Fliers use length, athleticism to capture BEC Tourney Title

VOLGA – The Flandreau Fliers used their blend of length and athleticism to get off to a fast start and were able to hold off a late rally as they defeated the Sioux Valley Cossacks 52-47 to win the Big East Conference Tournament championship at the Cossack Center in Volga on Saturday afternoon.
The Fliers set the tone early, scoring the first six points of the game and raced out to a 20-8 lead at the end of the first quarter. Flandreau’s offense was fueled by Claire Sheppard, who scored 12 of her 18 points in the first quarter and used her physicality to gain an advantage in the paint.
“One thing about Claire is that she can score in so many different ways,” Flandreau head coach Megan Severtson said. “It makes her difficult to guard. I think her teammates did a really good job of looking for her while also finding each other on some wide-open cuts once the defense focused on her.”
The Cossacks did their best to chip into the lead during the second quarter but it was the Fliers length that caused problems on the defensive end. While Sioux Valley head coach Jamie Granum liked what he saw offensively from his team, he also acknowledged Flandreau’s ability to cut off some of the passing lanes.
“Their physicality bumps us off driving lanes and that small bump and that hand on your hip when you’re driving…will take out the rhythm of a shooter and we can’t mimic those kinds of contested shots in practice,” Granum said. “We had about every shot we wanted tonight, we just didn’t make them.”
Sioux Valley battled to out-score Flandreau 17-12  in the second quarter and go into halftime down 32-25. The Fliers were able to run their lead back to double-digits early in the third quarter but the Cossacks continued to push, going into the fourth quarter down 43-36.
Flandreau appeared to have the game wrapped up into the final minutes with a 52-39 lead, but the Cossacks’ defense held the Fliers without a field goal over the final 4:44. Their effort on the defensive end led to late 8-0 run that was capped off with a 3-pointer by Ashley Bjerke.
With the lead down to five points, the Cossacks forced a shot clock violation and with the chance to make it a one-possession game, Bjerke’s 3-pointer missed, Sheppard grabbed the rebound and the Fliers killed just enough clock to close out the victory.
After the game, Severtson applauded the Cossacks ability to score points quickly, which was led by Bjerke’s team-high 15 points and seven rebounds and 12 points and nine boards from Landree Wilson but also commended her team for holding Sioux Valley to 38.6 percent shooting on the night.
“Sioux Valley has so many scoring threats,” Severtson said. “They’re an incredibly difficult team to defend and I think the emphasis for us tonight was taking away the 3-point line because they are one of the best teams in the state at making 3-pointers. The rest just kind of came when we trusted each other defensively. I thought the girls did a good job of fighting on this last day of the tournament.”
Sioux Valley was 10-of-26 from outside the arc.

Granum also acknowledged the Fliers’ effort, citing several plays that went in Flandreau’s direction and helped decide the game.
“It’s just living in a five-point game when you go to grabbing a bucket here or grabbing a loose ball there,” Granum said. “It’s all of those little things but I was super proud with how we competed against one of the top 12 to 15 teams in the state, if not higher.”
Julia Schneider scored eight points to go with four rebounds and four assists for the Cossacks while Isabelle Bloker had five points and three assists.
Sadie Iott had 11 points and six assists for Flandreau while Lizzie Pavlis had eight points, 12 rebounds and five assists. Morgan Sheppard had seven points and Lily Klein had six points.
Flandreau shot 42 percent from the floor and 40 percent from the free throw line and committed 9 turnovers. Sioux Valley had 15 turnovers on the night.
While the Cossacks didn’t come away with the tournament title, Granum noted the progress his seniors have made which helped them surge into the finals with victories over Baltic on Thursday and McCook Central/Montrose on Friday night to improve to 10-4 on the season.
“I told our seniors before the game that when they were freshmen, we were playing for seventh and eighth place and their ability to stick through this and to work as hard as our six seniors have worked – it’s really special,” Granum said. “We write on the top of our board our preparations and separation and we feel that we prepare really well all week for practice and that will help us separate come February and March.”
Flandreau took the time to note their accomplishments, defeating Parker on Thursday and Garretson on Friday to reach the tournament final to improve to 10-4 on the season, but noted there wasn’t much time to dwell on it – especially with a rematch against the Cossacks coming this Friday.
“It’s fun (the win) and I’m excited for the girls, but we’ll play them again on Friday,” Severtson said. “It’s a game where we kind of have to enjoy it but also not get too high or any sort of roller coaster because we have more games to play.”

First round
Flandreau 48, Parker 25
The Fliers used a big night from Sheppard to defeat the Pheasants in an opening round matchup on Thursday night.
Sheppard scored 17 points and pulled down eight rebounds to lead the Fliers while Klein had 12 points, seven rebounds and four steals. Iott also had a solid night, scoring 10 points to go with six rebounds. Mesa Wright was the leading scorer for Parker with nine points.

Semi-finals
Flandreau 51, Garretson 43
Friday evening, the Flier girls stopped Garretson, 51-43. Sheppard matched the previous night’s scoring with 17. Pavlis had 15 points, six rebounds and six assists and Klein added 13 points and eight boards.