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Full Court Press: A power ranking for the six classes of South Dakota high school basketball

landon dierks, marcus traxler, the daily republic, mitchell, s.d.
·9 min read

Jan. 26—MITCHELL — Despite the weather and rearranged schedules, the halfway point of the South Dakota high school basketball season has arrived with the final full week of January's turn on the calendar.

With it, prognosticators and pundits like those who compile this column can start to look at the state tournaments in March and start to look at where the best tournaments and matchups might take place. This week, we are power-ranking the six classes of basketball in the state and looking at which will be the most competitive.

Competitiveness, for the sake of this exercise, was determined by two elements: how many potential contenders have established themselves for the state championship and what the landscape looks like for the SoDak 16 state-qualifying round and the potential upsets that come with it. They are ranked below, ending with what we expect to be the most competitive:

We certainly can be proven wrong about anything in this analysis. But right now, Dakota Valley looks like a machine specially built to win the Class A championship.

The Panthers have championship experience and have two of the 10 best players in the state with Isaac Bruns and Randy Rosenquist, with Jaxson Wingert and Jaxon Hennies no slouches either. They've earned this clout by winning 37 games in a row.

DV has an interesting matchup with Sioux Falls Christian on Thursday night (see below), which is the first game in a tough four-game stretch that includes Clark/WIllow Lake on Saturday in Madison, Elk Point-Jefferson on the road on Feb. 2 and taking on Iowa's Western Christian on Feb. 4. Also still ahead is Dell Rapids and a season-finale against a currently 10-1 Lennox.

The rest of the class is good, starting with Sioux Falls Christian, Hamlin, Sioux Valley, Winner, St. Thomas More, and Lennox, with Rapid City Christian and Hot Springs as other fast risers out West River in this class. But the Panthers look like they're tops in the class right now.

There's a lot of different ways to look at the Class AA division in boys basketball. There is Sioux Falls Jefferson, which is undefeated at 10-0 and has only played three games decided by 10 points or less, with the last of those being a 59-58 win over Brandon Valley on Jan. 24.

Sioux Falls Lincoln and Mitchell just battled it out in a great one-point game over the weekend won by the Patriots

, and Yankton has impressed recently as well. Sioux Falls Washington will be in the picture by season's end and Harrisburg, Pierre and Sioux Falls Roosevelt have taken their share of lumps but it's not hard to foresee those teams being involved late in the year too. As it stands now, O'Gorman would be the most dangerous 15-seed the Class AA SoDak 16 has ever had, despite a 3-7 record.

Jefferson has looked dominant for a lot of the season, so it warrants this spot in the power rankings for now. But there's plenty of teams that could make this division more interesting down the stretch.

It's interesting to consider Viborg-Hurley, which is the proper No. 1 team in Class B and has looked like a different team since reaching the 2022 Class B state tournament and winning it all. The Cougars have challenged themselves with the schedule this season and met nearly all of those hurdles and ran past No. 2 Wolsey-Wessington two weeks ago at the Corn Palace.

After that, one might throw a dart for the remaining seven teams in Class B that might make the state tournament. Wolsey-Wessington, Castlewood, Arlington and Deubrook Area all have nine wins already and only two teams will make it out of Region 2B, which looks like one of the toughest in the state. Howard, Timber Lake, Dell Rapids St. Mary, Sully Buttes, Warner, Wall, Ethan, Jones County, Centerville and Andes Central/Dakota Christian all have gaudy records or have played tough schedules to this point, making them battle-ready for the state tournament, which is at the Huron Arena this season.

Aberdeen Christian has rightfully claimed the No. 1 ranking in the state in Class B, with wins over Lower Brule and White River in the Corn Palace over the last month, plus dealing Waubay/Summit their first defeat last week. It's hard not to like them for the state championship in March.

But look at the other top teams in the state and there's a lot to like. De Smet looked very good in a win against Lower Brule at the Hanson Classic, with the Bulldogs having plenty of firepower to win it all. The Sioux play with a skill and panache that is special to watch. White River should be in the mix in a clear top-four in Class B, with senior Joe Sayler able to score at a high rate.

After that, almost anything could happen in the state tournament and SoDak 16, with an interesting mix of teams listed in the following seed-point order: Ethan, James Valley Christian, Faith, Wolsey-Wessington, Castlewood, Canistota, Highmore-Harrold, Dell Rapids St. Mary, Northwestern, Viborg-Hurley, Howard and Tripp-Delmont/Armour in the top-16. Some of those teams are state tourney regulars, some have been before and others have little postseason experience on the Northern State campus. It seems like a classic state tournament is pre-destined for the third weekend in Aberdeen.

