HAYFIELD — The Viking boys basketball team couldn’t dig out of an early hole in a 74-51 loss in it’s regular season finale against Byron Monday in Hayfield.

The Bears (15-8 overall) hit five threes in the first half and scored a quick four points in the last 23 seconds of the first frame to take a 40-25 lead to the break.

“We knew they were gonna shoot threes and we gave up too many easy ones,” Hayfield head coach Chris Pack said. “We didn’t contain penetration and when you have to help you’re giving up the three.”

The Vikings (5-20 overall) got as close as 57-45 with 9:21 left in the game after Clint Freiheit converted a couple of runners for scores. But Byron scored the next 13 points to slam the door on the Hayfield comeback.

While Byron made eight threes on the night, they missed plenty as well but the Bears’ 21 offensive rebounds offset their misses.

“The effort on the rebounding was disappointing. It wasn’t because they were taller than us, it was because they wanted the ball more,” Pack said. “We did a terrible job of rebounding and that created way too many second chance points.”

Tanner Kramer and Cody Kramer combined for 31 of Hayfield’s 51 points as the Vikings missed the inside presence of Ben Pollock, who will be out for the remainder of the season.

“He developed into a pretty good inside player for us,” Pack said. “We’re missing Ben and his senior leadership.”

Hayfield, which has now lost 14 of its last 15 games, will enter the playoffs as a No. 6 seed and will travel to Blooming Prairie March 10 for an 8:01 p.m. playoff game.

Byron 40 34 — 74

Hayfield 25 31 — 51

Hayfield scoring: Tanner Kramer, 18; Cody Kramer, 13; Clint Freiheit, 8; Tyler Krekling, 5; Tyler Becvar, 5; Kelly Dornink, 4; Evan Bugnum, 3; rebounds: 30

Byron scoring: Evan Morris, 21; Tyler Krings, 17; Ross Fuchs, 14; Angel Talamantes, 9; Zach Southwick, 7; Taylor Kunkel, 4; Miles McNeil, 4; rebounds: 39