FLYERS B-BOUND; THE FULL REPORT
Fifty years after they won the whole thing and a quarter century since the last time they qualified, the Freeman High School boys are going back to the State ‘B’ Basketball Tournament.
The 10th-seeded Flyers emphatically punched their ticket Tuesday night, March 11 with a 72-60 upset win over defending Class B champion and sixth-seed Howard in the SoDak 16 in the Corn Palace. It was sweet revenge for Freeman, which in the fourth game of the season had been whooped by the Tigers to the tune of 66-45. But it didn’t take long after that for the Flyers to start dialing it in and utilizing an arsenal of weapons to light teams up. That has, most recently, produced a dominating win over Gayville-Volin in the second round of the Region 4B Tournament on March 7, an exhilarating and unforgettable upset against the higher-seed Parkston Trojans in the 4B final the following afternoon, and then Tuesday night’s legacy win over Howard.
Now, Freeman takes all kinds of momentum into the State Bs, where they are the No. 6 seed and paired with No. 3 Viborg-Hurley in the 7:45 p.m. nightcap Thursday night, March 20 — the most coveted of all timeslots. The Flyers go into the game with a 19-4 record while the Cougars go in 21-2, with one of the losses coming in the season opener against — guess who — Freeman.
“Amazing — is this real life?” said head coach Lance Friesen amidst the congregation of players, students, parents and fans clogging the south end of the Corn Palace court after Tuesday night’s win against Howard. “I’m just very proud of the boys putting up with me. I had high expectations and don’t know that they were always ready for that, especially after the Viborg-Hurley win. We really ramped up our expectations, which means we needed to ramp up our expectations in the gym at practice, and they responded and got better.
“To build a team takes a year,” Friesen continued. “It takes time, and our role-definition took a little while, but here we are. They love each other and they’re having fun, and I’m having fun with them. And it’s not just about winning; it’s about understanding expectations and putting the team first.”
“We” over “me” has been foundational to the program that Friesen and assistant coach Kyle Weier have been building since coming on board for the 2021-22 season following a turbulent and uneven stretch of years for the Freeman boys basketball program. From 2017 through the 2021 season the Flyers saw four different head coaches — Rory Hermsen, Kevin Kunz, Will Massey and Mitchell Johnson — and over the stretch of the 2020-21, 2021-22 seasons, Freeman played to a record of 1-41. Sawyer Wipf, today a senior, was an eighth grader and a freshman those two seasons, and he thought about that time following the thrilling victory over Parkston, and again in the euphoric aftermath of the SoDak 16 victory over Howard.
“My freshman year we had one win — that’s insane,” Wipf said Tuesday night. “Quick turnaround, you know what I mean? I’m just grateful to be surrounded by these guys who built this program. Here we are and it’s kind of amazing. It’s my last year and I love it. You can’t ask for a better ending.”
“Aberdeen is a blessing,” said Tate Sorensen, who is joined by classmate Luke Peters as the two juniors on the team. “I’ve had this dream since I was a seventh grader. I knew we wouldn’t make it in those early years, but if we kept working it would be possible. Now that we’re going it’s a dream come true. It’s all I’ve ever wanted for this team.”
“Me and Tate, we were part of those 0-21, 1-20 seasons, and to now do this, and to have little brothers watch us, it’s awesome,” said Peters. “Just awesome.”
Freeman’s student section used St. Patrick’s Day as its theme for the SoDak 16 game against Howard
The Howard win
Freeman knew the Howard game would be far different from the Parkston game — a slowed-down ying to the high-tempo yang that produced 162 points. While the Tigers can shoot the ball effectively, they also rely on a methodical style that uses the post play of 6-4 Luke Koepsell — one of five seniors on the team — as a key piece of the offense.
“They’re a different team than Parkston,” said Friesen. “They make you play a little more physical and make you play a little more in the half court, so we knew that was coming.”
Freeman junior Tate Sorensen
To counter that, the Flyers looked to push the ball whenever possible and rely on transition basketball to stoke its firepower offense, which is what, in part at least, led to an early 7-0 lead that would have been larger had the Flyers not missed several early shots from inside.
“Tate has about six points that he wants back,” Friesen said.
But, true to form, the Tigers relied mainly on their own inside game to hang with the Flyers throughout the first half. Freeman’s lead was 15-12 after the first period and 30-27 at the second quarter break, and Howard used those high percentage shots (8 of 14 from the field) to stay within reach. The Flyers, meanwhile, finished the first half 2-of-8 from three-point range and 12-for-25 from closer — a far cry from the shooting exhibition they put on against Parkston that led to a 31-point first quarter and 50-point first half.
