HURON — Rapid City Central pulled away in the second half to secure its first girls’ basketball win of the season against Huron on Saturday at Huron Arena.
The Cobblers outscored the home squad 41-8 during the final 12 minutes of play to secure a 77-45 victory.
“The shots stopped falling for us and started going for them and it was just a huge momentum switch right there,” said Huron coach Wade Stobbs, whose team was also seeking its first win of the season.   “We just couldn’t get it turned around in the second half.”
Rapid City Central led for a majority of the opening half, but couldn’t shake the Tigers.
The Raiders scored seven of the first 10 points in the game to stake the early lead, but Havyn Heinz was able to pull Huron even at 11-11 with a three-pointer at the 2:40 mark of the opening quarter.
Using a 6-0 run, including four points from Juneau Jones, Rapid City Central built its biggest lead of the first quarter at 17-11. Huron would slim its deficit to just two points at the quarter break with a field goal by Allyson Fullerton and a pair of free throws by Heinz.
Back-to-back three-pointers by Heinz early in the second quarter gave the Tigers their first lead of the game at 22-21.
Tenley Buddenhagen would add a field gaol to give Huron its biggest lead of the opening half at 24-21, but the Cobblers would answer with a three-pointer by Abbie Freeman to knot things up again at 24-24.
Rapid City Central would build another six-point advantage, but once again saw the Tigers rally to slice their deficit before the end of the first half.
A rebound and putback by Sami Shoultz followed by a field goal by Buddenhagen helped Huron shrink the lead for the Cobblers to just 31-29 at the break.
Another field goal by Buddenhagen and a 3-pointer by Heinz to start the third quarter capped a 9-0 run for the Tigers and gave them their second lead of the game at 34-31.
The Cobblers would answer with a 5-0 run to regain the lead at 36-34, before Huron used a 3-pointer by Gracie Schoenfelder to take its final lead of the game at 37-36.

The Tigers would score just two more points during the remainder of the third quarter, as Rapid City Central pulled away for a 50-39 lead heading into the final quarter of play.
The Cobblers then erupted for 27 points during the final eight minutes, while limiting Huron to just six points.
“Our shots didn’t go and our energy was sort of lost,” Stobbs said of his team’s collapse. “We gave up a lot of layups. Our back girl didn’t get back and it led to a lot of easy points for them.”
All five of the starters for Rapid City Central, which is now 1-4, reached double figures in the scoring column. Jones and Adison Young led the way with 19 points each. Abbie Freeman and Whitley Heitsch had 13 and 12 points, respectively, while Bailey Johnson added 10 points.
The Cobblers also controlled the boards with a 44-30 rebounding advantage. Jones snagged a team-high 16 rebounds.
Buddenhagen and Heinz each had 14 points to lead the Tigers, who are now 0-5. Shoultz also reached double figures with a season-high 12 points.
“She finally found her offense a little bit,” Stobbs said of Shoultz. “She struggled a little bit the first few games, was kind of rushing things and was really strong with her shot. We’ve been working on getting her to settle down and loosen up a little bit, and today her shot looked good and she rebounded a little bit.”
Schoenfelder had nine rebounds for Huron, while Shoultz finished with eight boards.
The Tigers will close the 2017 portion of its season with a 7 p.m. game Thursday against the Lady Govs in Pierre.
“Pierre is a good team. They are always going to come out and pressure you,” Stobbs said. “Scotty DeBoer does a nice job with them, they are always ready to go.
“You can expect a lot of ball pressure man-to-man,” he said. “They are going to trap us a little bit, so we just have to make sure we step up and use that pressure to our advantage — get into their bodies a little bit and maybe get some fouls called — and try to push the ball to get easy transition points if we can.”
Rapid City Central claimed a 49-43 in the junior varsity game against Huron on Saturday.
Braylee Thomas led the Tigers with seven points, while Bree Gose added five points.
Rapid City Central rolled to a 59-16 victory against Huron in the C-game.
Bessie Willemssen led the Tigers with six points, while Mattie Huber added three points.
 
Rapid City Central     17  31  50  77
Huron         15  29  39  45
Rapid City Central (1-4): Adison Young 6 4-4 19; Bailey Johnson 4 1-2 10; Abbie Freeman 5 1-3 13; Juneau Jones 7 5-7 19; Whitley Heitsch 5 2-3 12; Jordan Heckert 2 0-0 4. Totals: 29 13-19 77.
Huron (0-5): Tenley Buddenhagen 5 4-7 14; Havyn Heinz 4 2-3 14; Sami Shoultz 5 1-2 12; Gracie Schoenfelder 1 0-0 3; Madison Pfitzer 0 0-1 0; Allyson Fullerton 1 0-1 2. Totals: 16 7-14 45.
Rebounds: RCC 44 (Jones 16); H 30 (Schoenfelder 9). 3-point goals: RCC 6 (Young 3, Freeman 2, Johnson 1); H 6 (Heinz 4, Shoultz 1, Schoenfelder 1). Turnovers: RCC 8; H 14. Assists: RCC 7 (Jones 3); H 4 (Schoenfelder 2). Steals: RCC 9 (Freeman 3); H 4 (Heinz 2). Fouls: RCC 16; H 19.

MIKE CARROLL OF THE PLAINSMAN
Huron’s Reagan Rozell dribbles past Rapid City Central’s Jordan Heckert during their game Saturday at Huron Arena.