Titan boys defeat Brookings, drop close battles with O’Gorman, Marshall
On Monday, Jan. 6 the Tea Area High School boys’ basketball team traveled to Brookings and earned a decisive 68-38 victory.
Tea led 21-12 after the opening quarter and never looked back, outscoring Brookings 21-7 in the third and 10-6 in the fourth.
“We did a tremendous job of coming out early and playing with a high level of intensity and effort. Our defense wreaked havoc all game and we were able to get another balanced scoring effort,” said Titan head coach Drew Weber. “It was really important for us to play with urgency in this one and the boys did a great job of coming out ready to play and get ourselves back in the win column.”
Against Brookings, four Titans were in double features with Marshall Smythe and Jaxson Merrigan each scoring 14 points, Gavin Shawd finishing with 12 and Grifin Wiebenga scoring 11. Smythe also had two rebounds, six assists and three steals. Merrigan finished with five rebounds and one assist. Shawd had nine rebounds, two assists and two steals. Wiebenga had four rebounds, and three assists.
Also scoring for the Titans were Cole McKinney and Rylan Norris who each finished with five points, Mitch Grant had three points and Isaac Slowey and Trey Severin rounded out the scoring with two points each. Jake Lingren had four rebounds in the game. McKinney finished with four assists and Norris had two steals.
Prior to their win over Brookings, the Titans suffered two back-to-back two-point losses, falling to Sioux Falls O’Gorman, 73-71 on Jan. 2 and to Marshall, MN 58-56 on Dec. 30.
Against Sioux Falls O’Gorman, Tea Area pushed ahead in the third quarter, outscoring the Knights, 17-9 only to have O’Gorman fight back, outscoring Tea Area 27-19 in the final quarter to get the win.
“This was a very thrilling, back and forth game between two really good teams. We had a few opportunities to seize the game, but just quite weren’t able to,” said Weber. “We are proving that we can play with everyone on our schedule, but we need to shore up a few little things to make sure that we come out on top in these close battles.”
Leading the charge against O’Gorman was Wiebenga who finished the night with 29 points, hitting three from downtown. Wiebenga also had six rebounds and one assist.
Shawd finished with 19 points, also sinking three three-pointers. He pulled down five rebounds and had one assist and one steal. Smythe finished with a double-double, scoring 14 points and recording 11 assists. He also had three rebounds and two steals.
Merrigan provided five points, seven rebounds and two assists. Both Kayden Williamson and Norris had two points each. Williamson also had four rebonds and Norris pulled down one.
Against Marshall, the Titans once again went toe-to-toe but ended losing by two points.
“This was a fun, competitive game. Unfortunately, we showed our youth at times and couldn’t find a way to come out with the victory,” said Weber. “Marshall is a very good team, but we needed to make 1 or 2 more plays and just couldn’t quite come through. We will regroup and continue working hard and use this as a learning opportunity.”
Against Marshall, Wiebenga had 25 points, eight rebounds, one steal and two assists. Smythe finished with 14 points, five rebounds, two assists and a team high five steals. Shawd scored ten points, pulled down eight rebounds and had one steal. Merrigan finished with four points, eight rebounds, and one assist. Norris had three points in the game. Grant pulled down five rebounds and McKinney finished with three assists.
The Titans will take on Western Christian at the Sanford Pentagon this Saturday, Jan. 11 in a 1 p.m. game. They will be at Pierre on Tuesday, Jan. 14 and home again on Friday, Jan. 17 when they host Sioux Falls Roosevelt at 7 p.m.
Comments