Sioux Falls Lincoln advances to state tournament with win over Brandon Valley
It took one second-quarter surge for Sioux Falls Lincoln to find the footing it needed, and the Patriots withstood a late push at the end to put things to rest.
JT Rock had a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds, and Lincoln held on for a 47-40 win over Brandon Valley in Saturday’s SoDak 16 showdown at Lincoln High School as the Patriots advanced to the Class AA state tournament.
“This is our No. 1 goal, to get to the state tournament,” Lincoln coach Jeff Halseth said. “What they do in the state tournament is just topping on the ice cream as far as I’m concerned. Getting there is the No. 1 goal.
“We were a team that still had to learn each other a little bit, so we’ve been a work in progress all season. When it comes down to this final game, these guys didn’t want it to end because they’ve been seeing what they’ve been building and building, and now we’re going to the state tournament.”
The victory sends the Patriots (12-9) into the state tournament for the first time in three years. They’ll enter as the No. 7 seed and will open against second-seeded O’Gorman on March 17.
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“This feels great,” said the sophomore Rock, who’s in his first year playing varsity basketball on a full-time basis. “I’m so proud of all my guys. We all came out and fought together.”
The Lynx (10-11) led by as many as four in the opening period before a three-point play from Gage Gohl pulled the hosts within 10-9 at the end of the quarter.
The lead changed seven times in the first two quarters, but the Patriots secured the lead for good at the 5:09 mark when Elliot Whitney drove along the baseline and scored on a layup that gave Lincoln a 16-14 lead. It was the first field goal during a 13-2 swing that gave the Patriots a 26-16 advantage at halftime.
“We let the offense work for us,” Halseth said about the run in the second quarter. “We moved the ball around, got the ball inside and kicked it outside to open guys. We just stayed focused and stayed calm as best we can in a situation like this.”
The 7-foot-1 Rock scored 10 of his 14 points in the first half alone and proved to be a problem in the post for Brandon Valley to handle.
“He’s a nice player, but they’re all good players,” Brandon Valley coach Craig Nelson said about Rock. “It’s not a team where you can just focus on one single guy. I think their guards are all such good playmakers and good shooters, so they’re just a tough matchup overall.”
Brandon Valley's rally in second half falls short
Whitney capped a 9-1 run for Lincoln to start the second half when he converted a layup with 4:23 left in the third quarter, giving the Patriots their largest lead of the game at 35-17, but that’s when the Lynx began to rally.
Nate Vandeberg splashed in a triple from the top of the key to cap a 16-2 run for Brandon Valley, cutting the visitors’ deficit to 37-33 with 4:51 to go in the game.
“We’re in this,” Nelson said about his message to the team after Lincoln’s lead was cut to four. “We’ve got to run something good and get a bucket and get one more stop.
“We just couldn’t get enough of those.”
That’s as close as the Lynx were able to get.
Rock got to the charity stripe twice and knocked down all four of his free throws to cap a 7-2 burst that gave Lincoln all the cushion it needed, pushing the lead to 44-35 with 50 seconds to play.
A 3-pointer from Dylan Langerock cut the lead to 44-40, but it was too late for the Lynx to mount a comeback with just 11.8 seconds remaining.
“They played so hard out there, so I’ve got to give them credit,” Halseth said about the Lynx. “They took us out of some things that we’re used to running and made us change some things up a little bit.”
Whitney and Khalil Cisse each chipped in nine points for the Patriots, who finished 30.6 (15 of 49) percent from the field. They provided much-needed offense in the second half while Rock struggled to keep up his first-half pace.
Riley Miller had nine points and six boards to lead Brandon Valley. Olthoff added eight points and six rebounds.
The Lynx will graduate six seniors from this year’s team.
“They’re the world. They’re awesome,” Nelson said about his seniors. “For my first year to come here and try to build the culture of what we want this program to be, those guys embraced that from day one. They’re just phenomenal.”
As for Lincoln, Halseth said his message to the rest of the field is simple.
“I don’t think you want to play the Patriots right now,” he said.
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: South Dakota basketball: Sioux Falls Lincoln advances to state tourney
