Ethan's Riley Endres, Mitchell Christian's Aiden Lieber reach career milestones in playoff game

Ethan's Riley Endres, Mitchell Christian's Aiden Lieber reached the 1,000-point mark in the same playoff game on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023 in Ethan.

By Marcus Traxler

March 01, 2023 at 11:26 PM

ETHAN, S.D. — A pair of local basketball standouts each reached 1,000 points for their basketball careers in a playoff game on Tuesday night.

Ethan’s Riley Endres and Mitchel Christian’s Aiden Lieber each reached the career milestones in Ethan’s 72-47 win over the Golden Eagles in the Region 3B quarterfinal game in Ethan.

Endres, a 6-foot senior guard, had 14 points to reach the milestone, while Lieber, the 6-foot-2 junior guard, posted 30 points for MCS.

Lieber is the ninth MCS boys basketball player to reach 1,000 points in a career. The effort followed a career-high 40-point scoring effort on Monday in a 79-51 win over Sioux Falls Lutheran in the opening round of the Region 3B playoffs.

He scored in double-figures in all but one of the Golden Eagles’ games this season — including three 30-point games and averaged more than 24 points per contest as Mitchell Christian finished the season at 9-13.

Endres and the Rustlers, who are 18-3, play for a berth in the Class B SoDak 16 at 6 p.m. on Friday night in Salem against Dell Rapids St. Mary in the Region 3B semifinal round.

By Marcus Traxler

Traxler is the assistant editor and sports editor for the Mitchell Republic. He's worked for the newspaper since 2014 and has covered a wide variety of topics. He can be reached at mtraxler@mitchellrepublic.com.