Andrew Holtan | The Brookings Register
WATERTOWN – The Sioux Valley girls’ basketball team came away with the Class A State Tournament consolation trophy for a second-straight year over the weekend.
The Cossacks lost their opening tournament game against Lennox on Friday but then bounced back with a win over Lakota Tech in the consolation semifinals. Sioux Valley then won the consolation side of the bracket with a victory over West Central on Saturday.
Sioux Valley finished the season with a 22-3 record. Cossack head coach Jamie Granum said the opening game against Lennox was tough, but he liked the way his team moved on and picked up two wins to end the season.
“Game one, we ran into a Lennox team who is athletically superior. They’ve got a lot of length. They bring a lot of pressure. … Our senior leader, Talia, said it best to the team. She said that there’s a big difference between a plaque and a trophy. … [She said] let’s flush this one and get back. … So our team did. … Our kids started to play better, um, started to make shots, which helps everything when you start making shots,” Granum said.
The same thing happened to the Cossacks last season, losing the first game and then going on to win their next two games. Sioux Valley will graduate three seniors in Talya Vincent, Amari Ward and Cheyanne VanderWal, but the Cossacks will return their leading scorer in Kaylie Cradduck and a plethora of role players who will look to grow heading into next season.
Granum said it’s going to be hard to replace the players that are graduating this year, but the next step for the Cossacks is winning their first game in the State Tournament so they get to play on the championship side of the bracket instead of the consolation side.
“We’re not going to replace Talya and Amari in what they do for us,” Granum said. “But we’re going to try. You know, I feel really good with Kaylie Craddock and Liberty Trygstad and Skylar Knutson coming back. … I kind of like to think about state tournaments in small towns that… you know, maybe it will motivate one or two kids that saw that just a little bit..
“… You know, going to state tournaments now, we’ve experienced two, and it’d sure be nice to win one. I know that the satisfaction of getting there is, you know, sometimes we can just celebrate or be okay with, you know, hey, we made it to a state tournament, let’s go play three more games. Now it comes, [and we want to win it all]. We’ve got to be able to win that first game to give us a shot.”
Thursday
Quarterfinals
No. 5 Lennox 42, No. 4 Sioux Valley 28
Sioux Valley had a tough offensive performance on Thursday night and Lennox was able to sustain a lead throughout the game because of it.
The Cossacks fell behind 11-4 in the first quarter and then trailed 17-8 at halftime. The Orioles extended the lead to 26-14 going into the fourth. Both offenses got going in the final quarter but the Orioles outscored the Cossacks 16-14 to make the final margin 42-28.
Masey Top led the Cossacks with 10 points. Miley Keating and Kailey Cradduck each scored six points. Cradduck also had nine rebounds.
Lennox shot 34% from the field and was 2-for-17 from three. Bergan Musser had 13 points and nine rebounds to lead the Orioles. Tori Gerdes had 12 points and seven rebounds. Teagen Sturm had nine points.
The Orioles dominated the glass with a 40-27 advantage in rebounds. Sioux Valley had 21 turnovers that resulted in 16 Lennox points. Lennox had 15 turnovers and the Cossacks scored only four points off of them. The Orioles were 8-of-18 at the free throw line and the Cossacks were 4-of-7.
Sioux Valley will move into the consolation side of the bracket and will play No. 8 Lakota Tech at 11 a.m. on Friday. Lennox will play No. 1 Hamlin in the semifinals on Friday at 5 p.m.
Friday
Consolation Semifinals
No. 4 Sioux Valley 61, No. 8 Lakota Tech 53
The Cossacks used a big second quarter to advance to the consolation championship.
Sioux Valley held a 13-12 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Cossacks then outscored the Tatanka 17-6 in the second quarter to go up 30-18 at halftime. Lakota Tech outscored Sioux Valley 35-31 in the second half but that wasn’t enough as the Cossacks moved on to the consolation championship.
The Cossacks shot 37.9% from the field and were 9-of-34 from three. Cradduck led Sioux Valley with 19 points and 17 rebounds. She ended up being named to the All-State Tournament team and Granum said that it was nice to see her impact the game in different ways over the weekend, especially after a slow offensive performance in the first game.
“Offensively, [Cradduck] probably would tell you that she didn’t play her best basketball on the offensive end [this weekend]. But there is a noticeable difference when she has to go guard on the perimeter and we’re trying to rebound the basketball. The Lakota Tech game of 19 points and I think it was 17 rebounds, and I mean, that’s just a performance. She was getting rebounds from everywhere out of her area. Kaylee’s just got a demeanor about her that, yeah, offensively she might struggle or not be happy with how she’s performing, but she just really brings a lot on the defensive end,” Granum said.
Amari Ward had 14 points and 13 rebounds. Talya Vincent had 12 points.
Lakota Tech shot 27.9% from the field and was 4-of-22 from beyond the arc. Lizzie Robinson had 22 points to lead the Tantanka. Amelia Shangreaux had 15 points.
The Cossacks had a big advantage in rebounds at 54-33. Sioux Valley had 22 turnovers and Lakota Tech had 11. The Cossacks were 8-of-13 at the free throw line and the Tantanka was 15-of-27 at the charity stripe.
Saturday
Consolation Championship
No. 4 Sioux Valley 63, No. 7 West Central 61
Sioux Valley led 19-14 at the end of the first quarter. The Cossacks increased their lead to 36-29 by halftime. West Central cut into Sioux Valley’s lead in the third and it was 45-44 going into the fourth.
The Cossacks would then go on an 8–0 run to start the fourth and led 53-44 with six minutes to go. It was then 56-48 and West Central went on a 8-1 run to cut it to 57-56 with 1:41 to play. Top then went to the free throw line and made two free throws to increase the lead to three with 1:27 left.
West Central then missed its next three shots and Cradduck and Vincent knocked down their free throws to make it 63-58 with 18 seconds left. Kaylie Schultz hit a three as time expired to make the final 63-61.
Vincent and Ward each scored 17 points in their final game in a Cossack uniform. Granum said both of their performances were special.
“The last game of the tournament against a really good West Central team, Talya and Amari, might have had their best games they’ve played at Sioux Valley. They both were just money. Both with the way they played, the way they shot, the way they impacted the game, but also just with their attitudes, their positivity, their talk to their teammates. All of that stuff that you could just tell or feel or hear how bad they wanted to [win],” Granum said.
The Cossacks shot Liberty 38.8% from the field and were 12-of-29 from three. Trygstad had 11 points and Cradduck and Avery Schmuck each had eight points.
The Trojans shot 44.4% from the field and were 6-of-17 from deep. Ellie Knight and Jacey Jaton each had 20 points to lead West Central.
Sioux Valley had a 34-29 advantage in rebounds. Each team had 11 turnovers. The Cossacks were 13-of-19 at the free throw line and the Trojans were 7-of-11.
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