The Warriors are headed back to Lincoln Friday night after beating Lincoln Southeast 63-56 at the Pinnacle Bank Arena.

Facing the fourth seed in the tournament, the fifth seeded Warriors came out to a 13-8 lead halfway through the first quarter as Lincoln Southeast missed its first four free throws. Then, after Lincoln Southeast’s Clayton Peterson hit a three-pointer, one of three he hit from beyond the arc en route to a nine-point first quarter, Westside senior Sam Wilkinson, buried a three-pointer of his own, putting Westside ahead 16-11 heading into the second quarter.

In the first quarter, the Warriors made three three-pointers and had three and one opportunities, making the free throw on two of the three chances.

To start the second quarter, senior Michael Herrmann, who led all scorers with 24 points in the game while adding 10 rebounds, got Westside’s fourth and one of the game, sinking the free throw to extend the Westside lead to 8, 19-11. Lincoln Southeast proceeded to go on a 7-0 run, narrowing the Westside lead to one with under six minutes to play. The teams went toe-to-toe for the rest of the quarter, and the game went into halftime with Westside leading 25-24.

Lincoln Southeast struck first in the second half, taking a lead, 26-25, for the first time in the game. Senior Jake Meyers responded with a layup off of an offensive rebound before Lincoln Southeast scored again. Then, it was senior Mike Kiger’s turn to respond, as he too hit a layup to help the Warriors regain the lead with 5:08 remaining in the third quarter, 29-28.

Lincoln Southeast retook the lead one more time, 31-29, before senior Kevin Metoyer came up with Westside’s fifth and one of the game, finishing a layup and a free throw to make the score 32-31. The conventional three-point play started a 14-4 run, which extended into the fourth quarter, for the Warriors. The run was capped off by Metoyer himself with a breakaway layup.

From there, the teams traded baskets, with Lincoln Southeast cutting the lead to as little as six twice, once with 1:17 remaining in the game and once with 18 seconds remaining. But the late push was just that: late. The Warriors were able to hit free throws to ice the game and guarantee themselves two more games, as even with a loss against No. 1 seed Benson tomorrow night the Warriors will play for third place on Saturday.

Lincoln Southeast’s leading scorer was senior B.J. Day, who had 17. The Warriors quieted down Peterson after his big first quarter, as he scored just two points in the final three quarters.

Westside plays at 7 p.m. tomorrow night. Westside Wired will be tweeting live updates of the game, so make sure to follow us @westsidewired on Twitter.