also key on defense for Darlington, taking over guarding Walker when Carter Murray wasn’t on the floor.

“Dante came in and was great as well, and it allowed Carter to get a bit of a break from guarding Walker,” Uppena said.

Sitting at a 31-11 advantage, the Redbirds pushed to the break, outscoring Brodhead 15-8 to the buzzer.

Darlington came out of the locker room hot, with Will Murray scoring a 2-pointer in each of his first three shots in the first 90 seconds.

Cardinal senior Gunner Boegli made his squad’s first basket of the half contested by Jackson in the paint. Jackson then put down a quick two to negate the gain.

Another field goal from Jackson, followed by a Long basket just inside the charity stripe, put the Redbirds ahead 58-25 as 13:23 showed on the clock. The 58-point marker proved to be the point total Darlington needed to win the game, everything else was just icing on the cake.

“We ran good offense in the half court, and we were active on defense, which led to turnovers and transition buckets,” Uppena said. “The guys were focused and ready to play from the start.”

Riese and Walker led Brodhead’s efforts with 18 and 14 points, respectively, and the former led rebounding alongside Engen with nine on the night. 

The Redbirds nearly had five players reach double figures, though Buschor’s 22-point night edged out Will Murray’s 18 points. Eight rebounds was the high mark for the Redbirds with Will Murray being responsible for the total, while Long paired a 7-point night with seven assists.

Standing in the way of Darlington’s regional title hopes was a fast Wildcat squad intent on not letting the game get out of hand. 

Foul trouble got in the way of the Redbirds early, as Long tallied his second foul five minutes into the contest. Preventing further penalties was crucial, and Uppena subbed Long out.

“The plan against Belleville went a little sideways early when Brady picked up his second foul,” Uppena said. “That, coupled with not having Tagg available due to his ankle injury, we suddenly found ourselves in a position where we needed to improvise a bit. We went to a 2-3 zone, which we haven’t played all year.”

But Darlington didn’t just walk into being a top-ranked team all season by not preparing for possible scenarios.

“We talked about it Saturday morning and walked through it to get rotations down just in case we found ourselves in the situation that we ended up in,” Uppena said. “The guys did a good job with it not having much experience playing it.”

Despite suffering a pair of 2-point deficits early in the contest, the Redbirds rallied to take the lead 8-6 at 11:25 with a shot in the paint from Will Murray.

The Wildcats tied the game multiple times ahead of the break thanks to clutch scores from Jack Erickson and Brendan Pawloski. They even surpassed Darlington’s score 18-17 briefly, as Jackson Scholey drained a lightly contested three at the top of the key.

With less than a minute before the half, patient passing from the Redbirds set up a score from Buschor in the paint to break a 20-20 tie. A miss outside the arc from Carter Scholey closed the half with a 22-20 lead for Darlington.

“The 2-3 zone was effective in slowing them down a little, and it allowed me to bring Brady back in later in the half,” Uppena said. “We were kind of treading water until we got to the second half.”

The Redbirds were methodical to start the second half, outscoring Belleville 20-10 over the first nine minutes. Part of that difference was due to Darlington’s defensive scheme.

“We ended up staying in the zone, playing some 1-3-1 and 2-3 because it was called a little more tight than we are used to,” Uppena said. “We finally found a little life offensively in the second half, despite having our worst shooting night of the year from three.”

Will Murray was the catalyst for the Redbird offense to open the second half again, making each of his squad’s first three attempts from the floor. His six points outpaced Jackson Scholey’s five points — one from two, and the other from outside the arc.

Buschor claimed a layup along the baseline ahead of a three and a two from Jackson moments after. Buschor came back a few minutes later to keep Darliington’s train rolling.

As the clock ticked away, the Wildcats crept to within eight points on multiple occasions, but the Redbirds didn’t relent to the final buzzer.

Jackson Scholey and Evan Thomas claimed Belleville’s scoring lead with 18- and-10-point efforts respectively, while Pawloski led rebounding for the Wildcats with eight.

Buschor and Will Murray led Darlington again with 21 points each on a night where just five Redbirds drained a basket. Will Murray’s night also consisted of a double-double, as he came down with 11 rebounds to tie for the team lead with Carter Murray.

“It was just one of those games where things don’t go as planned and you need to keep grinding and find ways to win,” Uppena said. “The guys did just that — they found a way to win.”

Two games stand between Darlignton and a trip to the Kohl Center. First up is a sectional semifinal showdown with 1-seed Mineral Point (24-2) on March 7 in Lancaster.

The Redbirds split their regular season matchups with the third-ranked Pointers. Darlington most recently beat Mineral Point at home, 72-60, to hand the Pointers the first of just two losses this season.