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Mar. 18—The top teams in South Dakota high school boys basketball will take the court this week for the state tournaments at three sites around the state. Class AA teams will play at Summit Arena in Rapid City, while Class A will take over the Premier Center in Sioux Falls and the Class B's best will play at Wachs Arena in Aberdeen to decide the state champion.
Twenty-four teams remain in pursuit for a state championship. Here's what you should know about each state bracket, with the games set to tip off on Thursday afternoon:
* Only three teams return to the Class B state tournament for a second year in a row, with top-seeded Castlewood, No. 3 seed Viborg-Hurley and No. 4 seed Wessington Springs. The Warriors had the best finish of that group, finishing third last season. Howard, which won the 2024 state title, was knocked out in the SoDak 16 by Freeman, and De Smet, which played in the last five state championship games, gave Castlewood all it could handle in the regional semifinals before the Warriors emerged with a 47-45 win.
* Two Class B all-state first-team selections from 2024 are playing in this tournament, including 6-foot-9 Castlewood center Byron Laue and 6-foot-7 center Nick Hanson, of Viborg-Hurley. Dell Rapids St. Mary's Trevon Beckman and Howard's Luke Koepsell were second-team picks last year, while Wessington Springs' Parker Graff was a third-team selection in 2024.
* No. 2 Dell Rapids St. Mary boasts the top pair of individual scorers in the field, led by Trevon Beckman's 25.5 points per game and Maverick LeBrun at 20.5. Similarly, Wall claims a high-scoring duo in Emmet Dinger and Teelan Kjerstad, who average 20 and 19.5 points per game, respectively. Viborg-Hurley senior forward Nick Hanson and Freeman freshman standout David Walter are also among the contingent averaging at least 19 points per game heading to state.
* Among the teams surging into Aberdeen, Dell Rapids St. Mary has won 12 games in a row, Castlewood is on a 10-game win streak, while both Wall and Wessington Springs have won nine in a row.
* The last 10 Class B state champions have all been East River teams. White River was the last West River squad to win a state title in 2013, the last of four titles in six seasons for the Tigers. Notably, White River missed out on qualifying for this year's Class B state tournament, ending a streak that dated back to 2006, a streak of 19-straight state appearances, which tied Mitchell's run from 1983 to 2001 as a boys state record.
* Freeman, which scored a tournament record 98 points in 1999 in a win over Midland, is making its first state appearance since then, ending the longest drought in this year's Class B field. (Like that 1999 tournament, Castlewood is the No. 1 seed again, and the Warriors went on to win that tournament.) Wall is making a trip to the Class B state tournament for the first time since 2001, qualifying for only the second time in school history.
* There is one regular-season rematch in the Class B quarterfinals. Sixth-seeded Freeman will look to top Viborg-Hurley for a second time this season. The Flyers won the season-opening game for both teams 57-53 in Freeman on Dec. 13. In terms of potential title game rematches, the Cougars gave Castlewood its only Class B loss of the year 49-44 at the Hanson Classic on Jan. 25, while the Warriors defeated Dell Rapids St. Mary 63-59 on the road on Jan. 21.
* For the fourth time in five seasons, Aberdeen Christian has qualified for the Class B state tournament in its own city. The Knights will be playing less than 4 miles from their home campus, which is the closest of any of the 24 state tournament teams this week.
* Dell Rapids St. Mary, the No. 2 seed in the Class B bracket, leads the field in scoring at 70.1 points per game, while Wall (68.1) and Freeman (65.9) also rank in the top-five of all of Class B. For scoring defense, Viborg-Hurley allows just 39.7 points per game and Castlewood is right behind at 41.4 points per game.
* The 2025 Class B tournament comes off the most upset-heavy SoDak 16 on record in the eight years it has been used to qualify to Aberdeen, with 10th-seeded Freeman, No. 11 Aberdeen Christian and No. 12 Lyman all winning to advance. Aberdeen Christian's 2021 team is the only squad to be seeded ninth or lower in the SoDak 16 and reach the Class B state title game, finishing second to De Smet.
