Senior Ben Miller made the most of his minutes Friday night.
After Rapid City Central rallied to overcome a 15-point deficit and take its first lead since the first quarter, Miller sparked the Kernels with six straight points with four minutes remaining in the contest.
Miller hit a 3-pointer, then recorded a steal and headed for the Kernel basket. As Miller went up for the layup, he was fouled and went on to make the free throw.
The Mitchell boys basketball team rode the momentum through the end of the contest to beat the Cobbers 90-83 in front of a raucous crowd at the Corn Palace.
"Ben's worked extremely hard to turn himself into a varsity sharp shooter," Mitchell second-year head coach Erik Skoglund said. "He knows his game and his teammates understand what Ben can do for us."
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In the final four minutes of the contest, Mitchell outscored the Cobbers 21-12.
Friday's game marked the third straight that the Kernels have recorded at least 90 points. Mitchell improved to 3-0 overall and turn around to face Rapid City Stevens at 1:30 p.m. today at the Corn Palace.
"It's definitely an improvement from last year," said Miller, who finished with 12 points. "We're playing with confidence right now."
The Kernels used a balanced scoring attack with four players in double figures. Mitchell was led by senior Beau Brown, who had a team-high 27 points and added eight assists and five rebounds. Senior Keegan Soukup had 16 points, senior Jaron Weich added 15 points and senior Carter Brewster tallied a team-best eight rebounds.
"We have guys coming off the bench scoring eight, nine, 10 points a game, and it all adds up fast," Soukup said. "We had great intensity tonight."
The Kernels made 11 three-point baskets to Rapid City's four -- something Skoglund was impressed with.
"That's happening because they're collapsing on Beau's drives, and other guys are getting in and having confidence in their shots," Skoglund said. "You can talk about confidence all you want, but confidence comes from a demonstrated ability. Once you've been in a varsity game with a big crowd and knock that shot down, you're going to have the confidence to do it again."
Miller, Weich and sophomore Connor Morgan each had three 3-pointers in the contest for Mitchell, which shot 48 percent from the field, 50 percent from behind the arc and 86 percent from the line.
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Cobbler head coach Vince Spease said his team played tentatively through most of the game.
"I thought defensively we played scared," said Spease, whose team plays at Huron today. "We missed layups, we missed free throws, we missed enough where we didn't win the game. Until (Mitchell) starts missing shots and having a rough night where those things aren't falling, they're playing with a lot of confidence."
The Cobblers (1-2), who won the rebounding battle 41-35, were led by Ryan Clemmons with a game-high 31 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double. Josh Dotson added 15 points and Tucker Berg had 10 points for Rapid City, which shot 42 percent from the field, 27 percent from three-point range and 72 percent from the free throw line.
NOTES: Mitchell junior Kanin Nelson did not play in Friday night's game due to a foot injury he suffered Tuesday. Skoglund said Nelson was going to "get a second opinion" on the injury early next week. Skoglund did not know when or if Nelson will return for Mitchell. ... Mitchell junior Gray Determan, a threat off the bench, also sat out against the Cobblers. Skoglund said Determan had "non-basketball" concussion and hopes he'll return to the court next week. ... There were an estimated 1,800 people in attendance for Friday's tripleheader, which also featured Dakota Wesleyan University's basketball programs.
Rapid City (1-2)
Tanner Sumption 4-8 0-0 9; Josh Dotson 5-9 4-4 15; Parker Schnabel 4-8 4-4 15; Ryan Clemmons 9-17 13-17 31; Tucker Berg 2-10 4-6 10; Donnie Pallatto 3-8 0-2 6; Tony Menard 1-3 0-0 2; Noah Fenske 1-6 0-0 2; Tanner Aberle 0-0 0-0 0; Totals: 29-69 21-29 83.
Mitchell (3-0, 2-0 ESD)
Tyler Houwman 1-3 4-4 6; Jaron Weich 3-9 6-8 15; Carter Brewster 0-6 4-4 4; Beau Brown 12-19 2-2 27; Keegan Soukup 7-10 1-1 16; Jed Schmidt 0-3 0-0 0; Connor Morgan 3-6 0-0 9; Ben Miller 4-5 1-1 12; Elijah Pommer 0-1 0-0 0; Kyle Jamison 0-0 0-0 0; Alex Hartman 0-0 1-2 1; Totals: 30-62 19-22 90.
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RCC 14 38 58 83
Mitchell 22 45 65 90
Three-point goals: RCC 4-15 (Sumption, Dotson, Berg 2), M 11-22 (Weich 3, Brown, Soukup, Morgan 3, Miller 3); Rebounds: RCC 41 (Clemmons 10), M 35 (Brewster 8); Assists: RCC 7 (Berg 2), M 12 (Brown 8); Steals: RCC 8 (Berg 2), M 10 (Brown 3); Turnovers: RCC 12, M 10; Personal fouls: RCC 20, M 22. Technical fouls: none.
Subvarsity scores
JV: RCC won 60-53. Reed Overweg had 14 points and nine rebounds and Carter Cavanaugh had 10 points.
Sophomores: RCC won 65-47. Cody Reichelt recorded 10 points, and Baley Miller grabbed six rebounds.
Freshmen A: RCC won 63-26.
Freshmen B: RCC won 77-24.
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