Sioux Falls Washington 57, RC Central 52

Sioux Falls Washington point guard Joey Habtemariam had spent the entire game sticking it to Rapid City Central, so it had to be Habtemariam that dropped the biggest hammer of them all.

The junior was a menace on the perimeter, slashing his way to 15 points and seven assists, including some no-look, “Magic Johnson-esque” dimes that drew rises out of the crown in Sioux Falls Arena.

The Cobblers had just cut an 11-point deficit at the beginning of the fourth quarter, to just a 44-42 lead for the Warriors behind seven points from Tyler Aquallo.

But what plagued Central was Habtemariam in the paint with four minutes left.

He shook the Central defense for a layup, and after a Central miss, he again penetrated inside, sucked the defense toward him, and found Chase Lorenz for an uncontested lay in to go up 48-42.

Central’s Bryce Johnson scored to cut it back to four, but it was Habtemariam’s next shot, a 3-pointer in front of his bench, with just over a minute left, giving Washington the 51-44 lead, that was the dagger.

“I mean this sincerely, Joey is the toughest man-to-man kid that I’ve ever had to match-up with. He’s so well-versed, so skilled right and left-handed. If that kid gets just an inkling of daylight, he’s able to get the ball to anyone,” Central head coach Mike Purcell said.

Washington moves on to face Mitchell Friday night, while Central will take on Sturgis in the consolation bracket at 2:45 CT earlier in the day.

Central’s D’ shows up

While Habtemariam was stellar, it was Central’s defense that kept them in a game, despite the fact that Washington had beaten them twice during the regular season by an average of 28 points.

They helped limit Washington to 35% shooting in the first half, held the Warriors leading scorer Alex Holm to 13 points on 3-of-12 shootings, and even Habtemariam missed 10 of the 15 shots he attempted.

“I thought our defense overall was pretty good,” Purcell said. “I wish we could have contained Joey a little more, but I’m happy with it. They had a low shooting percentage, we were right with them in rebounding.”

But Holm did score eight of his points in the second half and Tyler Shetterly had six huge points inside for Washington, as Central’s offense sputtered in the third quarter and the Warriors outscored Central 12-7 in the third quarter.

Aquallo, Connot lone bright spots for Central offense

Aquallo scored 14 points in the second half, and finished with a game-high 20. Robert Connot had 10 points and 8 boards, but they got little help from the rest of the team, something that had been the opposite situation in the games leading up to state.

Johnson scored eight, but only two in the second half. Mike Norberg only had three in the game, and Cody Harris, Jake Lewis and Dominic Smith combined for a meager six points before garbage time late.

“Offensively we didn’t attack the basket as much as we usually do,” said Purcell. “We looked too much for one player, instead of getting all of us to contribute, as we’ve done over the last month,” Purcell said. “If we just could have attacked a little bit more on offense … there’s a difference between being patient and being too patient.”