Offense MIA as ’Cats fall to Spartans

In a got to have it game in terms of regional playoff seeding, the Custer High School boys basketball team had arguably its worst offensive performance of the season last Thursday evening in Spearfish.
A look at the box score tells the story.
The Wildcats shot 33 percent from the floor, including a 19 percent effort from three-point range. They were 3-12 from the free throw line. They committed 19 turnovers, which Spearfish converted into 21 points—a 17-point advantage over the Wildcats in that statistic.
The end result was a 52-45 loss to the Spartans, dropping the Wildcats to 13-4, and more than likely ending any hope of hosting a second round regional playoff game when postseason play begins.
“It was extremely physical. We knew that going in. They punched us, and it took us a while to adapt,” head coach Paul Kelley said. “In big games like that you can’t turn the ball over. when points are hard to come by for either team you can’t give up those easy ones.”
The Wildcats started the game with a pair of those 21 turnovers, which led directly to Spartan layups and a 4-0 deficit. The Wildcats got going shortly thereafter, however, and took the lead at 6-4 following a Brady Virtue layup at the 5:20 mark of the quarter.
The teams exchanged buckets and a lead over the course of the remainder of the quarter, but Custer maintained a two-point lead until Ayden Petz put the team up by three at 15-12.
The offenses for both teams didn’t do much in the second quarter, but the Wildcats maintained a lead thanks to timely baskets and dogged defense. A Kyle Virtue putback put the Wildcats up 21-18, but that basket was answered by a Bennett Kortan hoop for Spearfish.
Custer seemed poised to take a larger lead, but unforced errors and a bevy of missed shots at point-blank range kept the Spartans in the game, with Custer taking a 21-20 lead into the half.
“In the first quarter we did a great job. Every time you play Spearfish it’s a war of attrition,” Kelley said. “That’s how you play in (Class) AA.”
The Spartans took their first lead early in the third quarter and tried to put some distance between them and the ’Cats with a Tucker Olson three-pointer.
Kyle Virtue had an answer however, twisting for a basket on which he was fouled to cut the Spartan lead to one.
From there, however, the levee broke for the Wildcats, as the Spartans ripped off a 9-1 run to take a commanding 37-30 lead.
Custer eventually fell behind by as much as 14 in the fourth quarter following a Mason Southern three-pointer, but Custer tried one last time to get back into the game as the Wildcat press began to force Spartan turnovers. It was too little, too late, however, as the Wildcats ran out of time to complete any comeback.
“Spearfish is a good team. They compete with athleticism and are physical. That’s what they have to do,” Kelley said. “We have to do a better job in that situation.”
Kyle Virtue was the only Wildcat to score in double figures, netting 19 points. The Spartans held Custer’s all-conference backcourt of Lowe and Lehman to 11 combined points, including zero in the first half. Petz led the team in rebounding with 11.
“Ayden competed all night long and did everything he could. He made the decision he was going to compete that night,” Kelley said. “Any time we would seem to get a little momentum going we made a bad mistake.”
Spearfish’s charge was led by Cooper Gibbs, who made 10 of 14 attempts and wasn’t really on the Wildcats’ radar as a player they needed focus on in the lead up to the game. Kelley said much of Gibbs’ points were a result of Wildcat players not sticking to the scouting report.
“We were switching everything, but when we didn’t switch, Cody (Dirkes) had to go out there and (Gibbs) slipped in and got some baskets,” he said. “It was mental breakdowns on our part defensively.”
The streaky shooting from behind the arc has been a source of concern for the Wildcats all season, and Kelley said when his players get the shots in rhythm rather than off the dribble they are more successful.
“We are taking shots we can get later in the shot clock. We are shooting them too early,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s the kids trying to get going early or what.”
The Wildcats will close out their regular season over the course of the next five days, starting with a Thursday evening game against Lead-Deadwood and a Saturday matchup with Hot Springs that will serve as Parents’ Night.
The Wildcats have already handily defeated Hot Springs and will be overwhelming favorites over the 7-12 Golddiggers, leaving Monday’s game at 13-5 Hill City as the big remaining game on the schedule.
The Wildcats will enjoy a massive size advantage over the Rangers, but the Rangers feature a dangerous backcourt duo of Zane Messick and Devin Buehler, the latter of which recently became Hill City’s all-time leading scorer.
“Those kids kind of grew up with our kids. They played football with our kids in peewee,” Kelley said. “They know each other very well.”
Kelley said the Rangers will live and die with their guards, and the Wildcats will need to know where Messick and Buehler are at all times. They must also use their aforementioned size advantage, Kelley said.
“We have advantage in the height and I think a little more depth,” he said. “We always say rebounding is key for us. We’d like to use our size to our advantage. We know (Hill City) is going to be up for it.”
Custer    15    6    9    15    —45
Spearfish    14    6    17    15    —52
Custer—Ayden Petz 3-7 0-0 7, Cade Lehman 2-10 2-2 8, Rhett Lowe 1-7 0-0 3, Brady Virtue 2 1-2 0-0, Cody Dirkes 3-5 0-1 6, Kyle Virtue 921 1-7 19, Carter Boyster 0-4 0-2 0. Totals: 19-56 3-12 45.
Spearfish—Bennett Koran 4-9 0-2 8, Dylon Doren 5-90-1 10, Kamren Davis 1-5 0-0 2, Mason Southern 1-6 0-0 3, Kade Vavruska 1-6 0-0 2, Tucker Olson 2-3 1-2 7, Cooper Gibbs 10-14 0-0 20. Totals: 24-52 1-5 52.
Three-point goals: Custer 4 (Lehman 2, Lowe, Petz), Spearfish 3 (Olson 2, Southern). Rebounding: Custer 37 (Petz 11), Spearfish 32 (Doren 9, Gibbs 9). Steals: Custer 7, Spearfish 10. Assists: Custer 9, Spearfish 14. Turnovers: Custer 19, Spearfish 16. Total fouls: Custer 11, Spearfish 10. Fouled out: none.