Andrew Holtan | The Brookings Register
CASTLEWOOD — The Sioux Valley boys’ basketball team upset the top-ranked team in Class B on Tuesday night as the Cossacks beat Castlewood 50-47 on the road.
The win came three days after Sioux Valley lost to Parker/Marion in overtime.
“We were coming off of getting upset by Parker on Saturday in a game that we weren’t very happy with, and I just think the kids responded with effort that was off the charts,” said Sioux Valley head coach Bill Vincent.
Castlewood led 12-6 with 3:12 left in the first quarter. Sioux Valley then outscored the Warriors 7-2 the rest of the quarter and trailed 14-13 going into the second. The Cossacks would then score the first five points of the second to take an 18-14 lead. The Warriors would then go on a 13-3 run to go up 27-21 with 3:38 to play in the first half. Sioux Valley fought back to tie things up at 29-29 , but it was Castlewood who took a 33-32 lead into halftime.
Vincent said the first half was kind of a chess match due to foul trouble for both teams, but he thought the Cossacks’ effort in rebounding wasn’t fully there.
“In the first half, we really wanted to attack them in hopes that we could get someone in foul trouble and see some players off their benches,” Vincent said. “Typically, they’re not going to play a lot of guys, and we were able to do that, get them in a little foul trouble.
“At the same time, fouls accumulated for us along the way as well, so both teams were in a little foul trouble and had to jockey through that. And I thought the first half, we struggled with some multiple effort rebounds where when the ball was ricocheting here or there, they were beating us to that ball.”
The two teams traded baskets in the first three minutes of the third until Connor Relf made a basket and Carter Sapp knocked down a 3-pointer to put the Cossacks up 43-39. Castlewood tied it at 43-43 with 1:04 left in the quarter and Braden Danziesen made one of two free throws to put Sioux Valley in front going into the fourth.
It was 46-46 at the midway point of the fourth quarter and neither team scored for almost two minutes as Sapp put Sioux Valley with a basket with 2:05 to go. Kamden Keszler made one of two free throws with 59 seconds left and Brady Hiltunen missed a three on the other end. Keszler would then miss a shot for Chester with 16 seconds left and Relf would head to the free throw line with nine seconds left. He calmly knocked down both free throws to make it 50-47 and Keszler missed a game-tying three at the buzzer.
Vincent said his team really locked in defensively in the fourth quarter, battling through foul trouble, and just did enough offensively to seal the win.
“In the second half, we cleaned that up [the rebounding] a little bit and just maintained enough,” Vincent said. “Then in the fourth quarter, we held them without a field goal. So defensively, we were just there all night long. We had to do a lot of offense for defense [in the fourth quarter] because of our foul trouble that we had.
“… [Hiltunen] picked up his fourth ball in the third quarter, so we just tried to buy him some time so we’d have him as the game was closing out and we’d use him offensively when we could and save him on the defensive end. I thought in the fourth quarter that Carter Sapp got going a little bit off the bounce, making their bigs move, and that was big when he got some buckets for us in that fourth quarter.”
Sioux Valley shot 37.8% from the field and was 9-of-22 from three. The Cossacks had three players score in double figures. Hiltunen led the way with 17 points. Sapp had 14 points and Relf had 10 points. Relf is one of six seniors on the team and Sapp and Hiltunen are juniors.
Vincent said those three are the top players for the Cossack offense and it was nice to see them clinch the game at the end.
“[Those three guys are] our most consistent offensive players. … They need to be our leaders, and it was good last night to see Connor Relf step up to the line and hit what ended up being the two winning free throws as the game’s unfolding at the end. Saturday in Parker, some of those free throws and plays didn’t go our way,” Vincent said.
The win moves Sioux Valley to 13-6 on the season. The Cossacks are in 13th in the Class A standings and have one regular season game remaining against Garretson, which will be played in Volga on Thursday night. Vincent said this is the type of win that can give them a lot of momentum as they head towards the postseason.
“It gives us a boost of confidence and allows our guys to know that they can play with anyone in the state. We just need to continue to stay disciplined and continue to get ourselves ready for March. When you think of March basketball, it’s just a toughness game, and we’ll want to continue to get better at those little phases of the game, clean up the rebounding a little bit, and just have some good ball [security],” Vincent said.
— Contact Andrew Holtan at [email protected].
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