MITCHELL — Corsica-Stickney relished the underdog role on Saturday. 

The Jaguars, who have qualified for the past four state tournaments, were the No. 4 seed in the Region 5B girls basketball tournament and ran up against No. 1 seed Andes Central/Dakota Christian at the Corn Palace. 

It was a role reversal for both teams and Corsica-Stickney coach Lorisa Broughton said the Jaguars used it to their advantage. 

“That was definitely to our advantage and we talked about that coming in,” said Broughton after Corsica-Stickney’s 45-38 upset win over AC/DC. “We were like we’ve been here and we know what it feels like. The only difference was this time we didn't have a target on our back and we haven’t been able to play that way for a long time.”

The Jaguars (13-8) held the Thunder to their second-lowest scoring output of the season and advanced to the SoDak 16 next week.  

“We just played really sound defense and we have a lot of girls who can really defend and that was kind of the difference,” Corsica-Stickney senior forward Avery Broughton said. 

The Thunder (18-4) handed the Jaguars a 67-47 setback on Jan. 17. On Saturday, the Jaguars held AC/DC to 10 of 38 shooting from the field and won the rebounding margin, 30-15.  

“I just thought our defensive intensity was the difference for us,” Lorisa Broughton said. “The girls bought into what we were doing. We went over how we wanted to defend it and I thought they did a really good job of executing that.”

The teams both struggled at converting offensively in the opening three quarters. They held each other scoreless through the first four minutes and AD/DC led by 8-5 after the first quarter. It was deadlocked at 16-16 at halftime and AC/DC was clinging to a 24-23 lead entering the final quarter. 

That’s when Broughton buried two key 3-pointers to stretch Corsica-Stickney’s lead to six points.  

“That was definitely a momentum shifter for sure,” Avery Broughton said. “You could just feel it. The crowd was getting into it and the bench and everybody on the floor. You could just feel it’s go time and we are going to win this.”

The Jaguars pushed their lead to nine points and closed out the game at the free-throw line.

Broughton finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds, while battling an ankle injury. The University of South Dakota signee injured her ankle against Avon in the region opener and has undergone two ACL injuries during her career.   

“She muscled through a lot of pain,” said Lorisa Broughton, who is Avery’s mom. “I am glad the game was today because I don't know if she could have gone.”

The game was originally scheduled for earlier in the week, but a snowstorm pushed it back to Saturday. 

“Sometimes snow storms are good,” Lorisa Broughton joked.  

Corsica-Stickney’s Sydney Spaans had 11 points and five rebounds. Braylee Bordewyk and Sutten Eide scored five points apiece. Payton DeLange had 10 rebounds, four assists and three points. 

AC/DC’s Allison Muckey finished with 10 points, while Halle Olson added six points. Josie Brouwer and Isabella Brouwer scored five points apiece.