LHS boys defeat Canton, Vermillion; fall to St. Thomas More in SoDak 16

The Lennox High School boys’ basketball team began their postseason play on Tuesday, Mar. 3, with a 78-40 win over Canton. This set up a highly contested match-up against Vermillion on Friday, Mar. 6.

The Tanagers came out hot, but Lennox battled back to lead by two at the half. The game was a back-and-forth battle, but ultimately, Lennox took the 53-49 victory to advance to the SoDak 16. 

“The atmosphere of the game was about as good of an atmosphere as I’ve been apart of for a high school basketball game,” said LHS head coach Jacob Hinker. “The boys knew that this game was going to be won on the defensive end and that proved to be true, as the boys strung together stops in important moments in the game. Tough basketball teams prevail in games like this and we were a tough basketball team.”

Against Vermillion, Tate Gerdes and Aiden Hanssen both scored 18 points. Both Gerdes and Hanssen recorded double-doubles with Gerdes pulling down 13 rebounds to go with his 18 points and Hanssen pulling down 12 rebounds.Gerdes also had six assists and two steals. Hanssen had two assists and one steal.

Drake Mikkelsen finished with six points, had four rebounds, three assists and one steal. Cole Spieler finished with five points, three rebounds, and one assist. Both Eli Plank and Teegan Musser provided three points. Musser also pulled down six rebounds. 

Against Canton, Gerdes scored 17 points, grabbed five rebounds, had seven assists, and four steals to lead the Orioles. Hanssen finished with 16 points, four rebounds, four assists, and four steals. Musser was also in double figures, scoring 14 points. He also had four points, one assist and two steals. 

Scoring six points for the Orioles was Brennen Juffer. Cole Spieler, Eli Plank, and Eli Highum each had five points, Mikkelsen had four, and Talen Eich and Justin Butler each had three. 

The Orioles faced off against St. Thomas More in Winner on Tuesday, Mar. 10 in the SoDak 16 match-up. The LHS boys were unable to get the win, ending their season. St. Thomas More advances to the State A Tournament in Rapid City on Mar. 19-21. Complete results of the SoDak 16 match-up will be in next week’s paper.