The Week Ahead: South Dakota opens this weekend
High school basketball season gets underway this weekend in South Dakota and there are many options for Friday and Saturday viewing across the state.
Weekend Trips. Rapid City Central is in Wyoming for the weekend where they will be the first team to play overall (play on Thursday night) and the competition includes two Wyoming teams and a Nebraska team in a three day span.
SF Washington is getting after it right away by heading to Rapid City and playing RC Stevens on Friday, and then preseason Class A number one St. Thomas More on Saturday.
Class AA Showdowns. As far as the other Sioux Falls programs, we don’t see an O’Gorman game listed by Lincoln and Roosevelt open the year against on another Saturday night. Also on Saturday night #7 Huron and #8 Brandon Valley play at Huron. Huron opens at Watertown Friday night while Brandon Valley hosts Harrisburg so both will have a game under their belt. Pierre TF Riggs and Brookings play Friday so on the first weekend of the season there is already six match-ups between preseason top ten teams.
Class A. Sioux Valley and Sioux Falls Christian are two of the top three teams in Class A and both play double headers this weekend. Sioux Valley’s biggest test will be Clark-Willow Lake while SF Christian hosts Lennox on Friday for their opener (followed by a game with West Central Saturday.
Class A’s Hot Ticket. Tea Area and Dakota Valley are wasting little time as they do battle on opening night matching the number four and number eight ranked teams in the PHD rankings. Tea then plays an Iowa team a day later.
Game of the Weekend! So what is the game of the weekend? Washington vs St. Thomas More will get a lot of votes. Tea Area vs Dakota Valley is tough to beat. What about Class B number one Chester Area versus Flandreau? Both teams have size, a lot of scoring talent returning, and playmakers on the wing.