Three Up, Three Down – Class A
What teams in Class A are playing at a high level? Who is struggling? And who is leading the teams? Three Up, Three Down.
Three Up
Groton Area. The Tigers are undefeated through ten games balancing out good wins with some controlling victories over teams they should beat, and ending a 39 game losing streak to Roncalli. Groton Area has some tough games coming up including a game with Sioux Falls Christian but at the moment they are one of two undefeated teams in Class A. Six-foot-4 big man Brodyn DeHoet has led the team much of the year and in the last three games he’s scored 80 points overall.
Crow Creek. The Chieftains have won six straight and ten of 11. The recent victory over Red Cloud was massive for their season as was the victories over Cheyenne-Eagle Butter and others . Crow Creek is the Region 6 leader heading into a big game with Pine Ridge in a week. Five-foot-9 guard Shane Sazue continues to prove that he’s one of the state’s best perimeter shooters each weekend.
Pine Ridge. Holding on to a slight lead in Region 7 is the Thorpes of Pine Ridge. Their 48-45 win over Red Cloud earlier in the month has given them the breathing room as has an important win over Winner last week. Seniors Mankato LeBeau and Charles Schrader continue to lead the way for Pine Ridge. It’s the excellent inside-out combo with LeBeau being the guard hitting shots and Schader scoring in the paint.
Three Down
Tea Area. The Titans haven’t just lost two of three games, they were hammered by Sioux Falls Christian by over 30 points. This is still a fairly new group of Titans so bumps in the road were expected, plus a 7-5 record for a mostly new team is fairly solid. It’s just that the season started so good that expectations may have jumped out too high at the start.
Winner. The Warriors have experienced back to back difficult losses dropping the team to 7-4 on the year and the Todd County loss was by double figures. What they need is to pair that Gregory win with another strong victory.
Madison. The Bulldogs had a recent tough 24 hours losing to Dell Rapids and Sioux Falls Christian by a combined 28 points. Madison hopes to go back on a winning streak having beaten Chamberlain by a score with more winnable games upcoming.