South Dakota State commits Mahli Abdouch and Katie Vasecka shine in O'Gorman vs. Tea Area matchup

In the week leading into Tuesday night’s matchup between class AA powerhouse O’Gorman (13-0) and Class A No. 5 ranked Tea Area (10-3), South Dakota State commits Mahli Abdouch and Katie Vasecka exchanged messages, sharing how excited they were to compete against each other.

Abdouch and Vasecka have developed a close relationship, forged through years of practices and games as AAU teammates. They’ll also share the Frost Arena floor next season, but on Tuesday night on the O’Gorman Knights home floor, they were competitors.

“The ball’s tossed up (and) those things get tossed out,” O’Gorman girls basketball coach Kent Kolsrud said. “When they both step on the court, they're competitors … They're playing to win.”

Both Abdouch and Vasecka flashed their ability and showed why they’re both committed to a Division I basketball program in a highly competitive 53-45 Knights win.

Vasecka didn’t have the best night offensively. She shot only 2-for-10 from the field and turned the ball over eight times against O’Gorman’s frenetic full-court press, but she still had a striking impact on the game.

At 6-foot-1, Vasecka was the team’s point guard, tasked with looking over the defense and making the right pass to break the press. She did most of her damage from the line, shooting 8-for-10 from the charity stripe – a sign of her aggression -- but the most impressive aspect of her play was her defense.

Vasecka anchored the Tea Area defense, frequently coming over from the weak side to come up with blocks. She had four blocks against the Knights and used her size to corral 10 defensive rebounds.

On the other side, Abdouch had a complete game. Her effort on defense was inescapable. She was a key cog of the O’Gorman press and came up with a couple steals and even more tips. At one point in the game Tuesday night Abdouch dove into the first row of the bleachers to save the ball from going out of bounds and it led to a 10-second violation on Tea Area.

On offense, Abdouch struggled early on, but a one-legged 3-pointer to beat the second-quarter buzzer sparked a second-half explosion.

“I thought that that really got her going,” Tea Area girls basketball coach Adam Schorzmann said. “We tried to make her uncomfortable as much as we could, but she's a great player.”

Abdouch ended the game with 24 points on 9-of-17 shooting from the field and was 4-for-10 from three. She can shoot the ball from deep, can create off the dribble and seems comfortable operating in the pick-and-roll.

While Vasecka wishes she could've spent more time guarding Abdouch, she said it was fun to compete against someone she knows so well.

“It's really fun,” Abdouch said of playing against Vasecka postgame. “We kind of (went) at it a little bit. We talked a little bit on the court. It's really fun to just play against each other and see how we play outside of AAU.”

Up next the Knights will travel to Rapid City to play the Raiders on Friday. The Titans will play Canton at home on Wednesday, Jan. 31.

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: SDSU commits shine in O'Gorman vs Tea Area girls basketball matchup