RAPID CITY — The Cheyenne-Eagle Butte Braves knocked out another Class A heavyweight on Friday. 

The Braves topped No. 1 seed Pine Ridge, 55-43, in the Lakota Nation Invitational semifinals at the Summit Arena and will play for the championship on Saturday. It was CEB’s second consecutive win over a Class A power, as the Braves upset No. 7 Rapid City Christian in the quarterfinals Thursday. 

On Friday, the Braves (4-0) again relied on unselfish play, balanced scoring and crashing the boards against the Thorpes (3-3). 

“We like to call that Ohitika basketball,” CEB senior Damien Clown said. “That’s just what we keep doing. So we are just going to keep doing that tomorrow.”

Clown tossed in a team-high 20 points and hit three 3-pointers. Levi Elk Nation added 13 points. Kobe White scored 12 points and scored a breakway layup in the closing seconds to set off the Brave celebration. 

CEB’s Nehemiah Veaux added eight points and eight rebounds for the Braves, who have multiple ballhandlers and continually look for the open man. 

“That's the thing about us, you don’t know who is going to go off,” Elk Nation said. “Anybody can go off for 20, 30 and we just play as a team.”

On Friday, Clown set the tone for the Braves and their 14-4 first-quarter lead. Clown scored 10 points in the first quarter, including the final eight points of the frame. 

“I have been struggling a bit,” Clown said. “But my teammates have been bringing me up and so have my coaches.”

The Braves stretched their lead to 23-6 midway through the second quarter and led 30-13 at halftime. 

“It really sets the tempo for what we talked about and what we wanted to do,” CEB coach Galen Eberhard said about the strong start. “It came down to execution and we knew it was only a matter of time before Clown and Levi went off. That’s what they did. They set the tone.”

Elk Nation also set the defensive tone. Elk Nation was the primary defender on Pine Ridge’s Marvin Richard III, who was held to 23 points on 10-of-24 shooting from the field and 1-of-11 at the 3-point line. 

Elk Nation said he relished the opportunity to guard the 2,000-point scorer, and also praised his teammates for their help defense. 

“The big thing is my help,” Elk Nation said. “Because no one is going to guard Marvin 1-on-1. I give props to my teammates. They help me out a lot, collapsing on him and making him pass.”

Richard III, an all-state guard headed to Division I South Dakota, didn’t score his first field goal until the 6:25 mark of the second quarter. He was held to five points in the first half. 

“Levi pestered him,” Eberhard said. “We knew there is no stop in Marv. We knew that we just had to be a pest to him.” 

The Braves ballooned their lead to 44-22 early in the fourth quarter. The Thorpes, who did not have another double-digit scorer, got within 50-38 with 1:15 left. But the deficit was too much to overcome and CEB closed out the game at the free-throw line. 

CEB will now play in its first LNI championship game since 2003, and its gunning for its first title since 2000. 

“I am really looking forward to it,” Clown said about playing in the LNI title game. “It’s an exciting moment. It’s a once in a lifetime moment.”

Eberhard, who was on CEB’s 1996 LNI championship team, knows how special it would be to bring back another title to Eagle Butte. 

“I played in it in ‘96,” Eberhard said. “That’s still with me today. So I really hope these kids take it home. Because I want it to stay with them forever.”