Hayden Tibbits scored 14 of his game high 21 points in the first half. He hit a couple threes in the opening 18 minutes and used nifty ball-handling and court vision to get the packed home crowd on its feet with an impressive layup.

He’s one of the top players in the state in his class, particularly of those who have yet to announce a college destination.

Buffalo got down double digits early and showed resolve to cut the deficit to six late in the first half. The Bison were on their third game of the week and second in as many days, all on the road, compared to one home game for the Trojans on Tuesday.

Wayzata was well on its way to winning its 12th straight game over Lake Conference rival, Buffalo. It’s a streak dating back to 2014 in Buffalo’s Mississippi 8 Conference days.

“I thought they started really well. Always love playing at home in front of a crowd like this,” Tibbits said. “Getting off to a hot start was a good thing. We kept that up throughout the game.”

Wayzata had the size advantage with 6-foot-7 junior forward Jackson McAndrew scoring 14 points and playing suffocating defense in the paint along with 6-foot-6 senior Isaiah Habte, who added three points.

The Bison are a more guard-oriented team led by 6-foot-1 senior guard Nate Dahl. He led his side with 17 points but was held five under his season average.

“It was good, I thought we really stepped up on the defensive end today,” McAndrew said. “They only had 23 points at halftime. That’s a big key for us. Obviously, we scored the ball really well. We can still improve in all areas to get where we want to be at, but it was a good win for us.”

Buffalo was coming in confident in its own right. The Bison were three days removed from the biggest win of the season, a 60-57 victory at Hopkins for their third conference win of the season after winning just two in the Lake Conference in 2021-22.

They also won 72-56 at Minneapolis Southwest on Thursday.

“I thought we played really hard in the first half. Guys executed our defensive gameplan pretty well. Dahl’s a good player,” Wayzata coach Bryan Schnettler said. “They do a really good job of cutting. Josh is a really good coach. They’re not easy to play against. I thought our guys played really hard and when we move the ball, we got really good looks.”

Wayzata also received nine points from 6-foot-3 senior forward Spencer Hall. The NCAA Division-III Emory University commit had seven points in the first half and was instrumental to the Trojans’ hot start.

The Trojans have banded together well after an 0-3 start. It wasn’t as bad as it looked with an overtime loss to a strong Lakeville South team and single-digit losses to current top-five squads in Eastview and Lakeville North.

Still, it would have been easy for doubt to foment.

“A lot of people counted us out after those first games,” McAndrew said, “but we’ve shown how good we really are.”

Fortunately for Wayzata, the slow start did not feature any conference losses. Wayzata is 6-0 after playing each team once out of two times in the Lake Conference. It has a one-game lead and the tiebreaker over Minnetonka (5-1) in second place.

“They’ve been a blast to coach. I think that’s been a big part of it,” Schnettler said. “They’re fun to be around and they have fun around each other. With that going on and a little bit of talent along with it, it goes a long way.”