TDA tops South Central for district title

The Tripp-Delmont/Armour Nighthawks held on to defeat the South Central Cougars 54-46 in the boys’ District 12B championship game Friday night at the Corn Palace.

The Nighthawks used a dominant second quarter to build a 10-point lead at halftime. Tripp-Delmont/Armour held South Central to three points during the second quarter, while scoring 15 points. Adam Fink hit a 3-point buzzer-beater to end the half at 27-17.

However, the Cougars opened the third quarter with a 6-0 run and were able to erase the 10-point lead in the first minutes of the third quarter.

Tripp-Delmont/Armour head coach Burnell Glanzer said poor defense by his team allowed the Cougars to get back in the game during the third quarter.

“We worked hard to build us a 10-point lead by halftime and then gave it all back in about four minutes,” Glanzer said. “We didn’t secure the offense, we didn’t secure our shots and didn’t defend, so then (South Central) got it all back.”

The Cougars were able to pull within three points to end the third quarter at 39-36.

South Central was able to tie the game at 39 in the fourth quarter, but never took the lead.

South Central head coach Clayton Steele said the team’s inability to score in the second quarter ultimately led to the loss on Friday.

“We had some easy looks and we failed to score on (TDA), and that really hurt,

he said. “We got down 10 and were able to come out in the second half and get right back in it, but that second quarter really hurt us, and we couldn’t get the lead after that.”

Fink led the Nighthawks with a game-high 28 points. Trevor Payer added 11 points and nine rebounds. TDA shot 15-of-30 from the field and went 23-of-29 from the free-throw line for 79 percent. The Nighthawks had 22 total rebounds and 12 turnovers.

Dakota Votaw led South Central with 13 points. Brian Juran added 10 points and Tyler Frank scored eight points. South Central shot 15-of-45 from the field for 33 percent and went 4-of-10 from the free-throw line for 40 percent. Derek Sachtjen led the Cougars in rebounding with eight. Juran had four rebounds. South Central had 20 total rebounds and eight turnovers.

South Central ended its season at 10-11.

Tripp-Delmont/Armour improved to 16-6 on the season and will play the winner of the boys’ District 11B championship game between Hanson and Ethan, which takes places at 4:30 p.m. today.

TDA 12 27 39 54

SC 14 17 36 46

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