Andrew Holtan | The Brookings Register
VOLGA — The Sioux Valley girls’ basketball team advanced to its second-straight SoDak 16 on Thursday night as the Cossacks beat Clark/Willow Lake 55-32 in the Region 2A semifinals.
The No. 2 seeded Cossacks and No. 3 seeded Cyclones traded baskets in the first quarter but then Sioux Valley pulled away in the middle quarter.
Sioux Valley head coach Jamie Granum said his team used some of its postseason experience to get the victory on Thursday night.
“We kept talking all week about the postseason and what it takes to win in the postseason. We’re really dialed into some of the details and knowing that in the postseason runs happen in the game of basketball and just being poised, being mature, knowing that when we get rolling, they can’t take everything away.”
Sioux Valley led 11-9 at the end of the first quarter. The Cossacks then opened the second with a 10-2 run to go up 21-11 with 5:39 to go in the first half. It was then 24-14 when Liberty Trygstad made a lay up and Kailey Cradduck hit back-to-back 3-pointers to make it 32-17 with 1:31 to play in the half. Sioux Valley would then take a 34-19 lead into halftime.
The momentum continued for the Cossacks to start the third quarter. Cradduck made a two-point shot and then Trygstad and Talya Vincent drilled back-to-back triples to push the lead to 45-19 with 4:37 to go in the third.
Granum said his team started to get open shots because they moved the ball and got into transition by rebounding defensively.
“A lot of it just starts with ball movement. But before that, it’s rebounding. We thought if we could rebound the ball well and keep our defense out of rotation, it would lead to some transition buckets because they’re so good on the glass.There’s a lot of times they’ll send five to the [offensive] glass, and we know if we can rebound there, we’ll open up something on the perimeter [on the other end],” Granum said.
Sioux Valley eventually led 47-22 at the end of the third quarter. The Cossacks would then go up 51-24 with 5:40 to play and the final margin ended up being 23.
The Cossacks shot 41.3% from the field and were 9-of-22 from three. Cradduck led Sioux Valley with a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Trygstad had 13 points and Vincent had 12 points.
Granum said he liked how Sioux Valley handled CWL’s physicality.
“They were super physical tonight,” Granum said. “… I’m going to give an assist to [Sioux Valley boys coach Bill] Vincent. Last week or so, we’ve had some of his boys over, and that’s an advantage for us just to work against those guys. We knew physically, we were a little bit undersized inside, and we knew that we would have to be more physical, you know, between the blocks or in the paint.”
The Cossacks held the Cyclones to 23.1% shooting and they were 2-of-13 from three. CWL was led by Shelby Begeman who had eight points and eight rebounds.
Sioux Valley had a 34-28 advantage in rebounds. Each team had 14 turnovers. The Cossacks were 8-of-12 at the free throw line and the Cyclones were 6-of-14.
The Cossacks came into Thursday night fourth in the Class A standings and the Cyclones were No. 9. Granum thought playing at home was a big advantage.
“I do know that our kids have seen environments where it’s loud. For our kids to experience this with our fans, they’ve shown out for two straight years for this group. They like watching us play, and we’re just happy for them,” Granum said.
Sioux Valley is now 20-2 on the season. The Cossacks will be the No. 4 seed in the Class A SoDak 16 and will take on No. 13 seeded St. Thomas More on March 5. The site and time of the game will be announced on Friday.
“I like our preparation. Before this Clark game, I liked our preparation. Preparation is separation is what we like to say. We’ll have a good five days of prep, probably five practices in between [the SoDak 16 game]. So we feel when we get a chance to prepare, our kids are pretty locked in on just the preparation that it takes to play in a big game,” Granum said.
— Contact Andrew Holtan at [email protected].
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