VOLGA It took longer than expected, but the Sioux Valley boys basketball team pulled away from Clark/Willow Lake in the second half on Saturday night and the Cossacks won their season opener 69-36.
The Cossacks led 22-18 at halftime and then outscored the Cyclones 37-18 in the second half and 26-4 in the fourth quarter. Sioux Valley head coach Bill Vincent said he thought it took his team awhile to get going because it was the first game of the season.
It took us a little while to get into the flow, especially offensively. I thought Clark/Willow Lake did a good job of game planning for us early on and making us do some different things. Its always challenging going into your first game and not necessarily knowing what your opponents are going to expect, Vincent said.
The score was tied 9-9 at the end of the first quarter. The Cossacks then trailed 16-11 with just over four minutes left in the first half and closed the half on an 11-2 run to take a 22-18 lead into the locker room.
The Cossacks extended their lead to 34-24 three minutes into the second half but CWL wouldnt fully go away. However, another strong end to a quarter gave the Cossacks a 43-32 lead entering the fourth.
They then scored 14 of the first 16 points of the fourth quarter to extend the lead to 59-34. That allowed Sioux Valley to cruise to the victory in its first game of the season.
Vincent said things flipped after halftime once his team started making some shots from the perimeter.
I thought defensively we were really good all night. It just took us awhile to get going offensively and I think once we had a little run there before half our confidence grew. Of course, when some outside shots started to fall, to go along with the inside game, that made things good, Vincent said.
The Cossacks shot 50.9% from the field and were 9-of-27 from three. South Dakota State commit Alec Squires led Sioux Valley with 23 points and nine rebounds. Squires will be the go-to guy for the Cossacks this season and Vincent said hes looking forward to seeing how he takes on that role.
Its really exciting to have someone that big and that talented. At the same time, to put the guys around him that were able to [is great]. So many times you see a player like that and of that caliber come through a program and maybe they dont have the guard play to put with them. Were fortunate to have a well-rounded team to put around him, Vincent said.
Two of those guys around Squires were Maverick Nelson and Max Engrebretson, who both had good games on Saturday night. Nelson had 19 points and Engebretson had 15 points and five assists.
Those two wings really got going [in the second half], Vincent said. I thought [Nelson] did a nice job of attacking the basket and getting to the foul line a little bit. Once a shot or two falls, it gets your season going.
CWL shot 31% from the field and was 4-of-18 from three. The Cyclones were led by Emmerson Larson who had 12 points and six rebounds. Aaron Zemlicka had 11 points.
Sioux Valley had 31 rebounds and CWL had 21. The Cyclones had 18 turnovers and the Cossacks had 10. Sioux Valley was 4-of-8 at the free throw line and CWL was 6-of-9 at the charity stripe.
Sioux Valley will travel to Baltic next and will play the Bulldogs on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Vincent said its going to be a bit of a feeling out process after the Cossacks lost his nephew Oliver, who was an All-State selection each of the past three seasons, to graduation.
Guys will grow into that role. At the same time, its happening faster than you would have guessed because you forget, they were going against [Oliver Vincent] in practice for three years, so that has made them ready to go. Were pretty confident in seven or eight guys right now, which a lot of teams cant say this early in the year, Vincent said.
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