(ABC 6 News) — First, the wins started racking up, then the seats started filling up.

“I’m not going to lie, I saw a lot of faces here that I hadn’t seen in the gym for a long time,” Southland boys basketball head coach Scott Koenigs admitted.

The Southland Rebels have taken many by surprise with an undefeated run through the regular season. They are now 28-0 heading into Saturday’s 1A semifinal.

“We’ve been playing together for a decade at this point,” senior guard Noah Goergen said. “Our starting five, we’ve (been) playing together forever. And we’ve always just kind of had that chemistry. We always molded really well together. None of us are shocked by the season.”

There’s no one secret sauce to their success. Even with the growing pressure to remain perfect, this Southland crew is multi-faceted, composed and selfless.

“We have six guys that we feel comfortable with that can put the basketball in the hoop,” Koenigs continued. “If they tried to take away Noah or they tried to take away Tate, we feel very comfortable that the other guys will put the basketball in the hoop, also.”

“From the starting five to all the way to the last person on the bench, everyone has just such good chemistry,” sophomore guard Tate Goergen agreed. “And we know where everyone is on the court, and we just find that open shot.”

The playoffs are kind to no one, but the Rebels have proven time and again, they’re hard to humble.

“We enjoy a big crowd, it’s fun to play with them,” Tate added.

No matter what happens on Saturday, the fact remains that there’s something cooking in rebels country and they’re not going away anytime soon.

“I played on a team way back when — we won’t mention what year,” Koenigs recounted. “We were ranked number one in the state, got tripped up by Winona Cotter in the section championship. We have been in that final four a few times, so hopefully this is our year.”

The Goergen brothers have led the way on offense, both scoring 25 each during their 115-58 first-round win over Rochester STEM Academy on February 27. Noah scored 47 against Lyle-Pacelli alone on February 7.

The Rebels’ semifinal against Rushford-Peterson will be on Saturday at 1:30 PM at the Mayo Civic Center.