For 3½ quarters of a Little Ten Tournament semifinal on Thursday, it looked like Hinckley-Big Rock was going to keep its winning streak against Indian Creek intact.

But the Timberwolves scored six straight to take their first lead of more than a point and held on for a 55-49 win over the Royals, their first win against their rivals since 2021.

Indian Creek senior Logan Schrader said those losses weren’t on his mind during the game. After it, however, was a different story.

“Four years, this is the first time I’ve ever beat them,” Schrader said. “They’re always really tough, and it feels great to finally beat them.”

The No. 2 Royals (16-7) beat the No. 3 Timberwolves (17-5) earlier this season. The teams also met in the LTC tournament championship game, a 47-44 H-BR victory.

Now the Timberwolves will face IMSA in the conference final on Friday. The No. 5 Titans joined the league in the 2021-2022 season and upset No. 1 Newark in the other semifinal Thursday.

“We lost in the beginning of the season, and we really felt we were the better team,” Schrader said. “We just had a bad game, and we wanted to prove we were the better team.

“I think we did that.”

The Royals led for most of the game but couldn’t push the lead past six. After a Schrader putback with 2:41 left in the third cut the lead to one, Marshall Ledbetter had a layup off a Luke Badal steal, then drained a 3-pointer for a 41-35 lead.

But the Timberwolves scored six straight to tie it early in the fourth. After an Emeka Ezuma bucket put the Royals up 43-41 with 5:25 left, the Timberwolves scored another six straight to take the lead for good.

“After Marshall hit a 3 to make it 41-35 ... they came back on us,” Hinckley-Big Rock coach Seth Sanderson said. “We just couldn’t get that one more stop and score to stretch it past six and get it to eight or nine where it doesn’t change how you play, but it changes the feel of it as you’re going to the end of it.”

Indian Creek coach Nolan Govig said keeping things close early against an offense like Hinckley-Big Rock’s was obviously important.

“The way they can score the basketball, you don’t want to let the game get out of hand,” Govig said. “I’m glad we defensively anchored down after that first quarter and kept ourselves within striking distance.”

The Timberwolves led 50-46 with 1:28 left, and the Royals were looking to get back within a point or two, but Parker Murry put that notion to rest with a steal and a layup, pushing the lead to six.

The rest of the game was mostly a free-throw contest, and the Timberwolves held on.

“That gave us a ton of energy,” Schrader said of the crowd. “You heard it, it was loud here, and it gave everybody a bunch of energy on our team. It felt great.”

Schrader finished with 16 points and two steals. Murry and Faustino Mora had nine points each. Isaac Willis had five points and seven rebounds.

With a win Friday, Indian Creek will win its first Little Ten Tournament title since 2021.

“I think we’re ready,” Schrader said. “We haven’t played that well in a while, and it just feels great to finally beat them.”

Ledbetter had 17 points and seven rebounds for the Royals. Badal had 16 points, seven rebounds and three steals.

The Royals will face Newark in the third-place game Friday. Both teams are undefeated in regular-season conference play and play next Friday in Hinckley.

“You can feel the emotions of a loss like this, especially the seniors, because they want another gold ball, but you have to make sure this one loss doesn’t turn into two losses,” Sanderson said. “And then a week from now we could be playing for a regular-season conference championship.”