By Richard Anderson

605 Sports

RAPID CITY – Towards the end of Saturday night’s Class AA boys’ state title game, the Brandon Valley student section began to chant, “M-V-P, M-V-P“ every time Lynx junior guard Briggs Knutson touched the basketball.

In reality, there was no most valuable player of the tournament or game awarded and Knutson didn’t even make the all-tournament team.

But to the Lynx fans and most people inside The Summit Arena, he was the most valuable player of the game in which the Lynx rallied past defending state champion Mitchell 53-45.

Knutson scored a game-high 17 points on 5-of-9 3-pointers, with 14 of those points coming in the second half as Brandon Valley outscored Mitchell 34-24.

As impressive as his shooting night was, you have to put in perspective when you look at Knutson’s previous two games of the tournament – 10 total points scored (five in each win) as he hit just 1-of-4 3-pointers. Going into the tournament, he averaged 6.2 points a game and hit 31-of-98 3-pointers in 21 games.

When you’re hot, you just keep on shooting. Knutson was 1-of-5 from beyond the arc in the first half, but 4-of-6 in the second half.

“Once I hit that second one (early in the third quarter), I just kind of knew they were going in today,” said Knutson. “Somedays you just get that feeling and especially in a big moment like this, it’s a great feeling.”

They were big 3-pouinters as well as the Lynx rallied from a two-point halftime and then after Mitchell scored the first four points of the third, his first of two third-quarter 3-pointers got his team going. His second – along with two from freshman Lincoln McInerney –helped put the Lynx back in the lead, a lead they never gave up the rest of the way. Knutson hit two more 3-pointers in the fourth quarter as Brandon Valley outscored Mitchell 17-13.

“Briggs is so solid,” said Brandon Valley head coach Craig Nelson. “The assist to turnover ratio, being our quarterback of the basketball team and getting us into stuff. Tonight he had to step into a little more of a scoring role and he did.”

Brandon Valley hit 10-of-21 3-pointers as a team, including 6-of-11 in the second half. Overall, the Lynx shot 57 percent from the field in the second half (12-of-21) and 45 percent in the game (18-of-40).

“We just had guys get open a lot better – Landon (Dulaney), Aiden (Zerr), guys down in the post,” said Knutson . “That gave us a lot of wide open shots from the outside.”

Defense can often lead to offense and that certainly helped the Lynx in the second half against the Kernels. Brandon Valley had six steals in the game, five in the second half.

“Once we get those steals and are on the fast break, that’s when we get those open 3s and get the momentums rolling,” said Knutson.

Then there is McInerney, who didn’t play in the first half and only was on the court for 3 minutes and 42 seconds in the final two quarters. He hit both of his 3-point attempts in the Brandon Valley third-quarter 9-0 rally.

“I think when Lincoln McInerney, our freshman, came in and made two of them (3-pointers), it kind of relaxed everybody,” Nelson said. “We kind of went from down three to up three. We just played a little more free after that. We usually give him a two-minute run in each half and just kind of see if he is cooking. It happened this time. He stepped up as a freshman and confidently knocked them down.”

Knutson said it is amazing the poise McInerney has as a freshman in a state tournament title game.

“We’ve trusted him the whole year, he has been shooting well,” Knutson said. “We found a place for him and he just did his thing

Last year’s one-point title-game loss to the Kernels was hard to take for the Lynx, but they were all smiles after Saturday night’s win.

With a smile, Knutson said it is better winning this time around.

 “Obviously the saddest part is we are going to miss the seniors,” he said. “This feels way better, especially going into the off-season and avenging the last game with them last year.”

The “M-V-P” chants didn’t just end after the final horn ended the game; they started again when Knutson climbed the ladder for his part of cutting down the net.

“That feels good,” said Knutson of the MVP chants. “It felt good to hit them (3-pointers), but it was a good team win.”