It’s the little things that make a difference in any sports tournament of any sort at any level and that was certainly true during the State B boys’ high school basketball tourney at the Barnett Center in Aberdeen last weekend.
Clark/Willow Lake indeed took care of all the little things, plus a huge defensive effort throughout its three-day competition. And for the eventual State B champion Cyclones, that definitely proved to be the difference in an otherwise quite balanced event!
That defense all started in their first game of the tourney Thursday evening against Region 2B rep Sully Buttes. It was a rematch of last year’s title game won by the Chargers. So don’t think that the Cyclones didn’t have something to prove this time around with maybe just a little extra incentive during the long winter? And that revenge motive fueled by defense and a team effort offensively led by Jacob Prouty, the Cyclones were in business with a dominant 58-26 victory over the Chargers, propelling themselves into and then winning the final game of the day the next two evenings.
Yes, when it was all said and done, Clark/Willow Lake topped De Smet 49-41 in the title game Saturday, after shading Bridgewater-Emery 56-55 a night earlier, which sorta turned out to be the real championship game. That’s because B-E would go on to capture third-place with a convincing 65-54 outcome over Viborg-Hurley.
Saturday’s afternoon brackets saw Jones County edging Timber Lake 60-49 for seventh-place in an all West River showdown. And White River, another West River team, rallied for a 74-68 consolation-championship victory over Sully Buttes in a back-and-forth game.
The winner of the Spirit of Su award for the boys Class B Tourney was Jacob Prouty of Clark-Willow Lake. The Spirit of Six went to Bridgewater-Emery cheerleaders.
Meanwhile, the girls and boys in Class AA both headed out to Rapid City last weekend. The highlight of the girl’s event was a 60-40 championship game win by Brandon Valley over Sioux Falls Lincoln. And guess who also won the boys’ tourney? You guessed it, Brandon Valley, with a little more difficult 54-47 win over Sioux Falls O’Gorman.
And finally the girls’ and boys’ State A hoops events were also held simultaneously in Sioux Falls with Winner winning the girls’ championship outcome 60-53 over West Central. (Aberdeen Roncalli placed eighth with a 53-50 Saturday loss to Mt. Vernon/Plankinton.) The boys’ State A saw Tea Area topping Sioux Falls Christian 68-57 for first-place bragging rights. (Thanks to the SoDak 16 format, there were no area teams even qualifying for the boys’ State A this time around.)
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