“I really thought we should have been up by 10, maybe 15, at the half,” said Friesen. “We were just forcing it — guys not getting good shots. Somehow it wasn’t gelling.”
Not only did Howard continue to hang around in the third period after the two teams exchanged baskets to start the scoring, they capitalized on poor defensive rebounding by Freeman and found some momentum. And, in a matter of minutes, Howard turned a 40-36 Flyers lead into a 45-40 advantage of its own with the third quarter clock winding down.
Then came a series of shots that turned everything around, courtesy of two freshmen. The first came from Luke Miller, who drained his signature high-arcing three-pointer with 1:38 left in the quarter to trim the Tigers’ lead to 45-43, the next came from David Walter, who scored a field goal to tie it at 45-45 with a minute to play, and Miller connected on another all-net triple with 29 seconds left to give Freeman back the lead at 48-45.
“Hot — that’s one way to describe it,” said Peters.
“Miller took the game into his own hands,” added Sorensen.
“Luke Miller was huge tonight,” Friesen said. “He was more and more physical as the game went on and, offensively, clutch.”
Freeman freshman Luke Miller
“I could definitely feel it in this noise and in this atmosphere,” said Miller. “I knew those were going in the second I shot them. It was just amazing.”
Indeed, all of this was unfolding inside a loud Corn Palace auditorium in which Freeman’s fans overpowered the Howard faithful in both number and volume.
“Freeman came out tonight,” said starting freshman Tayden Kerrigan. “There was a lot of energy; the atmosphere was amazing.”
“It was a blessing,” said Sorensen. “I told everyone before the game to just ignore the noise, play our game and focus on us, because the only thing we can control is ourselves. I said, no matter the ups and downs, the runs they’re going to go on, the runs we’re going to go on, keep yourself controlled and don’t hold your head too high. Stay humble.”
And it worked, because the Flyers were rolling.
A steal and layup by Kerrigan opened up a 56-49 lead, and an offensive rebound and put-back by Walter made it 60-52 with 4:13 to play, and it felt like Freeman was finally closing in on something special.
A couple Howard threes kept the Tigers within striking distance; they trailed 58-52 with 4:13 left and 62-55 with 2:23 to play. But the Flyers capitalized on a technical foul just seconds later when a Howard player slapped the ball out of Sorensen’s hands while he was trying to inbound it, zapping the establishment of any would-be moment in favor of the Tigers, and Freeman finished the game on 10-5 run.
“What was the key? Rebounding,” said Friesen. “When they went on a run, we didn’t rebound. When we went on a run, we rebounded.
“We knew they’d hit some shots, but overall we thought we could score the ball better,” he continued, thinking back to the gameplan. “So we worked to stop their post from having a heyday, rebounded and took care of the ball, and that’s why we’re at where we’re at.”
“We just ran into a buzzsaw,” Howard coach Nick Koepsell told the Mitchell Republic. “(Freeman) pushed the pace. When you have opportunities to get runouts and easy buckets, you have to take them. We knew they were going to push the ball back at us and a couple turnovers cost us. But that’s basketball.”
Christopher Aasen embraces Luke Peters on the sidelines in the closing moments of Freeman’s win over Howard. PHOTO BY JEREMY WALTNER
Perspective
Freeman fans have been eagerly anticipating the turnaround of the boys basketball program for years, and many likely had next season circled — when Sorensen and Peters are seniors, reserves Tannen Auch and Oliver Waltner are juniors, and the sensational freshmen trio of Kerrigan, Miller and Walter are sophomores.
Freeman freshman David Walter
So in that regard, have the Flyers arrived a year early?
“Have we arrived?” Friesen said when asked the question. “Show me a content man and I’ll show you a failure.
“But, yes, we’re at the state tournament so we’ve arrived in that way,” he continued. “Now, are we just happy to be there, or do we want to go do something special? Because there’s another level yet, and Aberdeen makes you play at another level.”
“We’re going to have so much fun,” said Sorensen. “I knew it was in us to do this. Every year we’ve kept getting better, and I knew after the first game that if we played Freeman basketball we could do it. And look at how it turned out.”
Indeed, the next time Freeman steps on a basketball court away from their home, it will be hardwood of the Barnett Center, and the Flyers can’t wait.
“It’s going to be awesome, especially with these guys,” said Kerrigan. “I love ’em.”
This is the eighth time the Freeman High School boys have played in a state basketball tournament. Here’s a closer look.
1962 – 7th
1975 – 1st
1976 – 3rd
1987 – 7th
1989 – 5th
1997 – 2nd
1999 – 4th
2025 – TBD
