Cold-shooting ’Cats fall to Bison

It was one and done for the Custer High School boys basketball team in the Region 8A playoffs as the Wildcats traveled to Hot Springs Feb. 28 and suffered through a tough night on the offensive end in a 45-26 loss that ended their season.
“We did everything we needed to do defensively. We just couldn’t put the ball in the basket,” head coach Paul Kelley said. “You have to give credit to Hot Springs. They were extremely physical. They are a team with great quickness. They interrupted us and took us out of our game.”
The Wildcats had only one player—Kyle Virtue—in double figures, who shot 15 percent from the three-point range for the game and had only 11 points at halftime.
“They made it hard on us. They doubled Kyle whenever he caught the ball,” Kelley said. “It’s tough when you play a team three times and they know what your tendencies are. They just did a better job of taking ours away.”
The Wildcats finish the season with a record of 8-13 and went 0-10 against teams with a winning record.
Kelley said he leaves the season disappointed, saying he doesn’t feel the team played as well as it was capable of and was never able to put things together.
“I’m not placing the blame on the kids. That could be on myself for not getting the kids where they need to be,” he said. “We were in a lot of games but we have to find a way to win some of those games and we were just unable to. We were never able to click for a whole game.”
The Wildcats lose a pair of seniors—Jackson Drew, who played sparingly, and defensive specialist Gage Grohs—but return the bulk of the varsity team next season, most of which will be juniors. Kelley said finding a vocal leader for the team is among the biggest offseason priorities.
“We have kids who can lead by example but we need someone to rally these kids and get these kids in the gym,” he said.
Kelley said the team will also need to get in the weight room, as it struggled with stronger, more physical teams, although he said part of that is because the team was so young. The vast majority of those who played varsity minutes were underclassmen.
Kelley said the team will also need to get better at shooting, pointing out only four Wildcats reached double figures during the course of the season.
“If you can’t put the ball in the basket against the teams we play it’s hard (to win),” he said.
While the Wildcats return the bulk of their team from a year ago, many good area teams were also young, including Hill City and Rapid City Christian.
“The potential is there. The ability is there,” Kelley said of his returning players. “Are you willing to put in that extra work? We will be answering that question this time next year whether or not they were.”
Custer    6    7    6    7    —26
HC    10    12    12    11    —45
Custer—Cade Lehman 0-3 2-2 2, Brady Virtue 1-1 0-0 3, Rhett Lowe 1-8 0-0 3, Cody Dirkes 0-3 0-0 0, Drew Lehman 0-1 0-0 0, Kyle Virtue 4-10 2-4 10, Roland Sedlacek 2-2 0-0 4, Jackson Drew 0-1 0-0 0, Carter Boyster 2-7 0-0 4. Totals: 10-36 4-6 26.
Hot Springs—Matt Close 6-8 1-2 14, Preston Iverson 4-7 0-1 11, Landon Iverson 0-2 0-0 0, Braden Peterson 1-1 0-0 2, Josh Kleinsasser 4-10 4-7 14, Camron Maciejewski 1-6 0-0 3, Will Gilbertson 0-12 1-2 1. Totals: 16-36 6-14 45.
Three-point goals: Custer 2 (B. Virtue, Lowe), HS 7 (P. Iverson 3, Kleinsasser 2, Close, Maciejewski). Rebounding: Custer 20, HS 20. Steals: Custer 2. Assists: Custer 5. Turnovers: Custer 11. Total fouls: Custer 14, HS 10. Fouled out: none.