Wildcats boys drop three more

The front-loaded schedule being played by the Custer High School boys basketball team resulted in three more losses last week, as the boys started the week with a loss to Chadron, Neb., and ended it with a home loss to Wall.
The Wildcats battled the visiting Eagles, one of the top-ranked teams in Class B, for well into the fourth quarter until a strange and confusing series of events turned a seven-point deficit into a 12-point deficit. 
The sequence, which happened early in the fourth quarter, started with Cheydon McPhee saving a ball careening out of bounds off a Wall player’s foot, resulting in an inbounds play. Zachary Cooper, who was at the scorer’s table, was waived into the game—sort of—and the officials immediately began play again, all the while Custer had six players on the court. McPhee and a Wall assistant coach tried to alert the officials Custer had six players on the court, while Wall’s Keelan Kjerstad was burying a three-pointer.
After holding a discussion the basket stood and Custer was assessed a technical foul for having six players on the court, awarding Wall two free throws and the ball.
“The ref kind of halfway waived (Cooper) in, but did not administer him coming in as it should have been,” Custer head coach Tayton Vincent said. “It went from a seven-point game to a 12-point game just like that.”
From there, Kjerstad, who went for 34 points in the game, including seven three-pointers, caught fire, and the Eagles were able to keep the Wildcats at bay for the remainder of the game.
The Wildcats were focused on limiting Kjerstad in the game and did a decent job of it until he was able to bust loose in the second half.
“We knew he was going to shoot and shoot often and the odds were he was going to score 20 to 30 points,” Vincent said. “We wanted to make sure he had to earn all of them. He took advantage of a couple of plays guys took off and was knocking shots down.”
The Wildcats gave the Eagles all they wanted prior to the technical foul, taking a first quarter lead after a Brady Virtue drive down the lane for two followed by a Mason Dirkes three-pointer. The Wildcats extended to a 13-8 lead after a Regan Sorenson three-pointer.
The teams exchanged leads throughout the second quarter, with Custer taking the lead at 16-15 following a Virtue drive, which was followed by a Cooper move to the basket for two.
A Kjerstad three-pointer tied the score at 22-22, but Custer was back up four moments later following a Virtue putback.
That was followed by back-to-back three-pointers by Emmet Dinger and Jace Mohr for the Eagles, giving them a 28-27 edge at halftime.
Custer momentarily took the lead to start the third quarter following another Virtue putback of a teammate’s miss, but Kjerstad hit another three-pointer to put the Eagles up 31-29.
Custer stayed within one following a pair of Sorenson free throws, but two more three-pointers—one by Kjerstad and one by Trevor Schultz—put the Eagles up 39-34. A Dinger three-pointer put the Eagles up six points toward the end of the quarter.
The Wall lead grew by only one more point prior to the technical and confusion, which led to Vincent being demonstrably frustrated as the situation unfolded.
“When your players play hard and you are not rewarded or you play hard and things that are out of your control (happen), it’s tough to not stand up for them,” Vincent said. “For as hard as we played I felt we got zero reward.”
Vincent joked the cool temperature in the Armory (the heating system took most of the day’s games to heat the Armory up to a comfortable temperature) may have kept him cool enough to prevent him from picking up a technical foul.
Vincent credited Wall, saying it is a very good team that eventually wore his charges down late in the game.
“They were able to get second chance points. They are such a solid team. They have played a lot of basketball game together,” he said. “We did a lot of really good things. Kjerstad earned all the shots he made. We limited some of their other guys.”
Dirkes led the Wildcat scoring effort with 16 points, while Virtue had 12 points and 10 rebounds and Cooper had 11 points. Sorenson pulled down 10 rebounds, as well.
Last Thursday the team was in Sturgis, falling behind early and never getting back into the game in a 54-28 loss.
The Wildcats fell behind 17-7 after the first quarter and had only 12 points at the half, trailing 37-12. 
“We didn’t match their physicality, and our shots were not falling early on,” Vincent said. “Usually when you hold a team to 54 points you’re in the ball game, but there was a running clock. We have to match the physicality of (Class) AA basketball, but with freshmen and sophomores sometimes it’s tough to do that.”
Virtue led the Wildcat charge with 12 points, and was the only Wildcat to score more than five points.
On Jan. 20 the team was in Chadron, Neb., for its second matchup of the season with the Cardinals. The homestanding Cards were victorious in the rematch as they were in the first game, coming away with a 45-36 game.
The Wildcats were undone by a first quarter in which they were outscored 14-1, playing the Cardinals to a draw the remainder of the game.
“In the first quarter we couldn’t put the ball in the hole,” Vincent said, saying inserting McPhee into the game in the second quarter led to a spark that pushed the pace and got transition baskets. “We closed the half well, but down the stretch we couldn’t get the ball to fall or get consecutive stops. Our defense kept us in it.”
Of the 57 shots the Wildcats put up in the game, 33 were three-points. Of those attempts, only four went in—good for only 12 percent.
“We took too many,” Vincent said.
Sorenson led Custer with 11 points, while Virtue had nine rebounds.
