Eagles upend #2 ranked Rapid City Central

The Aberdeen Central Golden Eagles used aggressive half court trapping defense, hard denial full court defense, and key plays down the stretch on offense to hand the #2 ranked Rapid City Central Cobblers only their second loss of the season Saturday night at the Civic Arena. It was in important victory for the Golden Eagles, who are still battling for the top seed in the district. Aberdeen jumped out early, rattling the Cobblers with a half court trap, forcing many turnovers. The Eagles led 10-7 after one period and pushed that lead to 11 at the half. First half highlights included a taken charge by Jodi Dahlerup, 5 and 4 points off the bench respectively for Amber Cantalope and Tonia Burgard, and a halftime buzzer-beater 3 pointer from Dawn Sillman. The Eagles built a 14 point lead early in the second half, but the Cobblers showed why they were the leading team from the west, rallying from that deficit to take a one point lead at 32-31 with just over 3 minutes remaining in the game. Aberdeen Central responded to the challenge with great heart, making key basket after key basket in the final 3 minutes, and getting big stops on the defensive end. Central attacked the Rapid City pressure and got 2 big baskets by Emily Graf and one by Katie Norman in the run. Central also got 4 for 4 freethrow shooting by Sillman to ice the win. Junior point guard Rebecca Goodman returned to action for the first time in 2 weeks for the Eagles. With the win, the Eagles improve to 6-4 on the season. Next action for the Eagles is Thursday night when they travel to Watertown to face their ESD opponent Arrows.

Boxscore:

Aberdeen Central: Sillman 4 4-4 13, Norman 2 0-1 4, L. Graf 2 0-0 4, E. Graf 4 4-5 12, Rice 1 0-0 2, Burgard 0 4-4 4, Cantalope 2 0-1 5. Three point goals: Sillman, Cantalope

Rapid City Central: Means 4 0-0 9, Reinicke 1 0-0 2, Chapman 1 0-0 2, Anderson 3 4-5 10, Abrams 5 5-7 15. Three point goals: Means

Fouled out: none. Total fouls: Aberdeen Central 18, RCC 15, Rebounds: Aberdeen Central 30(L. Graf, E. Graf 5), RCC 26(Abrams, Reinicke 4). Turnovers: Aberdeen Central 25, RCC 24. JV game: Aberdeen Central(7-2) 58-34 Sophomore game: Aberdeen Central(2-7) 51-36, 9th grade game: none

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