Freshman Brinley Altenburg shines to help send Jefferson to girls state basketball tournament

She patiently waited for her turn to climb the rungs of the ladder placed under the rim at Jefferson High School and cut off her own piece of history.

Freshman guard Brinley Altenburg may have been nervous about her first playoff experience entering the game, but she was brilliant in the Cavaliers’ 52-41 win over Watertown on Friday that punched their ticket to the girls state basketball tournament.

“It just speaks to the type of competitor she is,” Jefferson girls’ basketball coach Shaunteva Pruett said. “She puts in a lot of work to be the best player that she can be. They face guarded a lot tonight, and I thought she did a good job trying to screen and get her teammates involved because obviously, she was scoring, and so it's fun to coach a player like that.”

When Jefferson’s “heart and soul” Jaidyn Dunn earned a quick two fouls, it forced her out of the game and took away Dunn’s ability to be aggressive as a defender.

With Dunn on the bench, Altenburg took center stage.

The freshman scored a quick eight points, including a flashy between-the-legs step-back 3-pointer that drew an ovation from the electric Jefferson crowd and gave the Cavaliers an early 12-5 lead.  Jefferson ended the first quarter with what felt like a secure 18-8 lead entering the second quarter.

“When (Dunn) goes out, we need to make sure that we're all on our A game,” Altenburg said postgame.

Altenburg ended the night with a game-high 18 points.

Watertown, who entered the SoDak 16 game with a 7-13 record, clawed their way back into it, outscoring Jefferson 16-9 in the second quarter and went into halftime trailing by just three points. During that period, the Cavaliers struggled with defense and defensive rebounding. The Arrows had 10 offensive rebounds in the second quarter alone.

Watertown even took a 32-31 lead in the third quarter off a three from junior Emery Thury.

The Cavaliers called a timeout after the three, where Pruett called out her team for their defensive effort.

“She said this could be it, and the seniors kind of woke up and took that to heart and came out and played the rest of the game,” Dunn said.

After that timeout, the Jefferson players started flying around on both ends and immediately regained the lead. From that point on, the Cavaliers continued to build on the lead and won by 11 points.

“Winning through adversity, just makes it so much better,” Dunn said postgame. “You actually get that fulfilling feeling of battling through all those challenges.”

Jefferson will play Pierre in the quarterfinals of the state tournament at the Sanford Pentagon on Thursday, March 7 at 1:45 p.m.

Jonathan Fernandez covers high school and college sports for the Argus Leader. Contact him at jfernandez1@argusleader.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JFERN31

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Brinley Altenburg shines to help send Jefferson to state tournament