Sturgis 53, RC Central 44

Nobody would have been surprised if Sturgis had a slight lack of emotion in their consolation game with Rapid City Central.

After witnessing first the hope and impending joy of the Scoopers after Zac Smith gave them the lead in the final ten seconds against Mitchell Thursday, then seeing Sturgis’ players pull jerseys over their heads alongside teammates with locked looks of disbelief after Mitchell won it at the buzzer, I wouldn’t have faulted them one bit for being lifeless the rest of the tournament.

But due to a strong senior class that took pride in closing their season the right way and a coach that wouldn’t let these Scoopers dwell on the loss, Sturgis came in with a spark from the beginning against the Cobblers. An 11-0 run broke open the game in the third quarter, and Sturgis pulled away to beat Central.

Sturgis head coach Orion Thompson didn’t take long to explain how his team regrouped after the devastating defeat to No. 2 seed Mitchell.

“I did very little. These guys had decided that this is how they want to finish their year, and they’re making it happen. I couldn’t be prouder of a bunch of individuals who have come together as a team, and decided this is the way they want to finish out their careers.”

The senior-laden roster has eight seniors score at least a point, with Seth Bachand leading the way with 12 points, 12 boards and four assists. Joey Olson reached double-figures with 10 points and added four assists, Shane Barrows had nine points, including two big first-half 3-pointers, Riley Burke had seven and Michael Baldwin tallied six points in five minutes in the paint off the bench.

Scoopers harass Central into 33% shooting from the field

From the start that senior passion carried over to the defensive side. The Cobblers only made seven field goals in the second half, and only four players scored from the field for Central.

The game plan was simple for Sturgis: make someone, anyone beat us besides Tyler Aquallo. The Cobblers played right into their hands, deferring to Aquallo way too much, causing too many Cobblers standing around on offense. Robert Connot had 15 points, Bryce Johnson scored six and Mike Norberg added three.

But those were the only others minus Aquallo to score.

“We played with a desire to make somebody else not want the ball, and you know, there were four guys out on the floor for Central that you could see that just didn’t want the ball,” Thompson said.

Aquallo went on to score 20 points, but was forced into bad shots with the shot clock winding down in the second half as no one else stepped up on offense.

It also took Aquallo 20 shots (he made six) to get his points. Thompson credited a reserve that entered and played hardnosed defense on the Central star.

“Aquallo, he’s a phenomenal athlete, we knew it was going to be tough to guard him,” he said. “But Joel Herman stepped up, undoubtedly, the best out of anybody I could have asked to step up. He went out there and made a decision that he was going to make 32 minutes of hell for Aquallo.”

Third quarter run closes Central out

Up 23-20, Central evened the score back up at 29 in the third quarter. Baldwin came in and provided two straight buckets on post moves to put them back up four.

After another Sturgis basket, Seth Bachand finished on an acrobatic fast break layup to end the scoring in the third.

Bachand kicked off the fourth with another bucket on the interior, and the lead was 40-29, much too big of a hill to climb with Central basically being a one-man show.