The Wildcats took on Rapid City Christian last night in the Amory, the results for which were unavailable at press time, and won’t return to action until next Tuesday when they host the 1-6 Douglas Patriots at 7:30 p.m. in the Armory.
Vincent said he wants to see the team that came out strong against ranked teams such as St. Thomas More and Wall as opposed to the team that was flat and dug itself too big of a hole against Sturgis and Chadron.
“It’s a matter of doing the little things, playing a full 32 minutes, screening for each other, helping each other on defense,” Vincent said. “When you play against a team (not as strong) in the win-loss column, you have to make sure you don’t drop your level of play if you’re better than that team.”
And despite his team’s 2-10 record, Vincent said his team continues to show improvement each time out.
“You can look at our record—you can do that—but that doesn’ tell the whole story,” he said. “We have improved each and every week on things and are playing more and more of a complete game. We are going to be in ball games down the stretch, getting more shots to fall, tightening up our sets and taking care of the ball in crunch time.”
Custer    13    14    14    10    —51
Wall    8    20    18    21    —67
Custer—Cheydon McPhee 0-0 3-4 3, Mason Dirkes 6-10 2-2 16, Brady Virtue 6-13 0-0 12, Jayse Noem 0-3 1-2 1, Curtis Sorenson 0-2 0-0 0, Veek Johncour 0-1 0-0 0, Ian Schiffer 1-2 0-0 2, Regan Sorenson 1-6 3-4 6, Zachary Cooper 4-10 3-6 11, Jaden Chee-Fisher 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 18-48 12-18 51.
Wall—Emmet Dinger 3-12 0-2 8, Dawn Handcock 2-7 2-2 7, Jace Mohr 2-4 1-2 6, Austan Kjerstad 0-2 0-0 0, Teelan Kjerstad 11-26 5-6 34, Younger Amiotte 3-3 0-0 6, Trevor Schulz 2-10 1-2 6. Totals: 23-64 9-14 67.
Three-point goals: Custer 3 (Dirkes 2, Sorenson), Wall 12 (T. Kjerstad 7, Dinger 2, Handcock, Mohr, Schulz). Rebounding: Custer 33 (Virtue 10, Sorenson 10), Wall 39 (Handcock 8). Steals: Custer 8, Wall 10. Assists: Custer 8, Wall 20 (Mohr 6). Turnovers: Custer 18, Wall 13. Total fouls: Custer 19, Wall 30. Fouled out: McPhee, Sorenson.
Custer    7    5    12    5    —29
Sturgis    17    20    10    7    —54
Custer—Cheydon McPhee 1-4 0-2 3, Mason Dirkes 1-5 1-1 3, Brady Virtue 5-11 2-6 12, Jayse Noem 0-1 0-0 0, Curtis Sorenson 0-4 2-2 2, Regan Sorenson 3-9 0-2 6, Zachary Cooper 1-7 0-0 3. Totals: 11-41 5-13 29.
Sturgis—Gage West 2-6 0-0 4, Ethan Graf 2-6 0-0 6, Jaxon Cano 2-3 2-2 6, Hayden Rock 9-16 3-3 21, Jack Jolley 2-9 0-0 5, Wyatt Jensen 3-5 0-0 7, Troy Wolter 0-1 0-0 0, Greir Simon 2-3 0-0 5. Totals: 22-49 5-5 54.
Three-point goals: Custer 2 (McPhee, Dirkes), Sturgis 5 (Graf 2, Jolley, Jensen, Simon). Rebounding: Custer 20 (R. Sorenson 6), Sturgis 37 (West 9). Steals: Custer 5, Sturgis 9. Assists: Custer 7, Sturgis 15 (Rock 6). Turnovers: Custer 12, Sturgis 11. Total fouls: Custer 7, Sturgis 17. Fouled out: none.
Custer    1    14    11    10    —36
Chadron    14    9    11    11    —45
Custer—Cheydon McPhee 0-3 0-0 0, Mason Dirkes 0-7 0-2  0, Brady Virtue 4-10 0-0 8, Jayse Noem 2-5 0-0 5, Curtis Sorenson 1-4 0-0 3, Carter Cooper 1-4 0-0 3, Regan Sorenson 3-11 5-7 11, Zachary Cooper 2-13 1-1 6. Totals: 13-57 6-10 36.
Chadron—Haiven Catches 4-8 0-0 10, Tyson Pourier 5-13 1-2 12, Kole Carnahan 2-5 0-0 5, Eliu Paopao 0-2 0-0 0, Derek Bissonette 1-6 2-4 5, Brayden Linegar 6-12 1-2 13. Totals: 18-46 4-9 45.
Three-point goals: Custer 4 (Noem, C. Sorenson, C. Cooper, Z. Cooper), Chadron 5 (Catches 2, Pourier, Carnahan, Bissonette). Rebounding: Custer 35 (Virtue 9), Chadron 34 (Carnahan 10). Steals: Custer 6, Chadron 6). Assists: Custer 10, Chadron 15. Turnovers: Custer 14, Chadron 15. Total fouls: Custer 12, Chadron 12. Fouled out: none.