REGION 4B: STRONG SEASON ENDS EARLY FOR FLYERS
Losses to Avon, Gavyille-Volin put blemish on otherwise solid season, but head coach Jenny Peters says the Flyers rose to this year’s challenge
If they were looking ahead — which coaches preach against — then the Freeman High School girls were all season long looking up at two favorites, not only in Region 4B but in all of Class B: The state’s No. 1-ranked team in Centerville and the No. 4-ranked team in Parkston.
Turns out it was Gayville-Volin they should have been worried about.
In an ending that didn’t go the way Freeman and its fans had hoped, the Flyers came up one basket short on its home court against the Raiders Tuesday night, Feb. 25 in the second round of Region 4B play. Freeman went into the tournament with a 15-5 record and as the No. 4 seed while Gayville-Volin entered play with a 16-4 mark and as the No. 5 seed; both had first-round byes.
And while the home team enjoyed an aggressive, energetic and strong start — the Flyers led 16-11 after one and 31-25 at the half — the Raiders held the advantage throughout the third and fourth periods to come away with a 52-50 win.
Gayville-Volin went on to lose to a 22-0 Centerville team 58-38 in the final round; the Tornadoes are odds on favorite to repeat as Class B champions when the state tournament plays out in Huron March 13-15.
Looking back
Despite the disappointing ending, Flyers head coach Jenny Peters — who has been at the helm of the program since the 2021-22 season — looks at this year’s campaign in a different light: one of success against some odds.
“Going into the season, we knew it was going to be tough,” says Peters, who notes the loss of two key seniors from last year’s team, Cami Fransen and Ashlin Jacobsen, as well as the impact of a season-ending volleyball injury sustained by Ella Waltner, a senior this year.
“I had three girls who were a major part of program that we had to play without, and other girls had to step into leadership rolls and play a part like they had never played before,” says the coach. “Given that, I’m very happy with how the season went and how the girls handled themselves.”
Indeed, despite a lack of experience coming off the bench, the Flyers enjoyed far more wins than losses. Freeman started 1-1 and then bagged eight victories in a row, including a 52-50 win against a Colman-Egan team that finished the season 19-3 and nearly took out No. 5 Sanborn Central-Woonsocket for a spot in this week’s SoDak 16.
The Flyers also showed their grit against Philip in the Corn Palace as part of the DWU Classic on Feb. 14, erasing a 15-point deficit in the second half to come away with a 67-63 win and improve to 14-3 on the season.
But things took a turn from there.
Facing the state’s fourth-ranked team in Ethan four nights afternoon coming back to beat Philip, the Flyers suffered a 66-42 loss to the Rustlers, and only by way of a few breaks late did Freeman hold off Gayville-Volin 53-51 two nights later.
Then came the regular-season finale at Avon the following night, where the Flyers put up a season low 36 points while giving up 52 to a team that would score just 11 points the following night against Gayville-Volin. The loss to the Pirates wasn’t just troubling in terms of late-season momentum, it also dropped the girls from No. 3 to No. 4 in the Region 4B standings, with Viborg-Hurley leapfrogging the Flyers.
Peters gives credit to Avon, which finished the regular 12-7 before upsetting Viborg-Hurley 42-38 in the second round of last week’s region tournament, ultimately falling to Parkston 55-32 in the final on Thursday.
“Avon has always had a great program,” she says, noting that Pirates head coach Brad Poppe was there when she was a standout at Tripp-Delmont in the 1990s. “It’s always been a good basketball culture.”
But she also recognizes that the Flyers struggled in the loss to Avon and says some of it may have been exhaustion.
“The end of the season can be tough, and we just didn’t seem to have a lot of energy,” Peters said, noting that after the game an opposing parent said to her, ‘You had a busy week.’
It’s true. The Flyers come-from-behind win against Philip, loss to Ethan and narrow win over Gayville-Volin had come in the span of six days, and then they had to turn around and travel to face a solid Avon team.
“Some of it was fatigue, some of it was mental,” Peters said. “It wasn’t anything we did or didn’t do; it just didn’t pan out.”
