WATERTOWN — Lennox’s defense set up a rematch with Hamlin.

The No. 5 seed Lennox locked down No. 4 Sioux Valley, 42-28, in Class A girls basketball state tournament first-round action on Thursday at the Watertown Civic Arena. The Orioles (20-3) will now play Hamlin on Friday at 5 p.m., CT in the championship semifinals, their third meeting this season. 

On Thursday, Lennox led from start to finish and suffocated Sioux Valley (21-3) defensively to advance to the semifinals. 

“I know people have moved away from the saying ‘defense wins championships,’ ” Lennox coach Adam Quail said. “But gosh it does a lot to get you there.”

Bergan Musser, a 5-foot-11 promising freshman forward, finished with 13 points, nine rebounds and five of the team’s 20 steals. Tori Gerdes added 12 points and seven rebounds. Teagen Sturm totaled nine points and three rebounds for Lennox, which held Sioux Valley to 33 points below its season average.  

Sioux Valley, which was held to a season-low 28 points, shot 0-of-16 from the 3-point line and was forced into 21 turnovers. 

“We really worked hard to make sure that they didn’t make any threes,” Musser said. “It was a whole team effort.”

Lennox set the defensive tone in the first half, holding the Cossacks to long stretches without field goals and led 17-8 at halftime. Sioux Valley scored just four points in each of the first two quarters. 

“It was really big,” Musser said about the defensive effort. “We always try to prioritize our defense. So that was really good we could hold them to that.” 

Lennox continued to defend at a high level in the second half, and got enough offense to secure the first-round victory. The Orioles collected 40 rebounds, compared to 27 Cossack boards. 

But Quail admitted there were still things to clean up, including cutting down on the 15 turnovers. 

“I would like to limit those to under 10,” Quail said. “So there’s still things to improve on and a lot of that is Sioux Valley did a good job as well. They’ve had a week to prepare for us. So that first game is just a battle. So I am glad we were able to pull it out and advance to the night session.” 

Sioux Valley’s Masey Top scored 10 points and added three rebounds. Kailey Cradduck, a 5-foot-11 junior guard committed to Division I South Dakota, was held to six points and nine rebounds. Cradduck entered the game averaging 15.2 points per game. 

Miley Keating scored six points for Sioux Valley, which shot 27% overall from the field. 

“I am just so proud of the way we defended,” Quail said. “But also our scout team in practice did a tremendous job as you can see on the stats. Just preparing us for what we were going to see in Sioux Valley.” 

The Cossacks will play Lakota Tech at 11 a.m., Friday in the consolation semifinals. Sioux Valley clipped Lakota Tech, 66-63, on Jan. 30. 

Lennox, meanwhile, will get another crack at Hamlin. The Orioles lost both meetings (59-57, 45-42) during the regular season. 

“The last two have been rockfights, and not much offense,” Quail said. “So we will see what happens tomorrow night.”