No. 3 Brandon Valley rolls No. 6 Spearfish, advances to state semifinals
In the fourth quarter of the girls state basketball quarterfinal between Brandon Valley and Spearfish, the Brandon Valley student section was making themselves heard, yelling a chant for all the Sanford Pentagon, and especially the Spearfish student section, to hear.
“Start the buses! Start the buses! Start the buses,” they screamed.
The Lynx dominated from start to finish and advanced to the semifinal with a 58-42 win over Spearfish.
Brandon Valley wanted to create pressure early and assert their tempo on the game. They created eight turnovers in the first quarter and took a commanding 15-5 lead after the first eight minutes of play. Spearfish never really made it close after that.
“Huge credit to our girls for being willing to extend that,” Brandon Valley girls’ basketball coach Mike Zerr said postgame. “That's something we've tried to hang our hat on all year. (We) try to be an aggressive team that defensively can hopefully control a little bit of what we can control, and I was really proud of our efforts tonight.”
The Lynx held Spearfish to 33% shooting from the field while shooting 50% themselves.
Brandon Valley also dominated in the paint. The Lynx outrebounded Spearfish by 13 and outscored them at the rim by 18.
Brandon Valley had two players score in double figures but had six score five or more. Alyvia Padgett led the Lynx in scoring with 15 points and also had six assists. Kennedi Deckert was the second Brandon Valley player in double figures, she finished with 10 points, four rebounds and five assists.
“A lot of times, (talking about) culture is just a lot of words, but when you see people be willing to share the basketball, you know, whether it's a star player or somebody who comes off the bench and plays three, four minutes, it's an unselfish group that really enjoys each other,” Zerr said.
Brandon Valley will play Harrisburg tomorrow night in the semifinals at 7:45 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: Brandon Valley rolls Spearfish, advances to state semifinals
