By Rich Winter

605 Sports

SPEARFISH — On what may arguably be the prettiest college campus in the state of South Dakota, the Donald E. Young Center on the campus of Black Hills State saw some superb basketball on day one of the Class A girls state basketball tournament.

Following the quarterfinal action here are some of the numbers and the players that stood out on the biggest stage. 

Ashlan Carlow-Blount, Mahpiya Luta (29 and 7): Carlow-Blount delivered one of the all-time great stat lines in Thursday’s 76-39 win over Wagner. The junior guard finished with 29 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and seven steals. Despite the up-tempo nature of this game and the Mahpiya Luta defense forcing 39 Wagner turnovers, Carlow-Blount, the point guard of the team had just one turnover. As a team, Mahpiya Luta had just seven turnovers. It feels like you are watching an old-school tutorial on how to play basketball the right way when you are watching Carlow-Blount play. She uses the backboard, she uses the mid-range jumper, the left-hand and never seems to force anything. What most fans and spectators didn’t see was that after the game, while her team celebrated, Carlow-Blount waited for Wagner to break their post-game huddle. Carlow-Bount stayed behind so she could offer some words of comfort and a hug to fellow junior, Ashlyn Koupal who had just gone through a difficult and emotional loss. 

Dakota Valley’s stellar freshman (43): Dakota Valley improved to 22-2 after Thursday’s 65-57 win and the Panthers may just be only on the verge of being a great basketball team. Of the 65 points scored on Thursday, 43 came off the fingertips of Ella Otten, Katie Betsworth and Aubree Worden. Otten led the way 

Three other players reached double-figures for Dakota Valley as Otten led the way with 17 points, three rebounds and two assists. Aubree Worden added 11 points and eight rebounds while Betsworth added 15 points and five rebounds. 

Otten, Worden and Betsworth are all freshmen and Dakota Valley coach Tammy Lilly said she has the ultimate confidence in her young players. 

“I trust them a ton and they have earned that trust,” she said. “They do a phenomenal job in the offseason working on their game and their skills and they do it everyday in practice. In my eyes they are not freshmen. I know they are freshmen on the roster but they got it.” 

Addison Neuendorf and Addie Steffensen (37): Hamlin pulled away in the second half of Thursday’s game against Mobridge-Pollock for a 65-53 win. Like they have done all season the Addie’s led the Chargers as Addie Steffensen finished with 19 points and Addison Neuendorf had 18 points for a combined total of 37 points.

Having two Addie’s on the same team is definitely unique.

“It has been a conversation we’ve had many times but we do Addie S, Addie N, Addie J, whatever comes to mind,” Addie Steffensen said following the game. 

Leading 38-32 early in the third quarter of Thursday’s quarterfinal game against Mobridge-Pollock, Hamlin coach Tim Koisti called a timeout. 

Hamlin’s Addison Neuendorf had just hit a 3-pointer but Koisti wasn’t happy about the defense on the previous possession. 

“At that point they had a run out layup and I told them we gotta dig down,” Koisti said. “I told them we had to find some extra energy so we didn’t give up any more shots.” 

Following Koisti’s early third-quarter timeout Addie Steffensen hit another 3-pointer that stretched the lead to 41-32.

“I just told them they needed to be patient,” Koisti said. “We could get to the rim if we wanted but we were going too quickly and they hadn’t spread out yet. They were patient and they found each other and they found a way to get some shots to go down.” 

By the end of the third quarter Hamlin opened the lead to 51-34. Midway through the final period Neuendorf’s runner off the glass gave Hamlin their biggest lead 59-39.