MADISON — In the moments following Arlington’s 69-57 win over Gayville-Volin in a Class B SoDak 16 matchup on Thursday night, the Cardinals and head coach Tara King soaked it all in – both figuratively and literally.
King had just endured a water bottle bath in the locker room after her team used a strong second quarter, a stronger defensive effort and a balanced scoring attack to defeat the Raiders and advance to next week’s Class B state tournament in Rapid City. The win was enough for a team that had back-to-back strong seasons and came just shy of reaching the SoDak 16 the past two years but it meant even more for King, who knew many of the players on the roster since they were in elementary school.
“I don’t know if it’s hit me, but it feels really, really good,” King, who is in her 10th year at Arlington, said of the win. “It’s been a long time coming for these girls. We’ve been working together and we’ve been talking about it. We fell short a couple of years in a row, so there’s no better feeling than the one we have right now.”
The backstory of Thursday’s game featured a Cardinals team that was ready to break through. Two years ago, Arlington went 14-8 but fell to Castlewood in the Region 3B semifinals. Last year, the Cardinals went 17-5 but they fell to the Warriors again in the Region 2B semifinals.
This year, the Cardinals were more dominant, entering Thursday’s game with a record of 20-2 and the No. 1 seed in the SoDak 16. The 16th-seeded Raiders did their best to keep up, trailing 15-11 at the end of the first quarter but Arlington used a 12-2 run to open the second quarter, helping them take a 27-13 lead with just over four minutes until halftime.
“We just continued to do what we normally do,” King said of the run. “Our defense usually sets the tone and we created some turnovers and easy baskets for us. So I think we just got settled down a little bit and we’re able to create those turnovers and find our shot offensively and it helped us pull away.”
The Cardinals went into halftime with a 33-24 advantage and the lead stayed around double digits throughout the second half. Arlington led 50-40 at the end of the third quarter and although the Raiders got within seven points early in the fourth quarter, they couldn’t draw closer as several Cardinals shouldered the load offensively.
Jaelyn Huntimer led the way with a game-high 23 points but Addalyn Steffensen had 16 points and Harley Johnson put up 14 points to give Arlington three players in double figures. With Ellisyn Vincent scoring six points and Isabelle Steffensen and Jolyssa Steffensen scoring five points each, the Cardinals’ scoring output was an example of the teamwork that allowed Arlington to get to the state tournament.
“We really have a solid group,” King said. “One night, it might be somebody’s night. The next? It’s someone else’s night. That’s why we work so well. There’s not one person that a team can zone in on. We work well together, move the ball and just see whatever the defense gives us.”
Arlington shot 52 percent in the game including 7-for-16 (43.8%) on 3-point attempts. The Cardinals also made 14-of-17 free throws while committing just six turnovers on the night.
The Cardinals’ efficiency made it tough for the Raiders to get back into the game despite shooting 46 percent on the night and out-rebounding Arlington 30-24. But Gayville-Volin only made 2-of-9 3-pointers, 9-of-15 (60%) free throws and committed 10 turnovers to make the difference.
The win allowed the Cardinals to prepare for a trip to the state tournament where Arlington will open as the top seed against No. 8 James Valley Christian at 1 p.m. CT at Summit Arena at The Monument in Rapid City.
While King says the Cardinals will clean some things up in the week leading into the tournament, she also says they will celebrate Thursday’s win and look forward to what it means in the coming days.
“We’re a small community and we have a lot of fan support,” King said. “We do everything together. We go to school together. We play all the sports together. These girls have grown up together and have been dreaming about this day ever since they were little. So it’s fun that it’s finally here.”
