The De Smet Bulldogs claimed the boys ‘B’ basketball title on Saturday night defeating Aberdeen Christian 59-43 at the Barnett Center in Aberdeen.
Two years ago, this same program lost in the state championship game to Clark/Willow Lake, and last year, as part of a redemption tour, they qualified for the state tournament, but then COVID canceled that.
“This is just great that we could finally win it. Just a lot of preparation and the want to get back here and the guys are just competitive guys,” explained De Smet head boys basketball coach Jeff Gruenhagen. “You talk about it and you set the goals. Last year was such a deflating experience. I didn’t know what to tell them when that happened, but it’s just like, you’ve got to keep going and keep working. Even tonight, we played some messy basketball at times, but they kept the focus and just kept going – kept believing.”
De Smet came into the state tournament with only one loss on the season, and that was to Sioux Valley, from Class A, in early January.
“The guys were plenty motivated to do it. Not only for themselves, but they wanted to be those guys to put those banners in the gym,” stated Gruenhagen. “We missed an opportunity a couple of years ago to a veteran team, and now we’re the veteran team and it showed a bit tonight.”
Bulldogs junior Kalen Garry led all scorers in the championship game with 23-points. He also attributed eight rebounds, four assists, and four steals in the winning effort.
“I’m speechless, this is the best feeling in the world. Hard work from freshman year on, as soon as we got that runner-up trophy, we just put the work in,” exclaimed Garry. “To finally get it, there’s no better feeling.”
“He’s our guy, he drives everybody in practice. He drives everybody during the huddle, during the timeout. Sometimes he talks more than I do and it’s just great energy that comes out of him, and he just wants to win,” Gruenhagen said.
De Smet will graduate a trio of seniors this spring, two being starters – Cody Cavanaugh, Ethan McCune, and Quinton Poppinga.
“We’ve got a lot to work to do, we’ve got a lot of seniors graduating. But next year, we’re excited,” said Garry. “We’ve got a lot of young guys coming up, so hopefully we can make another run at it.”
This is De Smet’s sixth boys state basketball title in history, but their first since 1999.
