PHOTOS BY MIKE CARROLL/PLAINSMAN
On the left, Huron’s Tenley Buddenhagen drives on the perimeter against Tatum Kooima of Sioux Falls Roosevelt during their game Tuesday at Huron Arena.
And on the right, Huron’s Bella Shreeve battles for the ball with a pair of Sioux Falls Roosevelt defenders.
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Curt Nettinga of the Plainsman
HURON — The Huron Tigers got off to a hot start, survived a 45-minute power outage and then a third-quarter rally by the Sioux Falls Roosevelt Rough Riders, then shut down the visitors for a 42-29 girls’ basketball win Tuesday night at Huron Arena. The win broke a 0-29 streak, as the last win for the Tiger girls came on Feb. 4, also at Huron Arena, over Spearfish.
That was 576 days ago.
“We played good defense and rebounded pretty well and scored just enough to get one tonight,” said Tiger coach Tim Buddenhagen after the game. “I’m really happy with the way the girls worked hard for this one.”
Huron jumped out of the gate, racing to a 20-4 lead after one quarter, as Havyn Heinz and Sami Shoultz got the Tigers rolling. Shoultz got a nice feed from Tenley Buddenhagen for an easy basket and Heinz scored the last four points of the quarter.
In games past, Huron often followed a big quarter with a lackluster one, and while Roosevelt did cut into the lead before the half, it was only two points, as Huron took a 26-12 cushion to the locker room.
“We’ve been concentrating on winning the quarter,” coach Buddenhagen said. “We did it in the first quarter, and while we didn’t win the second, we didn’t give up a big quarter to them either.”
And then, just as the second half got underway, the power went out throughout much of the downtown area, plunging the Arena into darkness.
“I thought we kind of lost some energy just waiting for the power to come back on,” Buddenhagen said. “We were ready to go and then we kinda lost our edge.”
Roosevelt freshman Kaela Martinez, who led the Rough Riders with 15 points, cut the margin to 10 with five-and-a-half minutes to go in the quarter, before a short jumper from Heinz and a three-pointer from Huron freshman Bella Shreeve put Huron up 31-18. Martinez scored on a runner, but Heinz hit from the side of the lane at the 1:30 mark.
From there until the end of the quarter, the Rough Riders made their run, as Brooke Almendinger, and Tariah Ambrose each scored baskets and Martinez drained a three-pointer to cut the margin to six points headed to the final quarter.
Points were hard to come by - for both teams - in the fourth stanza. Roosevelt began to press the Tigers to force the pace, but Shoultz broke through and scored to put Huron up by eight again. Huron hit four free throws in 10 attempts over the next six minutes of the game, stretching the lead back to 13 points at 40-27, before Martinez scored the only Roosevelt points of the fourth quarter, with only 46 ticks left on the clock.
Heinz ended the game with 18 points and Shoultz added 12 in the streak-ending win for the Tigers. Shoultz had a double-double as she added 10 rebounds, a total matched by Tenley Buddenhagen. Heinz narrowly missed her own double-double, as she ended with nine boards.
“It’s good to see our guards getting back and rebounding,” coach Buddenhagen said. “When we have to double, we need to have those players crashing on the boards tonight. I thought that we rebounded really well against Roosevelt and limited them to only one shot most of the time and still hit the boards on our end really well for second chances.”
For the game, Huron out-rebounded the Rough Riders 42-27, and had 11 big offensive rebounds.
“Our offense is still a work in progress,” coach Buddenhagen said. “It worked well at times and then there were times we kinda got stagnant. We lost some of our aggressiveness down the stretch; it felt like they were playing not to lose instead of going out there and taking it. A good win for the girls, with things we can work on and get better.”
The Tigers will travel to take on 1-1 Rapid City Stevens on Friday, then tangle with Rapid City Central on Saturday.
