RAPID CITY — Rapid City Christian won the rematch.

Rapid City Christian and Pine Ridge collided for the second straight Lakota Nation Invitational boys basketball championship game, but the Comets came on top this time around. 

One year after falling to the Thorpes, Rapid City Christian pulled away for a 79-62 victory and won its second LNI championship in the past three years. 

“It feels great knowing that Pine Ridge and us have a little bit of rivalry going on,” Rapid City Christian senior Julius Frog said. “But I think it helped us having a crowd rooting for us and keeping a mindset no matter what the outcome is we played our hearts out.”

Frog finished with 27 points, and earned the tourney MVP award. The Comets used a balanced-scoring attack to help secure the championship, offsetting the tournament’s leading scorer Marvin Richard III. 

“I have a lot of respect for Casey Means and the Pine Ridge program,” Rapid City Christian coach Kyle Courtney said. “It was a lot of fun to be in this game again — a rematch. I am really proud of our kids.”

Rapid City Christian won its first-ever LNI championship in 2022 against White River, winning it on a Benson Kieffer buzzer-beater. The Thorpes pulled away from the Comets in last year’s championship, an 80-66 decision. 

Rapid City Christian used a third-quarter surge to leave little doubt in this year’s rematch. 

“It was great to get back out here with the starting five, our guys we’ve been together for so long,” Kieffer said. “We’ve been together since second grade. So just to get back there and finish the job that we left unfinished last year.”

The highly-anticipated matchup lived up to the hype through the first two quarters. Rapid City Christian held a 34-28 halftime advantage, but used a 24-12 third-quarter margin to seize control. 

“I think that helped keep our momentum going,” Frog said about the run. “Obviously they hit a couple threes, but that didn’t stop us. I think it helped us moving forward.” 

The high-scoring Thorpes made a late push, cutting the deficit to 10 points. But never got within striking distance, putting away the Thorpes in the final quarter. 

“Credit to Pine Ridge for coming out and some of those other kids really stepping up and making us sweat there in the end,” Courtney said.

Richard III made headlines early in the tourney with a new LNI scoring record of 57 points. He was limited to 20 points in the championship game. 

He constantly faced double teams, as the Comets threw multiple defenders at him. 

“Our game plan was to go out and double that,” Kieffer said. “I thought we executed that pretty well, and shoutout to Marvin. He’s a great player, and it’s hard to stop him.”

Frog, meanwhile, was nearly unstoppable in the championship. The 6-foot-5 senior forward was efficient in the paint and capitalized on his size advantage down low.  

“We definitely had a huge size advantage for sure,” Frog said. “So we took that to our advantage and I think that’s what helped us get the win.”

For Frog, an enrolled member of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, it was special to win the MVP award. 

“I take a lot of pride in it,” Frog said. “So it feels really good to win this.”

“That’s really special for Julius,” Courtney added. “Obviously this tournament means an awful lot to him. I was proud of how unselfish he’s been in this tournament so far and tonight it was really fun to see him step up and have a game like that on this stage.”