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Mar. 20—ABERDEEN — Wessington Springs was determined to make the third quarter the deciding one.
With a dominant opening to the second half where the Spartans outscored Wall 24-11 in the third quarter, Wessington Springs rolled to a 74-52 victory in the quarterfinals of the Class B boys state basketball tournament in Aberdeen on Thursday.
The lopsided third quarter signaled a major shift in the game following a close battle in the opening half. Wall leaned heavily on its two best scorers — Emmet Dinger and Teelan Kjerstad — throughout the game as Wessington Springs struggled to contain the pair.
But the Spartans found a spark at the end of the first half, scoring seven consecutive points to take a 32-25 lead into halftime. After going on an initial 7-0 scoring run early in the third quarter, Wessington Springs went on a larger 13-0 run over the final three minutes of the period to take a 20-point lead into the final quarter.
Wessington Springs head coach Joey Mitchell said the big spark for the third quarter was a combination of factors, including efficient rebounding, executing offensive sets better and a greater focus on slowing Wall's offense down.
"Talking at half, we needed to clean up the transition defense," Mitchell said. " We talked about how fast an athletic Wall was, and I thought I had fast and athletic kids, in all honesty. But they made my guys look slow at times, they really did. Talking those things at halftime, and then I thought my guys cleaned them up, executed offensively, found a little groove and we had a good run in the third quarter."
Karter Mebius, who finished with 20 points for the game, said the Spartans weren't sticking to their defensive game plan, but once they did, it changed everything.
"Our game plan was to keep a hand on their two best players by far, (Dinger) and (Kjerstad)," Mebius said. "Then once we finally did that, we started to settle offensively and started rolling from there."
Already up by 17 with six minutes to go in the fourth quarter, Wessington Springs embarked on its largest scoring run yet. In less than three minutes of total game time, the Spartans scored 17 points in a row to extend the lead to 74-42 with 2:30 remaining in the period. After that, Wessington Springs emptied the bench.
Outside of Mebius, both Colby Flowers and Ryder Michalek ended the quarterfinal contest with double doubles. Flowers finished with 26 points and 16 rebounds, and Michalek added 19 points and 11 rebounds.
He was doing it all," Mitchell said of Flowers. "He was catching full-court passes, he was helping break the press, he was scoring, he was rebounding and even help side defense. I think he contested almost every shot they had at the rim. If he wasn't there contesting, he was damn close. So he's just all over the place."
Dinger led the Eagles with 19 points on 8-of-16 shooting. Kjerstad added 13 points with four rebounds and three assists. No other player had more than seven points, as Wall (17-7) faces Lyman in the consolation round at noon on Friday, March 21.
Wessington Springs (22-2) moves on to the Class B semifinals and will battle top-seeded Castlewood at 6 p.m. on Friday at the Barnett Center.
Continue reading...
With a dominant opening to the second half where the Spartans outscored Wall 24-11 in the third quarter, Wessington Springs rolled to a 74-52 victory in the quarterfinals of the Class B boys state basketball tournament in Aberdeen on Thursday.
The lopsided third quarter signaled a major shift in the game following a close battle in the opening half. Wall leaned heavily on its two best scorers — Emmet Dinger and Teelan Kjerstad — throughout the game as Wessington Springs struggled to contain the pair.
But the Spartans found a spark at the end of the first half, scoring seven consecutive points to take a 32-25 lead into halftime. After going on an initial 7-0 scoring run early in the third quarter, Wessington Springs went on a larger 13-0 run over the final three minutes of the period to take a 20-point lead into the final quarter.
Wessington Springs head coach Joey Mitchell said the big spark for the third quarter was a combination of factors, including efficient rebounding, executing offensive sets better and a greater focus on slowing Wall's offense down.
"Talking at half, we needed to clean up the transition defense," Mitchell said. " We talked about how fast an athletic Wall was, and I thought I had fast and athletic kids, in all honesty. But they made my guys look slow at times, they really did. Talking those things at halftime, and then I thought my guys cleaned them up, executed offensively, found a little groove and we had a good run in the third quarter."
Karter Mebius, who finished with 20 points for the game, said the Spartans weren't sticking to their defensive game plan, but once they did, it changed everything.
"Our game plan was to keep a hand on their two best players by far, (Dinger) and (Kjerstad)," Mebius said. "Then once we finally did that, we started to settle offensively and started rolling from there."
Already up by 17 with six minutes to go in the fourth quarter, Wessington Springs embarked on its largest scoring run yet. In less than three minutes of total game time, the Spartans scored 17 points in a row to extend the lead to 74-42 with 2:30 remaining in the period. After that, Wessington Springs emptied the bench.
Outside of Mebius, both Colby Flowers and Ryder Michalek ended the quarterfinal contest with double doubles. Flowers finished with 26 points and 16 rebounds, and Michalek added 19 points and 11 rebounds.
He was doing it all," Mitchell said of Flowers. "He was catching full-court passes, he was helping break the press, he was scoring, he was rebounding and even help side defense. I think he contested almost every shot they had at the rim. If he wasn't there contesting, he was damn close. So he's just all over the place."
Dinger led the Eagles with 19 points on 8-of-16 shooting. Kjerstad added 13 points with four rebounds and three assists. No other player had more than seven points, as Wall (17-7) faces Lyman in the consolation round at noon on Friday, March 21.
Wessington Springs (22-2) moves on to the Class B semifinals and will battle top-seeded Castlewood at 6 p.m. on Friday at the Barnett Center.
Continue reading...
