White River comes up a point short of repeating as State B champs

ABERDEEN - After losing Louie Krogman, South Dakota's most prolific scorer to graduation, no one figured on White River being in the mix to defend their State B championship but after a grueling regular season and the early post-season, the Tigers were 20-3 and the number one seed in this year's tournament.

White River defeated Avon and Menno to earn a ticket to the B championship; White River went up on Sully Buttes 15-2 to open the game only to see the Chargers storm back to a 29-27 halftime lead and as the lead went back and forth throughout the second half with Sully Buttes owning their first title since 1969 with a hard fought 74-73.

"This team put an awful lot of hard work into getting ready for this season," said White River head coach Eldon Marshall, "and they played with so much heart, the championship game was a classic with a number of lead changes and at the end one team finishing on topthat's why you work so hard so you are in each and every game."

White River was up 15-4 at the end of one but Sully Buttes out-scored the Tigers 25-12 to take the halftime lead.

At the end of three, Sully Buttes was still up by one and after a foul and a technical foul, the Chargers were up by seven with 24 seconds left when Matthew Bartlett hit back to back threes before time ran leaving White River a point short.

Jake Krogman finished with 27 points, RJ Estes with 25 and Bartlett with 13 points and 11 rebounds. White River finished up with a 22-4 season record with a second place trophy at state after winning state last year.

Utilizing an 8-0 run in the last minute and a half of the game, White River closed out Avon 73-62 in round one of the tourney on Thursday in Aberdeen at the Barnett Center on the campus of Northern State University.

Avon got a late season boost from Matt Dykstra who returned to the team just before the post season after sitting out with shoulder surgery.

Balanced scoring won out over Dykstra's strong performance as Jake Krogman hit for 19 points, eighth grader Wyatt Krogman helped out with 17, RJ Estes 14 and Matthew Bartlett added 11 points and 17 rebounds.

For the second game in a row, White River used an 8-0 run to secure a win and move on to the next level; after Menno started the fourth with a 5-0 run to take a 28-26 lead, White River closed the game out to move on to their second straight championship game in the B's.

The Tigers struggled from three point range hitting only 3/18 but Matthew Bartlett came up strong again scoring 14 with 19 rebounds and three blocked shots.

Krogman added nine.

Both Krogman and Bartlett were named to the All-Tournament team which included Matt Dykstra/Avon, Ryan Yackley, Zach Merwin and Tanner Foth/Sully Buttes, Tate Bruckner and Macon Oplinger/Menno, Zach Trautman/Elkton, Brandon DeVries and Cory Jacobsen and Kyle Weisbeck/Herreid.