The fourth-seeded James Valley Christian Vikings pulled off an upset of sorts Thursday night, posting a 63-61 win over the top-seeded Highmore-Harrold Pirates in a championship semifinal at Huron Arena.
The game was a see-saw affair from the opening tip. Highmore-Harrold held a slim one-point edge after the first period, only to see JVC storm to a 38-32 cushion at the half. The Pirates outscored the Vikings 19-11 in the third period, as the inside-outside game of Dylan McDonell and Jharet Bloomenrader led the comeback, and Highmore-Harrold retook the lead, 51-49 with a period to go.
But Josh Wieting, who led all scorers with 28 points laced nine in the final quarter and the Vikings hit enough free throws to hold off a determined Pirate squad, who saw a last-second three-pointer come up just long.
In addition to Wieting’s 28 points, Braden Held netted 15 and Darrian Hood chipped in 10. Held and Derek Thompson each claimed seven rebounds as JVC improves to 5-4 and will play in the title game Thursday night.
McDonell scored 23 points to pace the Pirates, while Bloomenrader scored 13 and collected nine rebounds before fouling out with two and a half minutes to play in the game. Rem Paynter chipped in 11 points for the Pirates.
Highmore-Harrold, now 6-4, will play for third place Thursday afternoon, at approximately 4:30 p.m.

Highmore-Harrold     15 32 51 61
James Valley Christian 14 38 49 63
James Valley Christian (5-4): Josh Wieting 11 0-1 28; Braden Held 6 2-3 15; Colton Schweigert 1 3-5 5; Darrian Hood 3 4-4 10; Derek Thompson 1 0-0 2; Zach Hofer 1 0-0 3. Totals: 23 9-13 63.
Highmore-Harrold (6-4): Dylan McDonnell 6 5-5 23; Darien Schmidt 1 0-4 2; Jharet Bloomenrader 5 1-2 13; Treymaine Eagle Thunder Alger 3 3-4 9; Rem Paynter 5 0-0 11; Payten McDonell 1 0-0 3. Totals 23 9-15 61.
FG: JVC - 23-51 45%; HH - 23-46 50%. 3-pt FG: JVC - 8-20 40% (Wieting 6, Held, Hofer); HH - 6-19 31% (Bloomenrader 2, D. McDonell 2, Paynter and P. McDonell). Rebounds: JVC - 25 (Held 7, Derek Thompson 7); HH - 26 (Bloomenrader 9). TO: JVC - 12; HH - 8 . Fouls: JVC - 12; HH - 17 (Bloomenrader out).

SC-W 45,
Wolsey-Wess. 37
HURON — The Sanborn Central-Woonsocket Blackhawks edged out a 45-37 victory over the Wolsey-Wessington Warbirds after recovering from a one-point disadvantage after the first, the Blackhawks took the lead and held on for the win in the championship semi-finals round of the boys’ basketball 281 conference on Tuesday night at the Huron Area.
Third seeded going into the tournament, the Blackhawks caught fire after a 9-8 loss in the opening period climbing into a comfortable 12-point lead at half time. Noah Dickson led the rebounders with 12 and team with 17 points, while nine more were added by Sawyer Senska to assist in the win. Sanborn Central-Woonsocket now improves its record to 7-3 on the season with the win, and advances to the championship game with James Valley Christian as their competition on Thursday.

The Warbirds fell to a 7-2 record after the loss and entered as the second highest team in seed ranking for the tournament. Lynden William led the team with 17 points and tallied seven rebounds, while Skylar Zomer followed with six points for the Warbirds, now set to play against Highmore-Harrold for third place on Thursday at the Huron Arena.

Sanborn Cent-Woonsocket 8 15 12 10 — 45
Wolsey-Wessington               9 2 15 11 — 37
Sanbron Central-Woonsocket (7-3): Noah Dickson 5 7-8 17; Tater Moody 4 0-0 9; Malachi Bruce 3 0-1 7; Trey Ulmer 2 2-3 6; Sens Schlicht 3 0-0 6. Totals: 17 9-12 45.
Wolsey-Wessington (7-2): Lynden Williams 8 1-1 17; Mark Hamilton 2 3-4 7; Skylar Zomer 3 0-0 6; Brevan Hooks 1 0-0 3; Tritan Abbott 1 0-0 3; Devante Luellman 0 1-4 1. Totals: 15 5-9 37.
FG: SCW — 17-45 38% (Dickson 5); WW — 15-49 31% (Williams 8). 3-pt FG: SCW — 2-12 (Bruce 1, Moody 1); WW — 2-14 (Hooks 1, Abbott 1). Rebounds: SCW — 30 (Dickson 12); WW — 26 (Williams 7). TO: SCW — 14; WW — 12. Steals: SCW — 6; WW — 5. Assists: SCW — 8; WW — 3. Fouls: SCW — 11; WW — 12.