* The Class A tournament features four returning teams from the 2024 tournament, including No. 1 Sioux Falls Christian, No. 2 Hamlin and No. 3 Rapid City Christian, plus No. 8 Groton Area.
* The top-two seeds, Sioux Falls Christian and Hamlin, have developed quite a rivalry at the top of Class A. They have met four times since the start of the 2023-24 season and Sioux Falls Christian is 3-1 in those games, including a 75-60 win on Jan. 11 in Sioux Falls this season. But Hamlin won last year's state title game 53-50 in overtime, spoiling the undefeated season for SFC.
* One regular-season rematch is on the docket for the Class A quarterfinals, with No. 4 West Central and No. 5 Lennox set to meet in the second game on Thursday. The Trojans won the first meeting 47-42 at Lennox. That kind of game is West Central's style, as the Trojans are the second-best scoring defense in the class at 43.1 points per game.
* The top-seeded Chargers have made four of the last five state championship games and in five of the last eight in Class A, with titles in 2016 and 2021. In the last two seasons, SF Christian is 46-2, with the Hamlin loss being the only loss in South Dakota.
* Four teams come to the state tournament with win streaks of at least 10 or more games. Hamlin has won 15 games in a row, while Lennox has won 12 straight, Hill City has won 11 games in a row and Rapid City Christian has won 10 games straight. West Central has ripped off eight wins in a row, while Groton has won seven straight.
* Hill City is appearing in a state boys basketball tournament for the first time in school history. West Central is in the state tournament for the first time since 2001, when the Trojans capped back-to-back state Class A titles. Clark/Willow Lake, which won the Class B state title in 2019, is in a Class A bracket for the first time since 2015.
* The top-three scoring teams in Class A and five of the top-10 are in the state tournament, led by Sioux Falls Christian, which leads all South Dakota teams at 81.3 points per game. Rapid City Christian is averaging 69.3 points per game and Hamlin checks in at 68.4 points per game.
* Rapid City Christian's Benson Kieffer is scoring 19.5 points per game to pace the Class A field. Groton's Ryder Johnson scores at a clip of 18.7 points per game, while South Dakota State's Griffen Goodbary, who is the reigning South Dakota Gatorade player of the year from 2024 and is committed to South Dakota State, is averaging 18 points per game. A trio of guards average at least 17 points per game in West Central's Connor Mebius, Hamlin's Easton Neuendorf and Hill City's Devin Buehler.
* Goodbary and Hamlin's Easton Neuendorf return from last season's Class A all-state first team for this year's state bracket. Dakota Valley's Luke Bruns and Julius Frog, of Rapid City Christian, were second-team picks in 2024, while the Comets' Benson Kieffer was a third-team pick and Simon Kieffer was honorable mention. SFC's Cole Snyder was honorable mention last season, as well.
* Already with the girls state basketball title in hand, top-seed Sioux Falls Christian is seeking to be the first Class A school to win both state basketball titles since St. Thomas More did so in 2012.
* Underscoring the power Sioux Falls Lincoln has displayed during its 20-1 season so far, the top-seeded Patriots rank No. 1 in Class AA in points scored (65.8) and points allowed (46.5) per game. Their plus-19.3 average point differential is more than double that of the next-closest Class AA team, Harrisburg (plus-8.9). Lincoln and No. 6 seed O'Gorman are the only two Class AA squads scoring at least 60 points per game this season. Five teams, all of them state tournament qualifiers, are giving up under 50 points per game.
* Five teams are returning to the Class AA state tournament bracket from 2024, with four from the Eastern South Dakota Conference. That includes No. 2 Brandon Valley and No. 3 Harrisburg, defending state champion and No. 4 seed Mitchell, and No. 5 Huron. Sioux Falls Jefferson reached the state tournament as a No. 8 in the 2024 postseason and qualified this season as the No. 10 seed, becoming the first double-digit seed in Class AA boys basketball to qualify for state since Huron in 2019.
