By Matt Gade

605 Sports

RAPID CITY — While Sydney Terveen may not be a fan of the spotlight, the senior stepped into it Saturday night as Sioux Falls O’Gorman knocked off No. 1 and undefeated Brandon Valley to claim the team’s third-straight Class AA state championship.

Terveen dropped 33 points, shooting 7-of-9 from the 3-point line and grabbed six rebounds as O’Gorman won 59-53 over the Lynx.

“She doesn't like the spotlight on her. She just wants to be part of a team. And that's all our kids,” O’Gorman head coach Kent Kolsrud said. “They don't really care who gets the success. They just want to win, compete for state championships.”

The Knights have a plethora of weapons, whether it’s junior Ruby Moore, fellow senior Sadie Mehrman, sophomore Ellie Meyer, and “down the line,” according to Kolsrud. But on Saturday night, it was Terveen’s time to shine.

“I mean, being a senior, I feel like it just gave me that extra motivation,” Terveen said. “This is my last time putting on the Knight’s jersey. So I just honestly wanted to do it for my team, and being able to give it all I have.”

While Terveen was big from 3-point land, her biggest baskets might have come at the free-throw line as the Lynx played the foul game in the final minute, trying to close the Knights’ lead. Terveen finished 6-for-8 at the line for O’Gorman, with the final two points coming in the final 10 seconds of the game.

“It kind of felt like, obviously, the game wasn't over, but it gave us that extra comfort room, like the wiggle around and stuff, in case they did manage to convert a basket,” Terveen said of the free throws. 

For the third-straight year, O’Gorman got the upper hand on the Lynx, but unlike last season, the Knights didn’t have to play from behind. 

The Knights took the lead early, but knew the Lynx would come back and close the gap on O’Gorman. 

“I was really proud of the effort our kids gave starting off,” Kolsrud said. “And a team of Brandon Valley's caliber, we knew they were gonna make a run at us. There was multiple different times in that game where we got it up to 8-10-12 points, whatever Brandon Valley cut it back, 3-4-5 points, and we’d go back out on a run again. 

“We talked a lot about all season long, is handling adversity. The team makes a run at you. You want to keep it to a minimal run and then answer back, and about every time Brandon Valley made a run at us, our kids really answered back.”

Sioux Falls O'Gorman's Sydney Terveen hits a 3-point basket over top of Brandon Valley's Jalisa Parker during the Class AA state championship on Saturday at Summit Arena at The Monument in Rapid City. (Matt Gade/605 Sports)

The adversity this season for the Knights started in their first game of the season, with Brandon Valley defeating O’Gorman 63-54 in their home gym.

“The first time, we thought Brandon Valley came into our gym and outworked us,” Kolsrud said. “We challenged them before the game that we needed to play harder than them. We needed to get off to a really good start.”

Coming into Saturday night’s contest, Brandon Valley averaged just over 66 points per game. O’Gorman’s defense limited the Knights to their second-lowest scoring total all season.

“Them beating us in the beginning of the year, I feel like it gave us that extra motivation to just come back and compete with them, because they're a really good team, and just try and win and do our best to win this game,” Terveen said. “Our defensive coach always says defense stops the game. Well, you need to have better defense than you need to score, because obviously you need to stop the other teams.”

Terveen, who scored her 1,000 career points back in February, has signed to continue her basketball career at the University of Nebraska-Omaha but has left her mark in the trophy room with the Knights’ third-straight title. 

Terveen finished the tournament with 66 points, 20 rebounds and six assists while being named to the All-Tournament team.

While Terveen was the sole Knight to score in the double digits, she is quick to credit her teammates for allowing her to have the success she did.

“Without my team and just pushing every day in practice, just pushing each other to be our best, that's where it starts,” Terveen said. “Just being able to transport that onto the court helped us all, and just always pushing each other.”