End of the line
Not only did the loss to Avon drop Freeman from third to fourth in the region standings, it put the Flyers in the same bracket as Centerville — not Parkston. And, given the dominance shown by the Tornados, Freeman would have had a better shot at pulling an upset against the Trojans.
And, so, rather than what would have been a rematch against Avon — No. 3 vs. No. 6 — the Flyers were faced with another game against Gayville-Volin — No. 4 vs. No. 5 — a team that Freeman had narrowly defeated just the week before.
And, this time, the two-point edge went to the Raiders, a victory that was sealed when the Flyers couldn’t capitalize on what would have been a go-ahead possession in the closing seconds and Gayville-Volin sealed the deal with a free throw at the end.
“It was a heartbreaker,” said Peters. “We were hopeful to get past that round but we committed too many fouls and had some turnovers, and in a game like that you can’t have too many. And they capitalized.
“They were a very fast and athletic team,” the coach continued. “They don’t get the credit they deserve.”
While disappointing, Peters says the loss shouldn’t mar what was otherwise a very good season in which the Flyers were able to overcome the challenges of lack of experience on the bench. The Flyers started just three upperclassmen — seniors Peyton McCune and Lindsey Maske and junior Vaida Ammann — and relied on others to fill out the balance, including leading scorer Rylee Peters and Cadence Hofer, who posted double-figures more times than not in the second half of the season; both Peters and Hofer are sophomores.
While Freeman also relied on substitution minutes from senior Justice Mehlhaf, the rest of those seeing court time were seventh graders, eighth graders and freshmen.
“They had to play outside their comfort level and they held their own,” said Peters.
To that end, with Ammann, Peters and Hofer all returning as upperclassmen and a promising group of younger players working their way up, the Flyers should be positioned for competitive seasons going forward, and Jenny Peters says she would like to return for a fifth season as head coach.
“We have a lot of younger girls who worked hard to get better,” Peters says, giving a lot of credit to the seniors who set an example of what hard work looks like.
“The seniors really made a lasting impact on our younger girls in the fact that they worked so hard to improve individually, as a basketball player, but also in that leadership role,” she says. “They really embraced those younger girls and made things more comfortable for them. There was a real positive team vibe this year, and that makes everything else easier.
“At the end of the day,” Peters says, “we had a really good season and saw a lot of growth.”
Here are the box scores from Freeman’s final three regular season games, as well as the Region 4B loss to Gavyille-Volin.
Flyers 42, Ethan 66
Peyton McCune: 16 points 1 rebound, 1 steal; Cadence Hofer: 13 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals; Rylee Peters: 5 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals; Vaida Ammann: 5 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal; Lindsey Maske: 2 points, 9 rebounds, 1 assist; Libby Ammann: 1 point, 2 rebounds, 1 block; Justice Mehlhaf: 1 rebound; Aubree Tschetter: 1 block
Flyers 53, Gayville-Volin 51
Vaida Ammann: 17 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 5 steals; Cadence Hofer: 13 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal; Peyton McCune: 12 points, 2 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals; Rylee Peters: 11 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals; Lindsey Maske: 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block; Justice Mehlhaf: 3 rebounds, 1 block
Flyers 36, Avon 52
Vaida Ammann: 11 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 6 steals, 1 block; Peyton McCune: 9 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 steal; Rylee Peters: 9 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals; Cadence Hofer: 7 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals; Libby Ammann: 2 rebounds; Reeslyn Hofer: 2 rebounds; Justice Mehlhaf: 3 rebounds
Flyers 50, Gayville-Volin 52
Rylee Peters: 17 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 steals; Peyton McCune: 13 points, 1 rebound, 4 assists, 3 steals; Cadence Hofer: 13 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals; Lindsey Maske: 4 points, 4 rebounds, 2 blocks; Vaida Ammann: 3 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 steals; Justice Mehlhaf: 4 rebounds; Aubree Tschetter: 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal; Libby Ammann: 1 rebound
