VOLGA Sioux Valley earned a sweep over Chester at the Cossack Center on Tuesday night as the boys team defeated the Cardinals 71-42 and the girls team won 61-55.
Girls
Sioux Valley 61, Deuel 55
The Sioux Valley girls basketball team outscored Deuel 10-4 in the final four minutes of the game on Tuesday night and that led to a 61-55 victory for the Cossacks.
Sioux Valley, who snapped a three-game losing streak on Tuesday, led 49-39 heading into the fourth quarter and Chester went on a 12-2 run to tie the game. Back-to-back buckets from Kailey Cradduck put the Cossacks up four and six-straight free throws from Keyra Kruse put the game on ice.
Kruse finished the game with 18 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks. She was 8-of-10 at the line and Sioux Valley head coach Jamie Granum said he was proud of the way she came up big in the clutch.
I told Keyra in the locker room that she shot like Steph Curry from the line tonight, Granum said. Shes got a nice touch, and we had a conversation the other day about, lets turn that soft touch into mechanics and just reps. That stuff is going to be on her shoulders, but as everyone who has watched her play knows, shes extremely talented and shes scratching that talent right now. We have a couple years to get it out of her and she hasnt gotten to that ceiling yet.
The Cossacks jumped out to a 7-2 lead but the Flyers went on a 13-2 run to take a 15-9 lead with 2:45 to play in the opening quarter. Sioux Valley closed the quarter with a 9-2 run and led 18-17 going into the second.
Granum said he felt like his team didnt come into the game with the right mindset offensively and it carried on until the fourth quarter.
I thought from the start of the game, we were really tentative. I felt all game long that we were really tentative offensively and we werent as confident as we needed to be, Granum said.
Chester scored the first six points of the second quarter to go up 23-18 but the Cossacks battled back and took a 33-29 lead into the locker room.
Sioux Valley went on an 11-4 run to open the second half and led 44-33 at the midway point of the third quarter before taking the 10-point lead into the fourth.
Sioux Valley was led by Cradduck who had 22 points and eight rebounds. Granum said
Kailey was a little under the weather tonight and she still played 31 minutes. She makes us such a better team offensively and defensively. Her perimeter game, she can score at all three levels. Defensively, she can change things at the rim. Offensively and defensively shes a really good rebounder. So, shes a really impactful player and when we have her on the floor we feel more confident, Granum said.
The Cossacks shot 38.2% from the field as a team and were 6-of-24 from three. Talya Vincent was the other Sioux Valley player in double figures as she had 13 points.
Cradduck and Kruse did a lot of damage inside the paint on Tuesday night and the Cossacks were 13-of-17 at the free throw line. Granum said hed like to see both of those things continue to happen.
The calling card for us for the past five years was that were a really good perimeter team but cant score inside. Tonight, Chester was focused on taking Isabelle Bloker, but we have ways to score inside. Were playing a little bit more physical. One of our goals was to take more free throws and tonight we shot more free throws than they shot and I can probably count on one hand how many times thats happened in the past five years, Granum said.
Chester shot 34.4% from the field and was 3-of-13 from three. The Flyers were led by Jacy Wolf who had 21 points and six assists. Katelyn Schut had 17 points and seven rebounds. Emmerson Eppard had 13 points.
Each team had 34 rebounds and 16 turnovers. The Flyers had nine steals and the Cossacks had six.
Sioux Valley is now 4-3 on the season and will host McCook Central/Montrose at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. Granum said he thinks his team is better than their record and theyve shown it in their practices.
Were a better team than we were [coming into this game at] 3-3. And thats why our practices have been so good. We dont come into practice thinking were a 3-3 team. I get the feeling sometimes that were a 6-0 team coming into tonight because of the way we practice and the way we play, Granum said.
Boys
Sioux Valley 71, Deuel 42
A fast start led the Sioux Valley boys basketball team to a 71-42 win over Deuel on Tuesday night at the Cossack Center.
It was Sioux Valleys first game since Jan. 6 because both of the Cossacks scheduled games last week were postponed due to the weather. The Cossacks (9-0) came out ready to play as they jumped out to a 13-1 lead and led 25-9 at the end of the first quarter.
Sioux Valley head coach Bill Vincent was pleased with his teams start and was happy to play in Volga for the first time since Dec. 19.
We felt like we were going to get off to a fast start [because of the break]. It was even a longer break since we had been at home and in the Cossack Center. So, you could feel that energy going into it, Vincent said.
Part of the reason the Cossacks were able to get out to such a good start was because they put on a full court press for most of the first half. Sioux Valley forced 18 turnovers on the night and had eight steals. Vincent said the press is so successful for the Cossacks because theyre so athletic and are able to score on the offensive end.
Were athletic enough [to press a lot]. We have seven or eight guys that can play it, so that helps as well. When shots are going in, youre able to get your defense set and that also helps, Vincent said.
The Flyers (4-8) got off to a strong start in the second quarter as they cut the lead to 32-19. Vincent then called a timeout and Sioux Valley outscored Chester 8-3 the rest of the quarter and led 40-22 at halftime.
We were really flat to start the second quarter, but the second half of that quarter was a good finish and got us going again, Vincent said.
The Cossacks outscored the Flyers 15-9 in the third quarter. They then pulled away in the fourth, outsourcing Chester 16-11.
South Dakota State commit Alec Squires led the Cossacks with 26 points and six rebounds. Vincent said the Sioux Valley offense will always start with getting Squires touches in the paint.
[We want to go to him a lot] every night. The touches he can get and were sold on, and our guys know it, playing inside out. At the same time, we have to know that we have to be ready to knock down the perimeter shots as well and a few of those fell early [tonight], Vincent said.
Sioux Valley shot 51.9% from the field and was 6-of-16 from three. Hudsyn Ruesink and Max Engebretson each had 13 points. Ruesink also had seven rebounds and Maverick Nelson had eight points.
Boden Schiller had six points but two of his buckets were theatrical. His first two points of the night came off of an alley oop on out of bounds play and he also had a breakaway slam in the fourth quarter. Squires also had a breakaway dunk in the second quarter and Vincent said those types of plays give Sioux Valley a lot of momentum.[Dunks] get the Cossack Crazies going and the kids love it and feed off of it. Whether its a dunk or a charge taken or a three, those things get our guys going and they know how to play off of it as well, Vincent said.
Deuel shot 34.9% from the field and was 9-of-24 from three. Jovi Wolf led the Flyers with 19 points and five rebounds. Zach Moyer had 10 points.
Sioux Valley outrebounded Chester 26-17. The Cossacks had eight turnovers and were 11-of-18 at the free throw line.
The No. 4 ranked Cossacks have won their nine games by an average of 22 points. Despite the dominating start to the season for Sioux Valley, there are still some things that Vincent wants his team to continue to improve on.
We know that were a work in progress, Vincent said. We want to continue to improve defensively and rebounding the basketball, and I think were as good as we have been in those categories in the past, but we just want to continue to grow and build around our defense. The kids have bought into that and really locked in on that.
I want to continue to move the ball and be successful and continue to play with confidence. We have to know that so much goes into each and every win and were going to get harder and tougher opponents as the season grinds out, Vincent said.
Sioux Valley will have two more games this week. The Cossacks will host Deubrook Area on Thursday at 8 p.m. and then will play Rapid City Christian at the Hanson Classic in Mitchell on Saturday at 4 p.m.
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