MITCHELL — After a second-team all-state selection last year, Sawyer Stoebner took another step forward for the Mitchell girls basketball team this season.
Following a campaign in which she averaged 13.9 points and 11.1 rebounds per game, the junior landed on the Class AA all-state first team, as voted on by the South Dakota Basketball Coaches Association.
Stoebner helped Mitchell make the Class AA state tournament as a No. 12 seed, with her 25-point, 14-rebound double-double against Brandon Valley in the SoDak 16, and in Mitchell’s win at the state tournament, she put up 24 points, 16 rebounds, six assists, four steals and four blocks.
“As a team, we got to see (what she could do) on a regular basis. A lot of fans around the state maybe didn’t have that chance,” Mitchell coach Dave Brooks said of Stoebner’s performances. “It was nice in the Brandon Valley game. And then the Watertown game was just a monster game. If people hadn’t seen her or heard about her, the end of the season, that probably put her on the map or opened some eyes.”
The 5-foot-9 forward picked up 12 double-doubles during the campaign and added two more during the postseason. She was the only player in Class AA to average a double-double over the course of the season.
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“It was just a great season,” Brooks said. “I guess that’s what happens when you take talent and combine it with hard work.”
Other players on the Class AA first team include co-players of the year in Brandon Valley senior forward Hilary Behrens, who's signed to play at South Dakota State next season, and Sioux Falls O’Gorman junior guard Mahli Abdouch, an SDSU commit. Behrens averaged 17.3 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.7 steals per game, while Abdouch picked up 16.4 points, 4.5 assists and 3.3 steals per contest.
Behrens and Abdouch were both on the first team last year, with Behrens also being a first-team selection in 2021.
Sioux Falls Washington senior forward Brooklyn Harpe (16.4 points, 6.6 rebounds), Pierre senior guard Remington Price (13.6 points) and Sioux Falls Jefferson senior guard Cierra Watkins (12.9 points) rounded out the first team.
Watkins was selected to the second team last year, along with Stoebner.
Rapid City Stevens sophomore guard/forward Taaliyah Porter (17.1 points, 6.7 rebounds), Jefferson junior forward Jaidyn Dunn (9.9 points, 7.5 rebounds), Watertown senior guard Jaida Young (12 points, five rebounds), Pierre junior forward Reese Terwilliger (12.1 points, 6.7 rebounds), Sioux Falls Lincoln senior forward Mariah Siem and Washington sophomore forward Grace Peterson (11.2 points) made up the second team.
“Having her coming back this year as a second team all-stater and she was able to step up her game a little a little bit more,” Brooks said. “She will just continue to work, because that’s what she does.”
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