Mitchell boys fall to No. 3 Tigers

HURON —Mitchell struggled without its leading scorer Seth Cavanaugh, who is temporarily out with a mild concussion he suffered Friday.

But “that’s no excuse,” according to head coach Tom Young, whose team lost 61-39 to school-rival and No. 3-ranked Huron Tuesday at Huron Arena.

“We didn’t take care of the ball very well and didn’t have very many good offensive possessions,” said Young, whose team shot 39 percent from the field. “We didn’t get the shots we wanted to get in the second half, and you have to give credit to Huron because they played very good defense on us.”

The Tigers held Mitchell to less than 12 points in each of the four quarters in the Eastern South Dakota Conference matchup.

“When you have bigs that can switch out on screens, guard guards and keep them out of the paint, then you have a good chance at winning,” Huron head coach Tim Buddenhagen said. “I thought our defensive pressure in the second half was the key to our success because their zone is pretty tough. It took away a lot of things on the inside for us.”

Huron shot 62 percent from the field and hit seven 3-pointers in its ninth win of the year.

The first quarter displayed a rivalry-like feel. The Kernels struck first as senior guard Cole Morgan pulled up for two.

Mitchell had a five-point lead before the Tigers raced back with seven straight points in the final minute and a half of the quarter to go up 12-11. The game stayed close in the second until Huron went on its second 7-0 run, building a 29-22 lead at the half.

To open the third, the Tigers continued attacking the basket — highlighted by back-to-back buckets and a three by junior center Justin Decker — and went ahead 38-22 with four minutes left in the quarter.

“I thought we competed hard early and there was a period of maybe six to eight minutes in the second half where we dropped our heads and didn’t compete as hard as we should of,” Young said. “They’re a good team and have some really good players. They hit their outside shots and in the second half we just gave them too many opportunities.”

From that point, Huron remained in control and was led by junior forward Caleb Carr with 18 points and junior guard J.P. Noonan with 15. Senior forward Adam Zwanziger had a game-high seven rebounds for Huron, which outrebounded Mitchell 27-16.

Sophomore guard Beau Brown led Mitchell in scoring with 18 points and in rebounding with four. Brown was the only Kernel to score in double figures.

The Tigers improved to 9-3 and are on a four-game winning streak, while the Kernels dropped to 3-10 on the season.

Mitchell’s next game is against Brookings at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Brookings.

HURON 61

MITCHELL 39

Huron (9-3, 5-3 ESD)

J.P. Noonan 6-8 0-0 15; Will Carr 0-3 0-0 0; Lucas Morrison 2-2 0-0 5; Adam Zwanziger 2-3 0-0 4; Justin Decker 4-6 0-0 9; Josh Brooks 0-1 0-0 0; Alex Kopfmann 1-2 2-2 5; James White 0-0 0-0 0; Caleb Carr 9-11 0-1 18; Hayden Busch 1-2 0-0 3; Tre Henderson 0-0 0-0 0; Tate Sporrer 1-4 0-0 2; Totals: 26-42 2-3 61.

Mitchell (3-10, 1-8 ESD)

Cole Morgan 2-9 0-0 4; Jared Schmidt 1-2 0-0 2; Zach Moen 2-4 0-0 4; Beau Brown 7-15 1-2 18; Josh Schmidt 1-1 0-0 2; Ben Prill 0-0 0-0 0; Ryker Kruezfelt 0-0 0-0 0; Ethan Jones 3-6 0-0 7; Derek Miller 1-4 0-0 2; Neil Schlimgen 0-0 0-0 0; Jon Jamison 0-0 0-0 0; Evan Mastel 0-2 0-0 0; Totals: 17-44 1-2 39.

MHS 11 22 31 39

HHS 12 29 48 61

3-point goals: H 7-15 (Noonan 3, Morrison 1, Decker 1, Busch 1), M 4-19 (Brown 3, Jones 1); Rebounds: H 27 (Zwanziger 7), M 16 (Brown 4); Assists: H 4, M 10 (Morgan 5); Steals: H 17 (Zwanziger 3); M 16 (Moen 4); Turnovers: H 18, M 16; Personal fouls: H 9, M 10; Technical fouls: None.

Subvarsity scores

JV: Mitchell 56-50. Derek Miller led all players with 18 points and five rebounds. Neil Schlimgen scored 15 points. Kanin Nelson also grabbed five rebounds.

Sophomores: Huron 36-26. Kanin Nelson scored a game-high 10 points and nine rebounds. Ben Miller scored six points.

Freshmen: Mitchell 59-47. Gray Determan scored 23 points.

Tags: sports, updates, mitchell, basketball, kernels, huron