CUSTER – Despite playing from behind the entire first half, the Hot Springs Bison boys basketball team put together a strong second half on the road versus Custer last Thursday night to win a tough Black Hills Conference game 50-48.
“Custer has a pretty good basketball team this year so we knew it was going to be a battle from start to finish,” said Hot Springs head coach Aaron Noteboom. “They came out with some full court pressure to start the game and threw a bunch of different defenses at us.”
The Wildcats were up 15-8 at the end of the first quarter and were able to maintain that seven point lead at halftime as well, 29-22. The Bison however outscored Custer 17-7 in the third quarter and then held on for the two-point win, despite the Wildcats getting multiple shots in the closing seconds that could have either tied or won the game.
“Credit to Custer; I thought they were able to speed us up and take us out of our offensive rhythm, especially in the first quarter,” Coach Noteboom said. “At halftime, we talked a lot about controlling the tempo and I thought we responded well in the third quarter to eventually take the lead. Once we had taken control of the game, I thought we did a great job of executing offensively down the stretch while getting stops on the defensive end of the floor.”
The Bison were led by seniors Josh Kleinsasser and Camron Maciejewski who scored 20 and 14 respectively, followed by junior Aidyn Janis with eight and senior Braden Peterson with six. Custer’s leading scorers were Rhett Lowe with 17 and Kincade Lehman with 10, along with nine points from Kyle Virtue and six from Roland Sedlacek.
“Overall, I was proud of our guys and how they played,” Noteboom said. “It was a fun atmosphere and a great high school basketball game between two quality teams.”
The current Region 8A standings showcase a log jam of talent on the top end, with Rapid City Christian (13-2) in first place followed by Hot Springs (10-3), Custer (11-5), St. Thomas More (11-4) and Hill City (9-7).
This week, Hot Springs travels to Class “AA” Sturgis (4-8) on Friday and will finally have another home game next Tuesday, Feb. 13 when they host St. Thomas More followed by another road game at Red Cloud on Thursday, Feb. 15. Hot Springs then finishes the regular season with three home games in a row versus Custer (Feb. 17), Oelrichs (Feb. 19) and Rapid City Christian (Feb. 23).