Rapid City Central ends season for Tigers girls

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HURON — The Huron Tigers built an early lead, but went cold in the third quarter and saw it slip away, as the Rapid City Central Cobblers stole a 44-43 win from the Tigers in a Class “AA” SoDak 16 game Friday night at Huron Arena.

“We had our chances tonight, but once they changed defense, it made us stand around and look too much,” said Tiger coach Tim Buddenhagen. “We’re saying good bye to a tremendous group of seniors. I’ve started coaching them when they were in second grade and they have always done what they were asked, worked hard and never complained.”

The Cobblers opened the scoring 20 seconds into the game, as Sadie Glade drained a three from the left side, but Heavan Gainey countered with a driving layup seconds later and the play ignited Huron, particularly on the defensive end of the floor. Over the next four minutes, the only scoring came from the Huron free throw line as first Hamtyn Heinz, then Bella Shreeve hit charity tosses for a 6-3 Huron lead.

Glade scored again, but Heinz countered with two more free throws, as the Tigers continually took the ball to the hoop against the taller Rapid City Central players. The Cobblers got a bucket inside from Josie Hill, but Gainey hit from Steph Curry range, added two free throws on the next Huron trip down the floor and Shreeve capped the 7-0 run with a gutsy layup in among the Cobbler trees. A free throw by Rapid City Central made it 15-8 after one quarter.

While Huron was building a lead at the free throw line on its end, the sticky defense it employed on the other end continued to force turnovers, or held the Cobblers to one shot.

The pace of play didn’t slow in the second quarter, but both teams had difficulty putting the ball in the hoop.

Glade hit from deep, but Shreeve countered with a three of her own seconds later. Another Cobbler trey, from Julie Vallandra cut the Huron lead to two points, at 19-17, but Isabelle Ellwein hit a pair of long threes and one of two from the line to push the margin to nine points. A late bucket by Heckert made it 26-19 at the half, as a third straight three-point attempt from Ellwein banked in, but was just late and was waived off.

When Shreeve nailed another three shortly into the third quarter, the Huron lead was its largest of the night, at 29-19, but for most of the rest of the quarter, the lid was securely welded on the Tiger end of the court.

Central, however, made the most of its opportunity, going on a 12-0 run, over a three minute period, as shots that weren’t falling earlier began to go down, and Huron helped with a couple of turnovers, and there was the fact that Huron couldn’t score and was only getting one shot. The Tigers were also hampered by the Cobblers’ extended zone defense, as the Huron long-range shooters consistently found a hand in their face.

“The switch to the zone really slowed us down and we stopped attacking the basket,” Buddenhagen said. We only shot two free throws in the second half. Give Central credit, they were more aggressive and they got the win.”

Gainey got a basket with only scant seconds to play in the quarter, to break the streak, but RCC’s Jordon Heckert wove down the court and got a good look at a three, which went down for a 34-31 lead for the Cobblers headed to the final quarter.

A quick bucket from Heckert pushed the lead to five, but back-to-back threes from Shreeve and Gainey put Huron back on top, 37-36, with 6:11 to play. But Heckert, who ended with a game-high 18 points - 15 of them in the second half - converted an old-fashioned three-point play, then hit another long trey to put the Cobblers up by four, at 42-38, after a Gainey free throw.

Down the stretch, Allison Richards hit two free throws for the Cobblers to make it 44-40 after an Alexis Feenstra layup. Huron was faced with overcoming a two-possession game with only seconds on the clock and while Shreeve did hit a deep three, the clock expired and the Cobblers claimed the 44-43 win.

Heckert was the lone double figure scorer for RCC, and added 10 rebounds for the double-double in the contest.

Shreeve led Huron with 16 points and nine rebounds, while Gainey scored 13 and claimed eight boards.

Rapid City Stevens, now 11-9, will move on to the Class “AA” State Tournament, where they will face top-seeded Sioux Falls Washington.

Huron closes the season with a record of 10-11. Playing their final game for the Tigers were seniors Brooklyn Boetel, Brooke Schiltz, Mattie Huber, Lexy Gilbert and Tenley Buddenhagen.

R.C Central       8 19 34 44
Huron         15 26 31 43

Rapid City Central (10-9): Josie Hill 3 0-0 6; Jordon Heckert 7 2-4 18; Sadie Glade 3 1-1 8; Julie Valandra 1 0-0 3; Allison Richards 2 2-2 6; McKadyn Chasing Hawk 1 0-0 3. Totals: 17 4-7 44.

Huron (10-10): Bella Shreeve 5 2-2 16; Hamtyn Heinz 0 4-4 4; Alexis Feenstra 1 0-0 2; Heavan Gainey 4 3-4 13; Isabelle Ellwein 2 2-5 8. Totals: 12 11-15 43.

FG: RC - 17-52 33%; H - 12-50 24%. 3-pt FG: RC - 6-24 25% (Heckert 2, Glade 2, Valandra and Chasing Hawk); H - 8-35 23% (Shreeve 4, Gainey 2, Ellwein 2). Rebounds: RC - 35 (Heckert 10); H - 43 (Shreeve 9, Gainey 8). Turnovers: RC - 10; H - 10. Fouls: RC - 14; H - 13.