* Three quarterfinal games are rematches from the regular season. Fifth-seeded Huron won at No. 4 Mitchell on Jan. 14 by a 47-38 score, and the two rivals will meet for the eighth time in the last four seasons on Thursday. No. 10 Jefferson handed No. 2 Brandon Valley one of its three losses this season on Dec. 19 with a 62-56 win in Brandon. No. 3 Harrisburg won the first matchup this season with sixth-seeded O'Gorman 66-51 on Feb. 21 at Harrisburg. Sioux Falls Lincoln and Spearfish did not play this season.
* Four of the eight teams from the 2023 Class AA state tournament, which was the last in Rapid City, are in this year's field. That tournament was won by Yankton, which topped Mitchell 65-61 for first-place honors. Mitchell had a 61-59 win over Lincoln in the 2023 state semifinals, and those two teams could meet in the semis again if the seeds hold.
* All but one team in the Class AA field has appeared in one of the past three tournaments. Spearfish is in the tournament field for the first time since 2013 in Class A. The last time the Spartans were in the Class AA tournament was in 2009.
* Spearfish's appearance in the Class AA boys tournament also ends a drought for West River teams in the bracket. The last four state tournaments were held without a West River squad, with Rapid City Stevens and Rapid City Central the last to qualify in 2020, an event that was canceled by COVID-19.
* Huron's Blake Ellwein, a 6-foot-9 junior forward, who has Division I offers from North Dakota State, South Dakota and South Dakota State, is the leading scorer ahead of the Class AA tournament at 21 points per game. Mitchell's Markus Talley, who is committed to Augustana, is second at 18 points per game.
* Sioux Falls Lincoln has the longest active win streak in the class at 10 wins in a row. The Patriots' season as the top seed is a far cry from last season's playoffs, when Lincoln fell 31-28 at Watertown and finished with a 10-11 record.
* Mitchell handed Sioux Falls Lincoln its only loss of the season, a 69-58 game on Jan. 31 at Lincoln. Harrisburg and Brandon Valley both own regular-season wins over Mitchell this season, while Lincoln beat both the Tigers and Lynx this year. Mitchell edged Brandon Valley 47-46 last season in the Class AA title game in Sioux Falls.
* Three all-state first-team selections from 2024 are in this year's Class AA state tournament, led by Mitchell's Markus Talley and Colton Smith, plus Huron's Blake Ellwein. Brandon Valley's Landon Dulaney was an all-state honorable mention nod in 2024.
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Twenty-four teams remain in pursuit for a state championship. Here's what you should know about each state bracket, with the games set to tip off on Thursday afternoon:
* Only three teams return to the Class B state tournament for a second year in a row, with top-seeded Castlewood, No. 3 seed Viborg-Hurley and No. 4 seed Wessington Springs. The Warriors had the best finish of that group, finishing third last season. Howard, which won the 2024 state title, was knocked out in the SoDak 16 by Freeman, and De Smet, which played in the last five state championship games, gave Castlewood all it could handle in the regional semifinals before the Warriors emerged with a 47-45 win.
* Two Class B all-state first-team selections from 2024 are playing in this tournament, including 6-foot-9 Castlewood center Byron Laue and 6-foot-7 center Nick Hanson, of Viborg-Hurley. Dell Rapids St. Mary's Trevon Beckman and Howard's Luke Koepsell were second-team picks last year, while Wessington Springs' Parker Graff was a third-team selection in 2024.
* No. 2 Dell Rapids St. Mary boasts the top pair of individual scorers in the field, led by Trevon Beckman's 25.5 points per game and Maverick LeBrun at 20.5. Similarly, Wall claims a high-scoring duo in Emmet Dinger and Teelan Kjerstad, who average 20 and 19.5 points per game, respectively. Viborg-Hurley senior forward Nick Hanson and Freeman freshman standout David Walter are also among the contingent averaging at least 19 points per game heading to state.
* Among the teams surging into Aberdeen, Dell Rapids St. Mary has won 12 games in a row, Castlewood is on a 10-game win streak, while both Wall and Wessington Springs have won nine in a row.
* The last 10 Class B state champions have all been East River teams. White River was the last West River squad to win a state title in 2013, the last of four titles in six seasons for the Tigers. Notably, White River missed out on qualifying for this year's Class B state tournament, ending a streak that dated back to 2006, a streak of 19-straight state appearances, which tied Mitchell's run from 1983 to 2001 as a boys state record.
