Class AA State Tournament Preview
Today at three the Class AA state tournament begins with games being played at the same time at the Premier Center and at SF Arena. PHD goes through the match-ups and predicts winners in today’s preview SF Washington (18-4) vs…
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Continue ReadingToday at three the Class AA state tournament begins with games being played at the same time at the Premier Center and at SF Arena. PHD goes through the match-ups and predicts winners in today’s preview
SF Washington (18-4) vs RC Central (6-17)
The Warriors come into the state tournament on a 14 game winning streak not dropping a game in the last two months. The Warriors beat Central 68-47 just a month ago and being the one seed they should take care of business. In fact the only time that the Warriors struggled was when point guard Sam Siganos was out with a broken jaw or when he had just come back from the injury (lost four of five at the time). Take away the weeks where Siganos was injury affected and this has been a perfect team record wise.
The Cobblers two of their last three meaning a third of this year’s wins came in the playoffs. Can the Cobblers pull off the upset? They did beat Stevens not to long ago but their playoff wins as well as the other regular season wins were against teams that have struggled this year. RC Central has a 1-8 record against the teams in state and an 0-5 record against Wyoming teams actually.
Central does have the frontcourt size to look at the Warriors eye to eye but the talent level is very different. Central doesn’t have a player that can match Siganos in the backcourt and the frontcourt of Zach Heins and Isaac Goeman will eventually wear on their opponents. Jack Talley is an ex-factor here as the Cobblers really don’t have a good match-up for him.
Prediction: Washington 69 Central 50
Pierre TF Riggs (15-7) vs SF Roosevelt (12-11)
After an excellent start (9-2) that lead to a number one ranking in state the Governors struggled down the stretch losing five of nine including losses to Brandon Valley and Stevens. They turned it around beating Central in district play and then took out Mitchell who surprised everybody with the upset over Huron. Now the Govs are coming to state with some confidence having won four of five. Pierre didn’t play a single team from Sioux Falls this year so they will get a chance to face two of them likely this week and see how they measure up.
So where is Nate Davis and the Watertown team everybody wanted to see at state? Roosevelt was their kryptonite beating them twice this year including in the playoffs (Lincoln was the team that officially ended Watertown’s year but Roosevelt beat them first). Roosevelt is one game over .500 and it’s somewhat surprising they are here considering they lost five of their last seven games. Can Roosevelt beat Pierre? They can. Wins over Watertown and Aberdeen Central say that they can. But will they? Depends on which team shows up.
Definitely some interesting match-ups with Tristan Teichmeier battling Brevin Kaiser up front, Alex Fiegen against Erin Severyn in the backcourt, and then watch whomever Roosevelt has on Bradley Dean which we would assume to be Christophe Bwanya, the talented sophomore. Those are excellent individual match-ups for an excited crowd to see. Roosevelt is bigger and deeper up front which could play a factor while the Governors are more experienced in their backcourt.
Prediction: Roosevelt 56 Pierre 54
SF O’Gorman (17-5) vs SF Lincoln (10-13)
The Knights came into the season as the clear number one but losses in four of their first nine games had people wondering if they would reach their potential. Then came the win over Washington in January. That 68-62 victory jump started the team and they have since won 12 of 13 games and seem to be on a collision course with the Warriors for a third and final game (they split the season meetings). First O’Gorman must take care of Lincoln who they’ve beaten twice (by eight each time) and then a quality Central team or a Stevens squad they also beat by eight points this season.
With such a new line-up after winning state last year there were a lot of unknowns for Lincoln and at one point they were 3-8 on the year and everybody counted them out. Things changed in late January when Lincoln won five of seven games including wins over Watertown and Roosevelt. Lincoln beat Watertown for a second time teaming with Roosevelt to bounce one of the state’s top teams out.
With the Patriots you never really know where the hot hand will come from but you know they have been playing better every game. The Patriot senior class of Nolan Burchill, Lee Ransom, Ethan Weber, Evan Hieber, and Tommy Jensen have something to prove and we’ve seen them take big steps forwards as of late. Ben Lauer, Ethan French, Antonio Casiello, and Jimmy Burma have got the better of their opposing seniors in the past so they have the confidence. The Knights have more support from their juniors in Matt Cartwright and JP Costello.
Prediction: O’Gorman 55 Lincoln 47
Aberdeen Central (17-6) vs RC Stevens (12-10)
The Golden Eagles took care of business for most of the season beating who they were supposed to beat and then going 4-5 against teams above .500. They split with Pierre during the regular season, split with Watertown, and then avenged a pair of Huron losses by winning the elimination game in the playoffs. The Regional state qualifier was a hammering with Central beating Sturgis 74-42.
Stevens and Central played nearly three months ago with Central coming out on top by ten. Stevens has a 5-7 record against teams in the state tournament this winning games over Lincoln, Roosevelt, Pierre, Central, and Lincoln again but losing to Central by five points in late February. The Central loss was their only bad loss of the year though as the rest of the ten defeats were against the best teams in the state of South Dakota, Nebraska, and Wyoming.
Stevens is a smaller team led by Mason Archambault and Jacob Martin who are talented and good sized. Anthony Bachmeier and Cannon Hannigan will be the opposition and should be able to match or come close to matching the Stevens guards. Stevens doesn’t have a guy bigger than 6-foot-3 though where is Cole Bergan, TJ Allam and company stand 6-foot-7.
Prediction: Central 53 Stevens 47