STURGIS, S.D. — The Rapid City Central boys downed the Sturgis Scoopers 72-48 at West Gymnasium on Thursday night with three Cobblers scoring in double figures.
Central downed the Scoopers 70-31 on Dec. 22 at Naasz Gymnasium in Rapid City. Thursday night’s win completes the season sweep of Sturgis.
The Cobblers jumped out to a 21-7 lead after one quarter behind senior Kohl Meisman’s three three-pointers. Meisman had 11 points in the quarter, then added 10 more in the second. The Scoopers outscored the Cobblers 16-12 in the second quarter to cut the Central lead to 33-23 at the half.
“Meisman really hurt us in the first half but we were really focused on Micah Swallow, he really makes them go,” said Sturgis head coach Derris Buus. “And we really wanted to make them work on defense, and I thought our ball movement and player movement was good. We made some good cuts and got our shooters open. We did some good things but they have so many weapons and are hard to defend.”
The Cobbler offense came out flat after the halftime break and the Scoopers made a 6-0 run to get within four points, 33-29. Buss’ words proved prophetic as Micah Swallow dropped in seven points to lead a 17-0 Central run and the Cobblers led 50-29 with a couple of minutes left in the third quarter. The Scoopers ended the run with baskets by Jake Vliem and Gavin Lightenberg and Central took a 50-33 lead into the fourth.
Scooper freshman Tyan Buus hit two quick three pointers to get Sturgis within 10 points, 54-44 early in the fourth but that was as close as the Scoopers would get. Micah Swallow added another 11 points in the fourth, with Julian Swallow contributing nine and the Cobblers cruised to a 72-48 win.
Central (6-2), was led by Micah Swallow with 27 points. Kohl Meisman chipped in 23, with 21 of his points in the first half and Julian Swallow finished with 16. The Scoopers (1-8), also had three players in double figures with Owen Cass leading Sturgis with 11 points and Gavin Lightenberg and Dysen Peterson contributing 10 apiece.
“They’re (Central) a talented basketball team and we just wanted to compete,” Buus said. “I thought we did that tonight, I thought we competed hard and shared the basketball. We had 14 turnovers for the game and that’s where we’ve struggled so keeping those low kept us in the game. I was proud of our kids and proud of their effort tonight.”
The Scooper boys are in action again on Tuesday night as they travel to Spearfish. The next KBHB radio sports broadcast is Saturday afternoon, as the Scooper girls host Rapid City Central. Tip-off is scheduled for 1:30pm.
