South Dakota Week 1 Recap
There were some eye popping performances from week one. PHD will release the first regular season rankings next week after a few more games have been played. There were some preseason top ten matchups that occurred this past week. High school basketball fans were also treated to some great individual performances from players all over the state. We take a look, class by class, of the week that was in South Dakota.
Class AA:
Yankton is back: The Yankton bucks opened the season with a western road trip that turned out to be quick work. Led by Matthew Mors, the bucks won decisively vs Spearfish then came back the next day and beat preseason #3 Rapid City Stevens by 14! Preseason ranking don’t mean a ton, but Yankton really might be a clear #1.
Roosy over OG: In an early season battle between two Sioux Falls teams, the young and hungry SF Roosevelt team defeated SF O’Gorman 55-50 on Saturday night. A battle back and forth but a good season debut from sophomore Tyler Feldkamp who help lead to Rough Riders to a win. OG was led by junior transfer Jeremy Jones who had 20 points.
Harrisburg’s New Look: There were new faces in some of the uniforms Friday night but the result ended up being a familiar one; a win. Led by senior Nick Hoyt, the Tigers took down Western Christian (IA). It was battle of two styles as Harrisburg pushed tempo and looked for the jumper while Western Christian looked to go into big 6’8 Dordt College commit Jacob Vis. Good start for the Tigers.
Class A:
Tea wins big Matchup: In a top five opening weekend game, #1 Tea pulled away from #5 Dakota Valley. This was a highly competitive game but Tea had too much fire power between Justin Hohn and Noah Friedel. Dakota Valley had a big game from sophomore Paul Bruns, how led all scorers with 31 points – this will be his first of many big games, mark my word.
Canton’s Verley: Canton started their season with a five point win over Elk Point-Jefferson behind the 46 point performance of Kayden Verley. He will be a name to continue to watch as he can be a different maker for that Canton squad. Speaking of names to look out for, Elk Point Jefferson sophomore Sam Aslesen who had 27 points in his debut!
Region 1 goes 5-0: Class A region one went 5-0 to start the year; wins by Sisseton, Aberdeen Roncalli, Gorton Area, Milbank and Tiospa Zina. Milbank had four players in double digits including Jake Fox who notched a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds. Broden DeHoet poured in 27 points for Groton Area’s win over Leola-Frederick.
Class B:
1,000 Point Scorers: Week one treated fans to see two different Class B players surpass the 1,000 career point mark. #2 Clark/Willow Lake’s Jacob Prouty did so in a high win over Class A #6 Sioux Valley as he netted 45 points. Prouty needed just 2 points coming into the night, then added 43 more to get the big win. Connor Libis of Dell Rapids St. Mary went over 1,000 points in their opening game vs Colman-Egan. The cardinals win the game 70-56 behind the sophomore’s excellent performance.
2-0 Starts: Some very nice starts were had by two teams we probably need to keep and eye on. Kinmball/White Lake defeated always tough Mount Vernon/Plankington then turned around and beat Freeman who many believe would be a team to watch. Up north, Aberdeen Christian got two big wins over preseason #8 ranked Warner then defeated James Valley Christian behind the 31 point performance of Andrew Rohrback.