FRANKFORT — Down by 12 points with less than 10 minutes remaining, Northwestern stormed back to stun Benton Central 53-52 in the Class 3A Frankfort Sectional opener Tuesday night at Case Arena.

Jared Treadway recorded a three-point play off an offensive rebound to put the Purple Tigers up 49-48 with 1:20 remaining, but the Bison surged back in front and held a 52-49 lead at :20. Jimmy McKee brought the Tigers within one with a post basket at :11 and after the Bison missed the front end of a one-and-one at :7.8, Treadway grabbed the rebound and passed to Kylan Dubbels, who took off down court and attacked the lane to score the game-winner in the final second.

“I was just going to the basket,” said Dubbels, a freshman guard. “It felt good.”

Defending sectional champion Northwestern (12-9) advances to play Frankfort (15-6) in a semifinal game at 6 p.m. Friday. The Hot Dogs beat the Tigers 72-66 in the regular season.

Benton Central used an early 10-0 run to take control. The Bison led 14-11 after the first quarter, 32-25 at halftime and 41-29 with less than two minutes remaining in the third quarter. Treadway scored a post basket and McKee added a putback basket to bring the Tigers within 41-33 by the close of the stanza — and set the stage for a dominant fourth quarter.

Northwestern outscored BC 20-11 over the final eight minutes. Treadway led the way with six points and five rebounds — including four offensive boards that the Tigers turned into eight points. Treadway scored off a putback to bring the Tigers within 48-46 at 2:31 and he followed with his three-point play for a 49-48 lead at 1:20.

“Me and McKee went hard to the boards, which really helped out,” Treadway said. “We were able to get some key offensive rebounds and some key putbacks.”

After BC went ahead 52-49 at :20, Northwestern found McKee for a quick post deuce instead of settling for a 3-point attempt. After BC guard Jordan Brier missed the front end of a one-and-one, Dubbels delivered the game winner at :00.6. Dubbels noted he saw a defender come from underneath to challenge his penetration, but he saw an opening on the left side and went up strong for a layup.

“It’s good to be young and not recognize the magnitude of the game,” Northwestern coach Jim Gish said. “Give Kylan credit — he saw the wings were guarded and if the wings are guarded, we tell them to play one-on-basketball and we expect you to get to the basket from the top. He did that and a lot of credit goes to him.”

The Tigers sputtered offensively over the first three quarters. They committed 11 turnovers and made just 14 of 34 shots including 1 of 9 from 3-point range. But they shifted into gear in the final quarter, playing turnover-free and shooting 8 of 15 from the field. Treadway and McKee went a combined 4 of 4 from the field in the quarter. Zech Sanders and Dubbels each hit a 3-pointer to complement the inside play.

“Coming into the fourth quarter, we decided to go with two bigs and see if we could get some offensive rebounds because things weren’t dropping from outside like we wanted to,” Gish noted. “A lot of kudos to Treadway and McKee — Both of them banged extremely hard inside and they got some key offensive rebounds for putbacks.”

The Bison struggled to contain Treadway and McKee when the Tigers played them at the same time.

“We practice that sometimes,” Treadway said. “It seems good in practice and sometimes it doesn’t really happen in games, but [Tuesday] it showed we can work well together.”

Sanders finished with 14 points to lead the Tigers. Treadway added 12 points and a team-high six rebounds and McKee chipped in eight points and five boards.

Mitchell Borgman netted game highs of 17 points and seven rebounds for the Bison. Taylor Schoen followed with 14 points, but the Tigers held him to just four points in the second half after he inflicted damage in the post in the first half.

“We were pretty disappointed in our defense in the first two quarters. We didn’t follow any type of game plan that we had coming into it and that was disappointing,” Gish said. “I thought in the fourth quarter, the kids really dialed up the pressure and you could see what we had planned to do all week.”