* Freeman, which scored a tournament record 98 points in 1999 in a win over Midland, is making its first state appearance since then, ending the longest drought in this year's Class B field. (Like that 1999 tournament, Castlewood is the No. 1 seed again, and the Warriors went on to win that tournament.) Wall is making a trip to the Class B state tournament for the first time since 2001, qualifying for only the second time in school history.
* There is one regular-season rematch in the Class B quarterfinals. Sixth-seeded Freeman will look to top Viborg-Hurley for a second time this season. The Flyers won the season-opening game for both teams 57-53 in Freeman on Dec. 13. In terms of potential title game rematches, the Cougars gave Castlewood its only Class B loss of the year 49-44 at the Hanson Classic on Jan. 25, while the Warriors defeated Dell Rapids St. Mary 63-59 on the road on Jan. 21.
* For the fourth time in five seasons, Aberdeen Christian has qualified for the Class B state tournament in its own city. The Knights will be playing less than 4 miles from their home campus, which is the closest of any of the 24 state tournament teams this week.
* Dell Rapids St. Mary, the No. 2 seed in the Class B bracket, leads the field in scoring at 70.1 points per game, while Wall (68.1) and Freeman (65.9) also rank in the top-five of all of Class B. For scoring defense, Viborg-Hurley allows just 39.7 points per game and Castlewood is right behind at 41.4 points per game.
* The 2025 Class B tournament comes off the most upset-heavy SoDak 16 on record in the eight years it has been used to qualify to Aberdeen, with 10th-seeded Freeman, No. 11 Aberdeen Christian and No. 12 Lyman all winning to advance. Aberdeen Christian's 2021 team is the only squad to be seeded ninth or lower in the SoDak 16 and reach the Class B state title game, finishing second to De Smet.
* The Class A tournament features four returning teams from the 2024 tournament, including No. 1 Sioux Falls Christian, No. 2 Hamlin and No. 3 Rapid City Christian, plus No. 8 Groton Area.
* The top-two seeds, Sioux Falls Christian and Hamlin, have developed quite a rivalry at the top of Class A. They have met four times since the start of the 2023-24 season and Sioux Falls Christian is 3-1 in those games, including a 75-60 win on Jan. 11 in Sioux Falls this season. But Hamlin won last year's state title game 53-50 in overtime, spoiling the undefeated season for SFC.
* One regular-season rematch is on the docket for the Class A quarterfinals, with No. 4 West Central and No. 5 Lennox set to meet in the second game on Thursday. The Trojans won the first meeting 47-42 at Lennox. That kind of game is West Central's style, as the Trojans are the second-best scoring defense in the class at 43.1 points per game.
* The top-seeded Chargers have made four of the last five state championship games and in five of the last eight in Class A, with titles in 2016 and 2021. In the last two seasons, SF Christian is 46-2, with the Hamlin loss being the only loss in South Dakota.
* Four teams come to the state tournament with win streaks of at least 10 or more games. Hamlin has won 15 games in a row, while Lennox has won 12 straight, Hill City has won 11 games in a row and Rapid City Christian has won 10 games straight. West Central has ripped off eight wins in a row, while Groton has won seven straight.
* Hill City is appearing in a state boys basketball tournament for the first time in school history. West Central is in the state tournament for the first time since 2001, when the Trojans capped back-to-back state Class A titles. Clark/Willow Lake, which won the Class B state title in 2019, is in a Class A bracket for the first time since 2015.
* The top-three scoring teams in Class A and five of the top-10 are in the state tournament, led by Sioux Falls Christian, which leads all South Dakota teams at 81.3 points per game. Rapid City Christian is averaging 69.3 points per game and Hamlin checks in at 68.4 points per game.
* Rapid City Christian's Benson Kieffer is scoring 19.5 points per game to pace the Class A field. Groton's Ryder Johnson scores at a clip of 18.7 points per game, while South Dakota State's Griffen Goodbary, who is the reigning South Dakota Gatorade player of the year from 2024 and is committed to South Dakota State, is averaging 18 points per game. A trio of guards average at least 17 points per game in West Central's Connor Mebius, Hamlin's Easton Neuendorf and Hill City's Devin Buehler.
