VOLGA The Custer boys basketball team pulled away from Sioux Valley on Friday night and handed the Cossacks a 56-37 loss.
Custer led 11-5 at the end of the first quarter and then extended the lead to 19-6 with 5:23 to play in the first half. Sioux Valley then went on a 9-0 run to cut the lead to 19-15 but the Wildcats led 23-17 at halftime.
The Cossacks cut the lead to 25-21 just over a minute into the second half. However, Custer then went on a 12-0 run to push the lead to 37-21 with two minutes left in the third quarter.
The Wildcats lead was 43-27 at the end of the third quarter. The Wildcats largest lead of the night came with 5:46 left in the fourth as they led 49-27.
Sioux Valley head coach Bill Vincent said there were two things that he thought led to the loss on Friday night turnovers and rebounding. Sioux Valley had 23 turnovers and lost the rebound battle 36-25.
We just really struggled offensively to get into any flow, Vincent said. [Custer] is a very experienced team and that experience shined through and we had too many low points during that game to stay steady against a team that good. I thought early on we really got beat on the glass and that gave them a lot of second-chance points and that gave them their early lead. Then later in the game we got tired. So, well get back to work on those two categories, work on our conditioning and rebounding.
Sioux Valley shot 37.8% from the field and was 8-of-20 from three. Maverick Nelson had 15 points and six rebounds to lead the Cossacks. Brady Hiltunen had six points and Carter Sapp had four points and seven rebounds.
Custer shot 33.9% from the field and was 5-of-23 from beyond the arc. Kyle Virtue led the Wildcats with 23 points and six rebounds. Cody Drikes had 12 points and nine rebounds. Rhett Lowe had 14 points.
Vincent said he thought his team did a good job defending in the half court, especially in the first half.
We talked about our defensive effort at halftime. To hold a team to 23 points in a half, youre going to be in a good spot if you can do that again, but there just comes a time in the game when you have to open things up and try to create more possessions when youre behind and that allowed more points to get on the board in the second half.
Sioux Valley dropped to 2-2 on the season. The Cossacks will play back-to-back home games on Friday and Saturday. Friday night theyll take on Lakota Tech at 7 p.m. on Friday and then host Wolsey-Wessington in the Round Ball Classic on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
Vincent said his team is young and will need to continue to try to improve.
When we came out of the Entringer, we wanted to clean up some turnovers. I thought we did that until late [in the game] when we were tired. We also wanted to clean up our rebounding. Those [issues] sometimes shine through with a team that has less experience, Vincent said.
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