By Ryan Deal 

605 Sports

FORT PIERRE — You can pencil in the defending state champs.

Following its 44-32 SoDak 16 girls basketball win over Herreid/Selby Area, White River qualified for its second straight Class B state tournament. The No. 5 Tigers (18-3) will play No. 4 Corsica-Stickney (20-3) in the first round. 

On Thursday, White River officially punched its ticket back to state after another banner regular season. 

“It feels really good,” White River senior Maleighya Estes said. “There was a lot of hard work in the offseason and we all had the same goal to get back to state and it’s very rewarding for all these girls. Every single one of them deserves it.”

Estes was her usual self, finishing with 19 points and hitting three 3-pointers. It continued her stellar senior season in which she surpassed the 2,000-point mark earlier in the year. 

But the future Dakota Wesleyan University Tiger was motivated to add another state tourney berth to her résumé.

“I was very motivated and right after the season I didn’t take a break,” Estes said. “I just kept going and I just killed myself in the offseason. Every time a new game came in the postseason, I knew it was all or nothing.” 

On Thursday, she also got some help from Karlie Cameron (12 points) with some timely 3-point shooting for her classmate. 

“Karlie Cameron had a great second half for us and really was the difference,” White River coach Jared Bouman said. “It was a close game down the stretch and she kind of opened things up down there.” 

Cameron hit four 3-pointers — all in the second half — to help extend White River’s lead to double digits. Cameron’s 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter gave White River a 36-24 cushion. 

“It was huge for Karlie,” Bouman said. “She’s a great kid and a great student-athlete and I am just so happy for her. There were some big shots by Karlie and Kelsey Morrison, too. She hit one and that just kind of opened it up for us.”