This class might not have been ranked this highly when the season started but balance is ruling the day to the midseason point.

Sioux Falls Washington is the No. 1-ranked team at 9-1, with the lone loss coming to Harrisburg by a point. Sioux Falls Jefferson and O'Gorman have lined up as main contenders alongside the Warriors, and Harrisburg has no bad losses. Pierre and Rapid City Stevens are both 9-2, and Brandon Valley is 7-4 after winning six games in a row to start 2023.

This was one of the classes last year that had an upset in the first round, where No. 8 Jefferson knocked off No. 1 Washington, and more upsets might be in the cards this season, with the state tournament in Sioux Falls.

As a basketball fan, one loves how this class is shaping up. There are bonafide state championship contenders all over the top of the rankings, and nine teams still have one loss or less. Hamlin, Vermillion, Sisseton and Red Cloud are still undefeated. Saint Thomas More has three losses but nobody is going to count them out after the Cavaliers stormed through the bracket in 2022 as a No. 5 seed to win it all.

Wagner's only loss is to Vermillion and the Red Raiders have won every other game by at least 19 points. Vermillion, Florence/Henry, Rapid City Christian, Sisseton each would represent relatively new faces in the state tournament, and Miller, Belle Fourche, Custer, Hanson and Lennox are among the wild cards lurking at the top of the standings. This is lining up to be a great finish in Class A to cap the girls basketball season.

A look at the top team performances of the week.

* Hamlin boys: Three games in five days resulted in three quality wins for the Chargers, who defeated Class B No. 3 De Smet, trounced a 6-6 Redfield team by 38 points and then capped the week with a 25-point win over Mount Vernon/Plankinton at the Hanson Classic. As of the action on Jan. 23, the Chargers (7-2) sit at No. 4 in the Class A seed point standings, five spots higher than any other two-loss team and even ahead of undefeated Hot Springs.

* Howard girls: Three wins across the past week, including two against Class A teams with winning records — Hanson and McCook Central/Montrose — have the Tigers at No. 3 in the Class B seed point standings with an 11-2 record. Going back to Jan. 12, Howard has won five straight with a third Class A win over Mount Vernon/Plankinton at the Hanson Classic.

* Lennox boys: In picking up three wins last week, the Orioles hardly took their foot off the accelerator on the way to a combined margin of victory of 108 points, 36 points per game. They'll continue to put that form to the test, starting with Class AA foe Brookings followed by three straight games against teams with winning records.

Three games we're watching in the coming week, excluding matchups at special events such as the Dak XII/NEC Clash (Madison) and Sacred Hoops Classic (Sioux Falls) on Saturday.

* Sisseton at Hamlin (Girls), Thursday, Jan. 26: It seems as though Sisseton has been overlooked in a big way. At 11-0, Sisseton — fourth in Class A seed points but nowhere to be found in the media polls — has a chance to make a massive statement against No. 1 Hamlin (12-0).

* Dakota Valley at Sioux Falls Christian (Boys), Thursday, Jan. 26: The list of boys Class A undefeateds will is certain to be trimmed from four to three by the end of Thursday night, as No. 1 and No. 3-ranked squads will put their rankings and currently unblemished records (Note: SFC plays Tea Area on Tuesday ahead of this matchup) on the line in another potential state title game preview.

* Rapid City Christian at St. Thomas More (Boys), Friday, Jan. 27: Region 8A rivals jockey for position near the top of Class A, as the unbeaten, fourth-ranked Comets meet up with the one-loss fifth-ranked Cavaliers. It's a matchup featuring RCC's No. 3 scoring offense against STM's No. 3 scoring defense, and whichever dictate's the pace on Friday night will likely take control of the race out west.

* Bonus: Howard at Ethan (Girls-Boys Doubleheader), Friday, Jan. 27: It's hard to find a doubleheader with all four teams as high in the seed point standings as the girls and boys squads from Ethan and Howard. On the girls side, Howard is No. 3 and Ethan is No. 13, with the pair combining for a 19-4 record (as of Jan. 23). For the boys, Ethan is No. 7 and Howard is No. 17, with a combined record of 15-4. Further, this is a Region 3B clash, and any potential postseason path for all these teams starts with securing top seeding for the regional tournaments, underscoring the importance of such contests.