SIOUX FALLS — No. 1 Sioux Falls Christian and No. 2 Hamlin continued their budding Class A boys basketball rivalry on Saturday.

The two teams, who share the nickname Chargers, have now collided five times in the past three seasons and the previous four meetings have been decided by eight points or less. Hamlin won last season’s Class A state championship, a 53-50 overtime decision in Rapid City. 

On Saturday, Sioux Falls Christian exacted a measure of revenge, and flipped an 11-point deficit into a 75-60 win at packed Sioux Falls Christian gym. 

“It feels great,” Sioux Falls Christian senior Griffen Goodbary said. “The first half was a little rough. They got going, but we knew we had to come out and play better defense and it just felt really good to overcome it.” 

Goodbary, a 6-foot-10 forward headed to South Dakota State, finished with 18 points and threw down an exclamation-point dunk in the final seconds. Goodbary hammered three dunks in the game, two in the fourth quarter and threw down in the waning moments on a lob pass from his brother Cooper Goodbary. 

“It felt great just to put the cherry on top,” Griffen Goodbary said. “Me and Coop talk about it a lot, I tell him to throw a better lob to me. So it was good to see that.”

Sioux Falls Christian’s Brant Wassenaar finished with 22 points. Cooper Goodbary added 16 points for Sioux Falls Christian (6-0). 

Hamlin’s Evan Stormo tossed in 22 points and hit five 3-pointers. Easton Neuendorf recorded 14 points, while Dawson Noem added 10 points. 

Hamlin (5-2) rode its 3-point shooting to spark an 11-point lead with 2:15 left before halftime. Hamlin hit five 3-pointers in the first half, including four triples by Stormo. 

“Evan Stormo was really good and so was Dawson Noem,” Hamlin coach Todd Neuendorf said. “Zac VanMeeteren did a heckuva job defensively. Jackson Wadsworth did a great job defensively. Our kids played well enough to win. We made some mistakes and things that didn’t help us. But that’s the way it is when you play a good team.” 

Easton Neuendorf, an all-state point guard, was whistled for his third foul late in the second quarter. He sat the final 2+ minutes on the bench, and Sioux Falls Christian took advantage, cutting the deficit to 40-35 at halftime. 

“When you are doing double digits it can be a little disheartening,” Sioux Falls Christian coach Mike Schouten said. “But we were able to get some momentum there by cutting it to five and I feel that just carried over into the third quarter.”

In the third quarter, Hamlin was held to two made field goals and hit just one 3-pointer overall in the second half.  

“We played well in the first half,” Todd Neuendorf said. “We got bullied in the second half, and we didn’t respond.”

Sioux Falls Christian, meanwhile, hit seven field goals in the third quarter and outscored Hamlin 20-7 over the eight minutes.  

“We were just not happy at all with our defensive effort,” Schouten said about the first half. “I thought we were a step slow. We maybe got pushed around a little too much. We just ratcheted it up the intensity on the defensive end and just guarded better.”

Wassenaar was instrumental in the third quarter, and scored nine of his 22 points in the frame. 

“That’s just Brant being Brant, and he has that ability,” said Schouten about the 6-foot-5 sophomore guard. “We are really glad we have him. Because there aren't many kids like him in the state of South Dakota. He has that ability and he has that confidence to do it. So we are not afraid to turn it over to him.”

Sioux Falls Christian led 55-47 after the third quarter, and Hamlin stayed within striking distance until the final minutes. Sioux Falls Christian led 63-56 with 3:35 left, and stretched the margin to double digits before closing it out late. 

It will likely be the first of two regular-season meetings. The teams will more than likely face off at the NEC/Dak-XII Clash in Madison on Feb. 1. 

And another potential meeting looms at the state tournament — similar to last year. 

“We will probably see them again,” Griffen Goodbary said. “But we will be ready. I feel like we learned a lot in the second half, and we will be ready for them again.”