HURON — It was business as usual for the De Smet Bulldogs on Tuesday. 

The No. 1 Bulldogs once again looked the part as it dispatched Chester Area, 66-24, in a SoDak 16 boys basketball game on Tuesday at the Huron Arena. The Bulldogs (22-1) will now make their return to Wachs Arena on March 17-19. 

“It’s been our goal to get back to where we were,” said De Smet senior Tory Holland, who finished with 16 points. “It feels really good to know we’ve worked hard to get to where we want to be.”

It is De Smet’s fourth straight tourney berth, including last year’s state championship win over Aberdeen Christian. It is De Smet’s 25 state tourney berth. 

“It’s always fun to get to the state tournament because you have to get there before you can do anything else,” De Smet coach Jeff Gruenhagen said. “It’s just rewarding for us to get through this last stretch of the season and come out and play well tonight and just have a little bit of fun with it.”

On Tuesday, the Bulldogs again bounded their opponent and used a balanced scoring attack to secure another state tourney berth. Damon Wilkinson finished with 17 points and seven rebounds, while Kalen Garry added 12 points. 

For Chester Area (12-11), Stratton Eppard scored 13 of the team’s 24 points. 

De Smet jumped on the Flyers early and held a dominant 38-13 halftime lead. Chester managed just five made field goals on 21 attempts in the first half. 

“It was important to get out and get some offense going early on,” De Smet coach Jeff Gruenhagen said. “We’ve been a little bit slow starting on the offensive side. … Eppard is a really good drive to the basket. I thought Rett did a good job on him tonight and kept him from getting any free looks at the basket.”

The dominating performance continued in the second half. De Smet outscored Chester Area, 28-11, in the second half. The Flyers hit just three of their 20 field-goal attempts in the second half. 

Up next, the Bulldogs will play No. 8 seed Waubay/Summit in the opener on March 17.