The Race for Mr. Basketball (SD)
The season is young but the Race for Mr. Basketball has begun. Who is charging hard out of the gates in South Dakota? We give you a look today.
The Favorite: Noah Freidel of Tea Area. Tea Area always challenges themselves schedule wise including their season opener: a 83-73 win over Dakota Valley. Noah had 25 points and eight rebounders in the season opening victory. Noah then had 17 in a blowout win over Flandreau and 19 in a 20 point win over Dell Rapids.
The Final Five. Most states have a final five but South Dakota does’t pair down like others. But if there was a final five these are some of the talents that would be considered along with Freidel.
Justin Hohn of Tea Area kicked off his season in a massive way. He scored 24 points with eight boards, eight assists, and six steals in the opener against Dakota Valley. Hohn scored 16 against Flandreau followed by 11 against Dell Rapids while distributing for five guys in double figures.
Bridgewater-Emery is 2-0 to start the season and leader Sawyer Schultz started his year with 41 points making five treys plus grabbed ten boards and jumped to five steals (in a win over Menno). Schultz followed that with 19 in a win over Canistota.
Red Cloud has played five games with wins in four (lost to Pine Ridge). Ale Rama had a memorable game win a 78-76 win over Tiospa Zina scoring 40 and passing 1,000 points for his career. Rama is scoring 30.4 points a game with 11 boards, five assists, and four steals on average.
Camden Bialas of Parker has scored 61 points in three games for a 2-1 team. He opened the season with 21 points, 10 rebounds, and five blocks and had 22 points in their loss.
Jared Jaros is coming off one of the most explosive games of the year. In defeating Washington, Lincoln saw Jaros score 32 points on eight threes and 11 of 14 shooting overall. A nasty performance. Lincoln is 3-0.
The Dozen Finalists.
Mitchell Goodbary and Gavin Schipper continue to hit double figures before taking an early seat for the night. SF Christian has crushed three of their four opponents and won all games by double figures.
Brookings is off to a 1-3 start but Drew Cole has been giving a consistent double figure performance.
Nick Hoyt has put together games of 20, 19, and 13 to start the year averaging just over 17 points a contest for 2-1 Harrisburg.
Aiden Bizardie is off to a great start putting up 24 points a game for his 5-1 Todd County squad.
RC Stevens has a quality pair to watch. Dylan Pourier scoring 15 a contest and Dawson Paulsen is putt up 18 a game with about 8 boards a night.