Stevens junior guard Halle Peterson was in the middle of the Raider effort on offense and defense and said they talked about what they had to do in the second half, which was to be a little tougher than the Spartans.

“They are physical, so we needed to play physical too,” she said. “We knew we needed to play together, for each other, not just for ourselves. It needed to be a team win; it needed to be a full team effort. In the huddle after the third quarter we said, ‘This is the quarter, we need to take charge and do our thing.’”

Peterson finished with eight points, six assists, four rebounds, one block and one steal.

“She is our Swiss Army Knife,” Dannenbring said of Peterson. “Taaliyah (Porter) does a lot of the scoring and Halle just does everything so well. She takes care of the basketball, she pushes it up the floor, she plays defense, just like a machine. She is a really good basketball player and a great leader. She is a captain for this team for a reason.”

Porter, a senior, is not only the school’s all-time leading scorer – boys and girls – but she is the top scorer in the Class AA ranks this season (21.7 ppg). She showed why as he led all scorers with 24 points on 8-of-18 shooting from the field and 7-of-10 free throws, grabbing 11 rebounds. When she got going, so did the Raiders.

“Taaliyah just does such a fantastic job of scoring, she is so crafty and she gets fouled,” Dannenbring said. “She can shoot it well too. There were a couple of plays where we were running a double to one side and she gets a one-on-one. She gets a little hesitation in and out and boy is she tough. She gets a step by you, gets you on her hip and she is strong so she is able to finish.”

The Spartans had the slight edge through much of the first half as the teams tied four times with six lead changes. Spearfish led 10-6 at the end of the first quarter and 26-22 at halftime.

Adelyn Bowman broke a 22-22 tie with a layup and Tiersyn Grubb added a pair of free throws to give the Spartans the four-point edge.

The Raiders came out on fire to open the third on a 3-pointer by Porter and five points by Peterson for a 30-26 lead. Stevens built its lead to six on a layup by Porter and a basket by MacKenzie Schreiber and later at eight points after a 3-pointer by Schreiber. The Spartans struck last in the quarter on a late 3 by Kali Reiners to cut the Rapid City lead to 43-38 at the end of three.

After Kochuten nailed her 3-pointer to cut the lead to two, the Spartans didn’t score again.

The Raiders closed with seven points by Porter and a huge 3-pointer by Finley Love, who redeemed herself after previously shooting an airball on that possession.

“As a team, when we get going, we get hot,” Peterson said. “We get to feeling confident in ourselves and each other. I think that was just what that was. We felt our bench being hype about it, we felt them cheering for us. We said, ‘OK, we got this, we are the team.’ We knew that pressure was going to win us the game.”

Jozie Dana led Spearfish with 12 points and Kochuten added eight, but 13 of the Spartans 19 turnovers came in the second half.

“Obviously their press got to us a little bit, we couldn’t find a way to get our scorers easy looks,” said Spearfish head coach Dakota Johnson. “We didn’t crash and we didn’t give ourselves second-chance opportunities. There were a lot of things that played into it but we got out-worked a little bit, for sure.”

With the big victory, Dannenbring said the Raiders will have their hands full against the Knights, who have now won 48 straight games after their 69-42 win over Jefferson.

“They are a fantastic team,” he said. “The number one key against O’Gorman is you have to take care of the basketball. We have to break the press against them and when we get the defensive rebound we have to get it out.”