Roundup: Cobblers unable to sustain consistent play

RAPID CITY— After the spectacular buzzer beating defeat of Sioux Falls Roosevelt, the question became could Rapid City Central sustain such baseball excellence for the rest of the regular season? Head Coach TJ Hay’s main concern about his entertaining and talented team was inconsistent play. Were they the team that folded the tent up against Sioux Falls O’Gorman, or the team that sent Roosevelt to the loser’s locker room courtesy of unprecedented last second heroics? The Cobblers seemed to answer that question when they thumped 4-8 Spearfish, 72-44, but on Saturday afternoon Harrisburg was in town, and a nip-and-tuck overtime battle ended with a 63-55 Harrisburg victory.

Micah Swallow was at the line, with but 3.4 seconds remaining, his team down 48-49, and on the bench a Cobbler player remarked, “I can’t take the stress. It’s bad on my heart.” So much more so for Swallow at the charity stripe, and up went his first free throw, and it missed. A groan went up from the crowd. They were certain he would deliver heroics similar to the Roosevelt game. Now, he needed to sink the second free throw to keep the Cobbler win hopes alive, and this he did, forcing overtime.

Two things the Cobblers did not do against Harrisburg, that they did against Roosevelt, and Roosevelt had already beaten Harrisburg, was crash the glass or play tough defense. Harrisburg took too many drives into the lane for easy buckets and they killed from the arc, Connor Geddes hitting six of ten threes, most of them glaringly uncontested, and racking up 30 points. He had only 6 points at half, so the Cobbler defense on Geddes was nonexistent in the second half. Kohl Meisman led Cobbler scorers with 26, Swallow had 16. Swallow did crash the boards, and had some spectacular rebounds. He put out a huge effort, but it was a lot of pressure to place on a 17-year-old, and to his credit, he did draw the critical two-shot foul that forced overtime.

In a Class A v Class B matchup, the Rapid City Christian Comets hosted Timber Lake Panthers. The Class A Comets were highly favored over the Panthers but Timber Lake slugged it out toe-to-toe with Kyle Courtney’s team, before the wheels finally came off in the late going, and Christian ran away with it, 84-63. Jackson Dibona, a 6-1 junior shooting guard, had 35 points for Christian and tied the school record with nine threes. He also had six rebounds and four steals.

Coach Courtney addressed his play: “Jackson’s been shooting the ball with a lot of confidence the last three or four games. He’s a great kid he works really hard.”

“Just time in the gym, off season work, time in practice,” is how Dibona humbly explained his performance. “Just doing my best. Congrats to Timber Lake they came out and played a really good game.”

“Coach Cody Lawrence I have a ton of respect for him I think he does an amazing job as coach,” Courtney said. “I think that is proven in the past three years, they’ve gone to two state tournaments and the round of 16, last year. He came out with a great game plan and his kids really executed in the first half. My kids, I think that full court press really rattled us.”

But at some point in the third quarter, Christian became decidedly not rattled, and started filling up the net like gangbusters. The Panthers hung with them for a time, but the relentless barrage of fourth quarter threes from Dibona finally broke their spirit.

In other Boys games, White River crushed Platte Geddes, 81-64, last Thursday. Lakota Tech beat Marty, 66-63, on Friday. Chamberlain beat Mobridge-Pollock, 62-58. On Saturday, Dupree beat Lakota Tech 83-73, Stanley County topped Lower Brule 63-62 in a squeaker, RC Stevens beat Sturgis 51-40, Tiospa Zina fell to Dell Rapids, 78-46, and Lyman County crushed Wall, 53-17.

In Girls action on Thursday, White River continued as the top rated, unbeaten Class B team, by mangling Colome, 77-20. Philip beat Dupree, 54-51. Lower Brule topped Mobridge-Pollock, 55-49. On Friday, New Underwood rolled over Lyman County, 51-25. Lakota Tech beat Marty, 64-41. On Saturday, New Underwood beat Harding County, 49-39. Harrisburg had no trouble with RC Central, winning 60-45. White River stayed unbeaten, dispatching a game RC Christian, 62-45.

 

(Contact James Giago Davies at skindiesel@msn.com)