VOLGA It was another dominating victory for the Sioux Valley boys basketball team on Tuesday night as the No. 4 ranked team in Class A beat Beresford 74-41.
The Cossacks (3-0) got off to a hot start as they outscored the Watchdogs 26-11 in the first quarter. Sioux Valley head coach Bill Vincent said he liked the way the Cossacks jumped on the Watchdogs early.
I really liked our start. In the last couple of games, we have maybe been trying to figure out the jigsaw puzzle to start the game. Today, we just came right out of the gate and we were ready to go with a 26-point first quarter, Vincent said.
The Cossacks continued to play well in the second quarter as they outscored the Watchdogs 20-10 and took a 46-21 lead into the locker room. Beresford outscored Sioux Valley 14-9 in the third quarter but the Cossacks then pulled farther away in the fourth and cruised to their third win of the season.
Vincent said the only thing he didnt like about the first half was the turnovers his team had but he liked the way they forced turnovers at the other end of the floor. Many of the turnovers that the Cossacks forced were from the full-court press they put on.
We thought at halftime that we needed to clean up the turnover category a bit. We did that in the second half and at the same time we forced them into 28 turnovers. More than anything, [the press] gets us going. It gets us moving and gets us energized and thats what you saw tonight, Vincent said.
Sioux Valley shot 53.7% from the field and was 8-of-22 from three. The Cossacks were led by Max Engebretson who had 19 points and six assists. Alec Squires had 14 points and five rebounds. Boden Schiller had 11 points and seven rebounds. Hudsyn Ruesink had nine points and four assists.
Engebretson was 5-of-9 from three on Tuesday night and Vincent said when he shoots the ball like that it puts a lot of pressure on the defense.
When [the guards] get going, were really tough to guard. Then you cant just focus on [Squires] inside and you have to guard the perimeter. A guy like [Engebretson] can really get going and he did with five threes tonight. The other thing that really stuck out was 21 assists off of the made buckets, so the ball was spinning and moving, Vincent said.
Maverick Nelson, who is the Cossacks third-leading scorer, went down with an injury on Tuesday night in the third quarter. Vincent said hes not worried if Nelson has to miss some time because he believes he has seven players who can start at any moment.
You already saw a glimpse of it tonight with Boden Schiller coming in and getting double-digit [points] off of the bench. He started for Jace Christensen when we were at Baltic when Jace was down with an illness. So, I really think were already there with seven guys that are all capable of starting and playing their role at any time, Vincent said.
Beresford shot 36.4% from the field and was 5-of-21 from three. The Watchdogs were led by Andrew Atwood who had 14 points and six rebounds.
Sioux Valley won the rebound battle 24-20. The Watchdogs had 28 turnovers and the Cossacks had 15. Sioux Valley had 16 steals.
The Cossacks will play in the Hoop City Classic next at the Corn Palace in Mitchell on Dec. 28. Theyll play Thunder Basin (Wyoming) at 3:30 p.m. on that day.
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