* Goodbary and Hamlin's Easton Neuendorf return from last season's Class A all-state first team for this year's state bracket. Dakota Valley's Luke Bruns and Julius Frog, of Rapid City Christian, were second-team picks in 2024, while the Comets' Benson Kieffer was a third-team pick and Simon Kieffer was honorable mention. SFC's Cole Snyder was honorable mention last season, as well.
* Already with the girls state basketball title in hand, top-seed Sioux Falls Christian is seeking to be the first Class A school to win both state basketball titles since St. Thomas More did so in 2012.
* Underscoring the power Sioux Falls Lincoln has displayed during its 20-1 season so far, the top-seeded Patriots rank No. 1 in Class AA in points scored (65.8) and points allowed (46.5) per game. Their plus-19.3 average point differential is more than double that of the next-closest Class AA team, Harrisburg (plus-8.9). Lincoln and No. 6 seed O'Gorman are the only two Class AA squads scoring at least 60 points per game this season. Five teams, all of them state tournament qualifiers, are giving up under 50 points per game.
* Five teams are returning to the Class AA state tournament bracket from 2024, with four from the Eastern South Dakota Conference. That includes No. 2 Brandon Valley and No. 3 Harrisburg, defending state champion and No. 4 seed Mitchell, and No. 5 Huron. Sioux Falls Jefferson reached the state tournament as a No. 8 in the 2024 postseason and qualified this season as the No. 10 seed, becoming the first double-digit seed in Class AA boys basketball to qualify for state since Huron in 2019.
* Three quarterfinal games are rematches from the regular season. Fifth-seeded Huron won at No. 4 Mitchell on Jan. 14 by a 47-38 score, and the two rivals will meet for the eighth time in the last four seasons on Thursday. No. 10 Jefferson handed No. 2 Brandon Valley one of its three losses this season on Dec. 19 with a 62-56 win in Brandon. No. 3 Harrisburg won the first matchup this season with sixth-seeded O'Gorman 66-51 on Feb. 21 at Harrisburg. Sioux Falls Lincoln and Spearfish did not play this season.
* Four of the eight teams from the 2023 Class AA state tournament, which was the last in Rapid City, are in this year's field. That tournament was won by Yankton, which topped Mitchell 65-61 for first-place honors. Mitchell had a 61-59 win over Lincoln in the 2023 state semifinals, and those two teams could meet in the semis again if the seeds hold.
* All but one team in the Class AA field has appeared in one of the past three tournaments. Spearfish is in the tournament field for the first time since 2013 in Class A. The last time the Spartans were in the Class AA tournament was in 2009.
* Spearfish's appearance in the Class AA boys tournament also ends a drought for West River teams in the bracket. The last four state tournaments were held without a West River squad, with Rapid City Stevens and Rapid City Central the last to qualify in 2020, an event that was canceled by COVID-19.
* Huron's Blake Ellwein, a 6-foot-9 junior forward, who has Division I offers from North Dakota State, South Dakota and South Dakota State, is the leading scorer ahead of the Class AA tournament at 21 points per game. Mitchell's Markus Talley, who is committed to Augustana, is second at 18 points per game.
* Sioux Falls Lincoln has the longest active win streak in the class at 10 wins in a row. The Patriots' season as the top seed is a far cry from last season's playoffs, when Lincoln fell 31-28 at Watertown and finished with a 10-11 record.
* Mitchell handed Sioux Falls Lincoln its only loss of the season, a 69-58 game on Jan. 31 at Lincoln. Harrisburg and Brandon Valley both own regular-season wins over Mitchell this season, while Lincoln beat both the Tigers and Lynx this year. Mitchell edged Brandon Valley 47-46 last season in the Class AA title game in Sioux Falls.
* Three all-state first-team selections from 2024 are in this year's Class AA state tournament, led by Mitchell's Markus Talley and Colton Smith, plus Huron's Blake Ellwein. Brandon Valley's Landon Dulaney was an all-state honorable mention nod in 2024.
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