Hitchcock-Tulare 53
Wessington Springs 38

The Hitchcock-Tulare Patriots broke into the win column for the first time this season Tuesday afternoon, as they took down the Wessington Springs Spartans 53-38 in a consolation semifinal game of the 281 Conference Tournament at Huron Arena.
Ty Hofer scored 25 points and claimed six rebounds to lead the Patriots to their first win. Hofer was the lone double figure scorer as several Hitchcock-Tulare players got into the scorebook. The Patriots improve to 1-9 with the win.
Jacob Messmer scored 21 points and had a game-high 13 rebounds for the Spartans, who fall to 2-8 with the loss.
The Patriots will play Iroquois at approximately 1:30 Thursday for the consolation title, while Wessington Springs will square off with Sunshine Bible Academy for 7th place at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday.

Hitchcock-Tulare     10 24 28 53
Wessington Springs      4 12 24 38
Hitchcock-Tulare (1-9): Ty Hofer 11 2-7 25; Grant Hamilton 4 1-2 9; Bailey Binger 2 1-2 6; Kyle Hamilton 0 2-4 2; Zach Gilbert 0 2-2 2; Gabe Clark 3 0-0 9. Totals: 20 8-17 53.
Wessington Springs (2-7): Jacob Messmer 6 9-11 21; Tyler Kole 2 0-0 4; Cooper Hainy 1 0-0 2; Isaac Kolousek 0 4-4 4; Trevor Schmidt 1 3-4 5; Noah Hainy 1 0-0 2. Totals: 11 16-19 38.
FG: HT - 20-48 42%; WS - 11-45 24%. 3-pt FG: HT - 5-16 27% (Clark 3, Hofer, Binger); WS - 0-9. Rebounds: HT - 23 (Hofer 6); WS - 29 (Messmer 13). TO: HT - 10; WS - 25 . Fouls: HT - 17 (Binger); WS - 14 C. Hainy out.

Iroquois 51
SBA 48
A game that was close throughout came down to the final few seconds Thursday afternoon, as the Iroquois Chiefs held on for a 51-48 win over the Sunshine Bible Academy Crusaders in the consolation semifinals of the 281 Conference tournament at Huron Arena. A rebound and attempted three-pointer that would have tied the game by SBA’s Travis Hass hit both sides of the rim and bounced away as time expired in the game.
Keistan Dubro scored 18 points and claimed 13 rebounds to lead Iroquois with a double-double. Teammate Brandon Decker added 11 points, as the Chiefs, now 2-5, will play Hitchcock-Tulare for the consolation championship on Thursday afternoon.
For SBA, which falls to 1-8 with the loss, Jade Burma scored 18 points and had nine rebounds and Hass added 16 points.
Sunshine Bible will play Wessington Springs for 7th place on Thursday morning.

Iroquois                  15 29 39 51
Sunshine Bible Academy      15 28 34 48
Iroquois (2-5): Sean McManus 1 0-0 2; Addison Reed 2 0-1 4; Adam Keating 1 0-2 3; Keistan Dubro 8 1-2 18; Brandon Decker 4 0-0 11; Shawn Diehl 3 0-0 6; Cole Nelson 1 0-0 2; Reilyn Zavesky 2 0-0 5. Totals 22 1-5 51.
Sunshine Bible Academy (1-8): Travis Hass 2 12-13 16; Jade Burma 7 4-5 18; Bradley Hunter 2 0-0 6; Dylan Hass 1 0-1 2; EJ Big Eagle 6. Totals: 15 16-19 48.
FG: I - 22-47 48%; SBA - 15-51 29%. 3-pt FG: I - 6-14 21% (Decker 3, Keating, Dubro, Zavesky); SBA - 2-16 13% (Hunter 2); Rebounds: I - 38 (Dubro 13); SBA - 26 (J. Burma 9, T. Hass 8 . TO: I - 18; SBA - 9 . Fouls: I - 13; SBA -7.