RAPID CITY, S.D. (KELO.com) — Three Sioux Falls schools are in Saturday’s “final four” of the Class AA boys state basketball tournament.
Washington, O’Gorman, and Roosevelt all showed flashes of brilliance in their quarterfinal wins on Thursday.
The No. 1 Warriors will face the No. 4 Knights at 6:00 p.m. in the first semifinal, their third meeting this season with O’G providing Washington its only two losses on the season, both coming in the final two weeks before the playoffs.
The No. 3 Riders will clash with No. 2 Yankton at 8:30 in a rematch of a nail-biting 49-46 Bucks win in January.
FOX Sports 98.1, AM-1230, and KWSN.COM will carry both games, starting 15 minutes before tip-offs.
Here’s how Thursday’s games unfolded:
No. 1 Washington 56, No. 9 Aberdeen Central 53
The Warriors lost an 11-point mid-fourth quarter lead before beating No. 9 Aberdeen Central 56-53 on senior Eli Williams’ contested five-foot leaner with 33 seconds remaining to break a 53-53 tie. Williams then blocked the Golden Eagles’ attempt to tie 11 seconds later, and the Warriors fended off a half-court attempt to tie at the buzzer after making just one of three free throws in the final 20 seconds.
After being part of the problem, the guard provided the solution when WHS junior point guard Mikele Kambalo fouled out with a few minutes remaining, and the Warriors holding a decisive lead. Williams — who ran the point for Washington last season as a junior — struggled with the Eagles’ full-court press, eventually leading to the tie. But the senior, who coach Craig Nelson constantly hails for his poise and team-first attitude after giving up the PG position before this season, drove most of the length of the court through the press for the winning hoop between two Eagle defenders. It was two of his four points. He then stuffed ABC junior point guard Sam Rohlf’s right elbow jumper with 22 seconds left, thwarting a tying attempt. Rohlfs had come on strong late in a game-high 20-point performance.
Before all that, WHS junior guard Joe Uttecht scored eight of his team-high 14 points in the second half, finishing 5-0f-7 from the field and 4-of-4 on three-point attempts. Junior Angok Akot added 12 points, and senior Taj Two Bulls had 10, while Kambala, at 5-foot-8, hauled in a team-high 12 rebounds to go with six points.
No. 4 O’Gorman 58, No. 5 Harrisburg 39
The Knights avenged their only loss in the last 10 games leading into the tourney, getting even with the same hot shooting that has propelled them to 10 consecutive wins. O’G was 24-of-44 from the field and 7-of-14 from deep and led 13-4 after one quarter and 29-11 at halftime before cruising. Kade Moffitt scored 12 of his team-high 14 points in the first half. Joe Lynch packed 13 points inside, while David Alpers (11 rebounds) and Eddie Meylor (10) combined for 21 of the Knights’ 26 boards.
That was a dozen more than HHS hauled in, which didn’t help the Tigers’ miserable night of offense, shooting just 29 percent. Seniors Blaze Lubbers (11 points) and Connor Geddes (10) led Harrisburg, as usual.
No. 2 Yankton 50, No. 7 Mitchell 46
Junior reserve guard Dylan Proudy’s seven three-pointers were two shy of the AA state tourney single-game record. Five of those treys came after the half, and three on back-to-back-to-back makes to give the Bucks the lead for good in the third quarter. Proudy also hit four free throws in the fourth quarter to finish with a career-high 25 points.
Senior Matthew Mors (17 points) made perhaps the second-biggest shot of his phenomenal career, nailing a left-elbow jumper with 37 seconds left to extend a three-point Yankton lead to five, which the Kernels could not overcome. It was a spot close to where Mors drilled the deciding final-minute shot in the Bucks’ state championship game win over Harrisburg three years ago when he was a freshman at the PREMIER Center in Sioux Falls.
YHS held Mitchell’s dynamic junior Caden Hinker to 5 points — 17 below his average. And his fouling out with a few minutes left severely hurt the Kernels’ chances of a comeback in their first trip to the state tourney in nine years after winning nine titles in 29 years under Gary Munsen.
No. 3 Roosevelt 64, No. 6 Brandon Valley 47
The Riders beat the Lynx for a third time this season by shooting a blistering 63 percent and made 6 of their 11 three-point attempts, finishing on a 13-0 run after the Lynx crept to within four halfway into the fourth. Senior Tyler Feltkamp (game-high 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting, including 2-of-3 on treys) scored the first five of that run on a step-back three and layup, then sophomore Taylen Ashley (10 points) scored the next four on electric moves after appearing seriously injured earlier in the quarter.
Mostly, it was a dizzying display of just how fast and athletic the Riders are. They comprise several key players on from a football team ranked No. 1 all season before losing by a point to Harrisburg in the state semifinals. The sting has fueled Roosevelt, who has won 10 in a row.
This ended the Lynx’s run at back-to-back state hoops titles (they won in 2019 before the ’20 tourney was canceled). A lot of their players were part of BV’s state football title in the autumn. Dawson Johnson led all scorers with 18 points, but nobody else from BV mustered double figures, including senior Jackson Hilton (5), the fourth-quarter clutch shooting hero of Brandon’s state title win over O’Gorman two years ago in the same building.
Roosevelt coach Mitch Begeman and his assistants once again wore Brandon Valley t-shirts that read “Play for Deckert” on the front, a nod to 21st-year BV coach Brent Deckert, who has coached through lung cancer all season.
Deckert and two-time state football championship coach Chad Garrow — going through his own battle with cancer — will be inducted into the BVHS Athletics Hall of Fame later this month.
(John Gaskins of sister station KWSN contributed this report.)
