By Rich Winter 

605 Sports

In each of their last two games the Faith girls have come from behind to grab victories. Trailing in their Region 8B semifinal the Longhorns battled back to defeating Harding County, 39-38. In their SoDak 16 game the Longhorns came back from an eight point deficit for the 47-44 win. 

“I think the main thing is the girls truly believed they were going to win,” Faith coach Bryan Carmichael said. “If you just looked at them you would have never known they were down and they believed they had what it took to win.” 

Entering the season and coming off a 13 win season Carmichael wasn’t exactly sure what the finished product would look like. 

“Several people asked me before the season started how we would do and I thought it could go either way,” Carmichael said.

The longtime Faith coach said he felt like the team was going to be competitive but didn’t know how his young team would respond in close games. 

“We won a lot of close games this year,” he said. “As we won those games you could see our confidence growing and we just kept getting better.” 

One of the close games the Faith girls didn’t win was a regular season matchup with Thursday’s first-round opponent, Wall. 

On Jan. 15, playing in the finals of the West River tournament and tied 30-30 with 2.9 seconds remaining the Longhorns were fouled. They made their first free-throw, missed their second and then witnessed one of the more incredible plays in all of Class B this season. 

“We missed that second free-throw, they got it, took two dribbles and fired from the other side of half court,” he said. 

Carmichael remembers thinking not a lot of girls could even throw it that far but he had a perfect angle, saw it all the way as the shot hit nothing but net giving the Eagles a 33-31 win. 

The two teams play the nightcap on Thursday in Watertown as No. 3 (21-2) Wall and No. 6 (18-5) Faith collide in what should be a superb first-round matchup. 

“We feel pretty good about our draw and I’m sure they feel pretty good,” he said. “We are familiar with each other and we know what each other does.” 

The Longhorns are led by senior Cassicy Schuelke who averages close to 15 points. 

“She plays 30-32 minutes and is out there the whole time,” he said. “She’s a great leader, calms everyone down when things aren’t going right and she’s who we look to when we need a basket.” 

Other Faith notables and Carmichael’s breakdown.

• Junior Shada Selby: She’s really improved from a year ago, keeps getting better and is very strong and athletic.    

• Jaysee Jones: She’s a little guard that is just gritty. She never seems to get tired and loves to compete. 

• Freshman post TyAnn Mortenson: She has really come a long way since the beginning of the year and it is fun to see her play now because she believes she can compete. She’s someone we look for when we need a high percentage shot. 

A player that Class B basketball fans might remember from Faith’s last state tournament appearance in 2020 is Kaycee Groves. Groves was a 2nd-team All-State player that year (15.5 pgg, 7.3 rpg, 3.3 apg, 3.3 spg)

Senior Kaycee Groves returned to the Faith lineup about a month ago after two severe knee injuries cost her a junior season and most of her senior year.

“She was playing great at the end of the season and really turned some heads in the SoDak 16 and our first game of the state tournament,” Carmichael said. 

A knee injury between her sophomore and junior seasons derailed most of 2020/2021 and just when she was getting back to playing late in the season, she injured the knee again. 

“She just got back about a month ago,” he said. “We didn’t know if that’s what she should do and we worry if it will hold up but she worked her tail off to come back this season.”  

Carmichael noted his squad hangs their hat on defense. 

“We bring that every night and we’ve gotten better as the season’s gone on,” he said. 

On playing in the state tournament Thursday Carmichael said it is business as usual. 

“I think we have to come out and play like we have been,” he said. “We need to see the ball go through the hoop early then relax and realize it is just another basketball game.”