Tough week for SHS basketball

Lady Bulldogs

The Lady Bulldogs suffered a tough pair of losses last week at the hands of two South Dakota teams, the Harding County Ranchers and the Hill City Rangers.

The Lady Bulldogs knew this weekend was going to be difficult with key players on the sidelines due to injury, but they did not go down without a fight. Facing the Ranchers on Thursday, the Lady Bulldogs struggled to get to the basket.

Putting up just 12 points in the first half, Sundance found themselves down 12-30 going into the break. Unfortunately, the second half didn’t fare much better for the Lady Bulldogs who were only able to add five more points to the board as they went on to a 17-49 loss for the evening.

The scoring drought continued into the Bulldogs’ Saturday afternoon competition when they faced the Hill City Rangers. The opening quarter kept the teams close, as the Lady Bulldogs were able to keep the Hill City posters in check.

After one quarter of play, the Rangers held a slight edge over the Lady Bulldogs 8-4. Shortly thereafter, Hill City began to control both sides of the court and ran away with the score. In the end, the Rangers left the state with a 45-14 victory.

“The games this weekend were definitely tough,” senior Bulldog Bailey Hofland commented, “But they were a good learning experience and they showed us that we need to keep working and playing as a team. Some things that they showed we need to work on is finishing at the basket and also getting our offense going. I’m looking forward to playing our first conference games, Big Horn and Wright, and just seeing how we will start to match up in our conference.”

Fellow teammate, Brook Hofland also added, “We played some really good teams this past weekend. They gave us the opportunity to make ourselves better and to see what we are capable of. Hill City had a couple of big posts but our defense did a good job stopping them. We had a few players that were out due to injury but we adapted and some younger girls stepped up and did a good job this weekend.

“We are looking forward to our upcoming conference games against Wright and Big Horn to see what we can do together as a team. We have played Big Horn once already and we are prepared and excited to play them again.” 

Suffering two tough losses this week, the Lady Bulldogs are looking to snap their losing streak and pick up some wins when they open up conference play against Wright and Big Horn.

SHS Boys

Sundance went down to the wire on Saturday afternoon as they faced the Hill City Rangers, but came up two points shy despite the valiant effort put out by the Bulldogs. 

It was a game of back and forth as the two evenly matched teams started out on Saturday. The Bulldogs had a dynamic duo of scoring behind Keaton Mills and Gunner McLaughlin who were both able to make their way into double digits scoring 20 and 15 points respectively throughout the ball game.

The Rangers, however, had a trio of scorers make their way to double digits with Kobe Main, Devin Buehler and Will Walther putting up a combined 45 points for the night. 

Trading basket for basket throughout the first half, the Bulldogs were only down by three, 20-23, going into the halftime break. A third quarter scoring slump for the Bulldogs put them in a tough position going into the fourth.

Down by 19 with only eight minutes to play, things looked grim for the Bulldogs, but the team rallied together and got right to work, chipping away at the score. The dynamic duo, along with Levi Rudloff and Jaydan Davis, were able to outscore the Rangers 28-11 throughout the fourth quarter bringing the team within reach of the Rangers.

As time was ticking away any number of things could have changed the outcome for the Bulldogs but sadly it was the Rangers who would take the two-point victory for the night, 59-57 over the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs will not dwell on their loss for long. They will take the lessons learned from Hill City and apply them to their upcoming conference games this week. On Friday evening the Bulldogs will travel to Wright to face the 7-5 Panthers who are ranked 2nd in the 2A Northeast. This will be the first conference matchup for the Bulldogs. 

On Saturday the Bulldogs will host another conference team, the Big Horn Rams. The games will begin at 11:30 a.m. with the JV, followed by the girls’ varsity at 1 p.m. and the boys’ varsity at 2:30 p.m. 

Head Coach Nick Olson had the following comments on the upcoming conference matchups: “We open up conference play with Wright on Friday and Big Horn on Saturday, they should be two very hard-fought games that should come down to the wire. Wright is much improved since the last season and are returning nearly everybody.

“They have competed very well against some very tough opponents and taken down some teams that have been ranked in the top five. We are going to have to show up ready to play and compete. Big Horn is returning a lot of their core team from last year, so they will be very competitive as well. They play a very disciplined basketball so it will be a difficult game all the way down the wire.”

Girls Stats

SHS vs. Harding County: 17-49

Scoring: Ba. Hofland 10 (0/1 3pt), Skeens 4 (1/2 FT, 1/5 3pt), Gillespie 2, Br. Hofland 1 (1/2 FT)

Rebound Leaders: Skeens 5, Br. Hofland 3, Ba. Hofland 3, Gillespie 3, Jones 3

Steals: Marchant 2, Skeens 2, Br. Hofland 2

Assists: Gillespie 3

SHS vs. Hill City 14-45

Scoring: Ba. Hofland 6 (4/6 FT, 0/1 3pt), Br. Hofland (0/1 FT, 0/1 3pt), Marchant 2, Banker 2 (0/2FT)

Rebound Leaders: Ba. Hofland 7, Br. Hofland 4

Steals: Skeens 2, Gillespie 2

Boys Stats

SHS vs. Hill City 57-59

Scoring: Mills 20 (1/3 FT, 1/3 3pt), McLaughlin 15 (3/5 FT, 0/3 3pt), Rudloff 8 (2/2 FT, 0/3 3pt), Davis 6 (1/2 FT, 1/4 3pt), Harmon 5 (1/2 FT), Fleenor 2, E. Gill (1/2 FT)

Rebound Leaders: Mills 10, McLaughlin 8, Rudloff 4, E. Gill 4

Assists: Rudloff 7

Steals: Rudloff 5, Harmon 2

Blocks: Mills 2