Austin guard Matt Duren probably didn’t expect to attempt 11 threes against Faribault, but once he hit five in the first 10 minutes of the game, he just couldn’t help himself.

Duren scored 21 points while hitting 7-of-11 from downtown to lead the Austin boys basketball team to a 78-55 win over the Falcons (4-10 overall, 3-5 Big Nine) in Packer Gym Tuesday.

Duren knew he was on early and he didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger.

“When they kept on falling I just kept on shooting and they went in. With the two-three zone we had to get outside looks,” he said. “We were able to get it inside and the bigs were able to get it back out. Some of them probably had a career high for assists.”

As Duren started hitting from deep, his teammates followed in line. Austin (7-7 overall, 6-3 Big Nine) hit 53 percent (17-for-32) of its threes on the night.

“I didn’t think they were bad shots. They were pretty open threes,” Austin head coach Kris Fadness said. “We’ve always thought we had good shooters, I know some nights it doesn’t look like it, but tonight we got it going.”

Austin’s first eight field goals were from three-point land as they opened a 24-13 lead. Faribault got as close as 57-50 in the second half but the Packers responded with a 7-0 run that saw Tom Aase, who finished with 10 points, five rebounds, three assists, and three steals, hit a three and score on a put-back.

Most of Faribault’s offense came from Michael Emgee, who finished with 18 points.

“A lot of their points came from Emgee dribbling through and just rising over us. We made some adjustments at halftime,” Duren said.

Andrew Kaiser had a solid game off the bench for Austin as he had nine points and four assists.

Faribault 31 24 — 55

Austin 41 37 — 78

Austin scoring: Matt Duren, 23; Zach Wessels, 11; Tom Aase, 10; Andrew Kaiser, 9; Zach Fadness, 9; Joe Aase, 8; Jay Ettinger, 3; Max Coffey, 3; Caleb Knorr, 2; free throws: 78 percent (11-for-14); rebounds: 23 (Tom Aase, 5; Joe Aase, 5); turnovers: 6

Faribault scoring: Michael Emgee, 18; Chad Hansen, 13; Jordan Bardal, 12; Anthony Gustafson, 6; Nate Emgee, 4; Ryan Tinaglia, 2; free throws: 81 percent (9-for-11); rebounds: 30 (Emgee, 7); turnovers: 15