FLYERS SODAK 16 BOUND; TO FACE HOWARD AT THE CORN PALACE
The Freeman High School boys basketball team has developed a ritual this season of singing the school song, “Joyous and Ever Loyal,” in the locker room following every win.
You better believe they felt every word of it in Parkston Saturday afternoon.
In one of the most electrifying high school basketball games you will ever see, the third-seed Flyers knocked off the second-seed Trojans 86-76 in the Region 4B final to advance to the first SoDak 16 in boys basketball program history. Freeman will be the No. 10 seed and will face No. 6-seed Howard Tuesday night at 7 p.m. at the Corn Palace in Mitchell. The Tigers defeated the Flyers 76-55 during the regular season in one of Freeman’s most poorly played games of the year.
Friday night’s win over Parkston is the biggest on the hardwood for a boys team since the Flyers won the regional in 1999 — the last year they played in the State Bs.
Freeman, which defeated sixth-seed Gayville-Volin 61-38 in the second round on Tuesday, will take an 18-4 record into next week’s game for a chance to return to state in Aberdeen the following week.
Parkston — which was eighth in the state in Class B seed points going into the game compared to Freeman being 13th — finishes the year 16-6.
“It means everything,” said junior Tate Sorensen, who tallied 20 points, six rebounds and three assists and was named the game’s MVP. “We’ve been working for this since 2020 when we were one of the worst teams in the state, and now we’re going to the SoDak 16. It’s crazy how fast this program turned around, but we all knew it was possible with the leadership of (head coach Lance) Friesen. He worked us at practice and, yeah, sometimes it wasn’t much fun, but, I mean, look at how it turned out.”
Freshman David Walter scored the first 10 points of the game on his way a team-high 22 points and 13 rebounds. PHOTO BY JEREMY WALTNER
The Flyers didn’t know who they would play following the win over Parkston, but Friesen says it didn’t matter.
“They’re really having fun now — confidence through the roof,” he said after Saturday’s win at Parkston. “We’re going to get an opponent, we’re going to get a location, we’re going to get a plan and we’re going to go out and execute. I told them, this time of year I don’t have to teach effort or any other things to get them hyped up. That part is over. My job is to come up with a plan for Tuesday, and, let’s be honest, we’ve got kids who can make some plays so it should be fun.”
The Flyers certainly made some plays against the Trojans Saturday, especially in the first half when they built an 11-point lead at the quarter break and held a 16-point advantage at the half on 12-of-19 shooting from three-point range; that included a five-for-five effort from senior reserve Christopher Aasen, who noted after the game they were “all net.” Other triples came from freshman David Walter, freshman Luke Miller, Sorensen, and fellow junior Luke Peters.
But Parkston chipped away at Freeman’s 50-34 halftime lead with hot shooting of its own — the Trojans connected on 12 three-pointers for the game — and won the third quarter 26-18 to make it a 68-60 game going into what was a tense final eight minutes.
The Flyers maintained an 80-71 lead and had the ball with 1:35 left to play, but not only did the Trojans hang around, they managed to trim Freeman’s lead to three late before trailing 80-76 with 57.4 seconds to go. But Freeman’s defense held them in check the rest of the way while its offense found ways to score from both the field and the free-throw line in the final minute; the Flyers finished the game on a 6-0 run, and that was that.
Senior Christopher Aasen was five-for-five from three-point range in the first half. PHOTO BY JEREMY WALTNER
“It means a lot — really amazing, actually,” said Aasen, who is joined by Sawyer Wipf and Caden Waltner as the only three seniors on the team. “Now we get to play more basketball together, so this means the world.”
“We used to be awful at Freeman, and now here we are, so it’s amazing,” said Wipf. “And I want to thank Coach Friesen for that. We knew we’d get here and it’s been hard work since day one, but he turned this program around and has created a winning culture. We give it 100% all the time and, if we don’t, he’s not afraid to kick us out of the gym.
“He’s raising us into grown men,” Wipf continues. “He keeps it strict but it’s about developing everybody. It’s just been so much fun.”
David Walter, who scored the first 10 points of the game, finished with 22 points and 13 rebounds. Aasen went for 15 — all in the first half — while Miller added 12. Four other players scored for Freeman.
It was that distribution of points that ultimately gave the Flyers the edge. Of Parkston’s 76 points, 50 came from just two players — James Deckert and Bryce Bruening — whereas Freeman had four players in double figures.
Freeman finished 12-for-24 from three-point range, 19-for-31 from two-point range and 12-for-16 from the free-throw line.
Parkston was 12-for-33 from three-point range, 16-for-30 from two-point range and 8-for-10 from the foul line.
Freeman’s bench celebrates a Christopher Aasen three-pointer in the first half.
