MONTEVIDEO — Lukas Means usually has a basketball in his hands, dating back to his elementary school days.
“He lives in the gym,” said Aaron Lindahl, Redwood Valley’s head boys basketball coach. “I’ve taught in the elementary school for 10 years and he always had a basketball in his hands.”
And when the 5-foot-7 sophomore guard doesn’t have the ball in his hands, he’s shooting it.
Saturday, Means hit the biggest shot of his varsity career.
His 3-pointer from the top of the key with 3.1 seconds left gave Redwood Valley a 56-53 victory over Montevideo in the Section 3AA-South championship game Saturday.
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Means was mobbed by well-wishers after his game-winning basket at the R/A Facility on the Southwest Minnesota State University campus. And he remained low-key when asked about his big moment.
“I don’t know, I just shot,” he said. “It feels good.”
The Cardinals play Eden Valley-Watkins for the Section 3AA championship at 5 p.m. Thursday at SMSU. It’s a return trip for Redwood Valley (15-14), which lost to Morris/Chokio-Alberta 56-54 in the 3AA final last season. The Cardinals aim for their first state berth since 2019.
Means led the way with 23 points, including five 3-pointers. Elway Berg, a 6-1 sophomore, came off the bench to score 21 points, including five 3-pointers himself. The Cardinals had 11 3-pointers total.
“He (Means) did a great job,” said Lindahl, a Benson graduate. “That’s a big shot to hit in a sub-section final. But he’s our leading scorer and it’s a good shot for him to take.”
Redwood Valley gets a chance to head to Minneapolis despite its fifth seed in 3AA-South. In playing sixth-seeded Montevideo, it was the first time the Cardinals faced a lower seed in the playoffs.
Redwood Valley started its playoff run with a 68-61 victory at No. 4 Luverne. The Cardinals then upset top-seeded Jackson County Central 67-63 in Windom before edging Montevideo.
Lindahl said the Cardinals have dealt with injuries and adversity throughout the season, including losing starting point guard Skyler Sherbon to a knee injury before the season even started. Oliver Smith, another key player, missed Saturday’s game because of a concussion.
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“We had a lot of stuff going on all year,” Lindahl said. “We’ve been resilient all year. It’s fun to see the guys work hard and have some success.”
Montevideo got off a 35-footer as time expired in an attempt to tie it up. Gannon Reidinger, a 6-foot-5 sophomore forward, launched a shot that hit the backboard and bounced off the front of the rim.
“We kind of knew coming in that they (the Cardinals) have a couple of snipers,” Montevideo head coach Derek Webb said. “That (No.) 31 (Berg) and 11 (Means) get their shots off fast. “At the end, I’ll probably go back and forth on all the different things we could have done to have changed the outcome. At the end of the day, he hit his shot instead of it bouncing away.”
Mason Jerve, the Thunder Hawks’ lone senior, finished with 19 points and two steals. Montevideo (13-14) pulled off a couple of surprises in the playoffs, winning 83-73 at No. 3 Windom and then knocking off No. 2 Pipestone 57-55.
“I’m super proud of our team,” Webb said. “I don’t think there’s many people outside of our close friends and family that thought we could make it this far.“Now that we’ve got a taste of what this is like, hopefully we’ll come back next year with a young team. That’s kind of the plan moving forward.”
Redwood Valley 56, Montevideo 53
Montevideo (13-14) 27 26 — 53
Redwood Valley (15-14) 32 24 — 56
MONTEVIDEO - Scoring: Mason Jerve 19, Carson Boike 7, Gannon Reidinger 6, Devin Ashling 9, Griffin Epema 9, Cooper Dack 3 … 3-point shots: Jerve 2, Boike 1, Epema 2, Dack 1 … Rebound leader: Reidinger 7 … Assist leader: Ashling 5 … Steal leader: Jerve 2 ... Block leader: Jerve 1, Reidinger 1
REDWOOD VALLEY - Scoring: Elijah Larsen 4, Isaiah Dow-Hilliard 6, Lukas Means 23, Elway Berg 21, Tyson Irlbeck 2… 3-point shots: Larsen 1, Means 5, Berg 5 … Rebound leader: n/a … Assist leader: n/a … Steal leader: n/a ... Block leader: n/a
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