Washington players celebrate with students after winning the Class AA state title on Saturday. Photo by KWSN's John Gaskins
SIOUX FALLS – Top-ranked and tourney favorite Washington adopted “pressure is a privilege” as its late-season motto, and after withstanding Rapid City Stevens’ stifling full-court pressure in a furious mid-second half charge, the Warriors had the privilege of hoisting their fifth Class AA state championship in 13 years, and first in six.
In a 43-26 sausage-grinder of a game where both teams shot miserably, South Dakota’s most talented team burst to a 12-0 lead and held a double-digit advantage almost the entire rest of the way to end the Raiders’ Cinderella run and cap a 20-2 season in which it embraced the burden of great expectations.
But the Warriors’ 16th consecutive victory it did not come without a patented RCS charge.
The Raiders (17-6) trailed 23-7 at halftime and 27-8 late in the third quarter before piling on an avalanche of turnovers and transition buckets that got them into the final, springing a 12-0 run to cut the lead to 27-20 early in the fourth.
But that’s as close as they would get. WHS coach Jamie Parish called a timeout, and immediately senior Brielle Biteler drilled a three-pointer to stretch the lead to 10. The Warriors outscored the Raiders 13-6 the rest of the way, including the game’s final eight points — all on free throws.
It was a grimy but gritty performance — overcoming 19 turnovers and 36 percent shooting — against an outmatched opponent that epitomized Washington’s season, which started at No. 2 in the preseason poll and featured a bevvy of blowouts, back-to-back January losses to Top 5 teams, and a few close calls against other contenders like the upstart Raiders.
“Our focus was to just get better everyday,” said Parish, who earned his second title in seven seasons at the school and first since his inaugural campaign in 2015 after Nate Melchow guided WHS to three championships in his final seven seasons from 2008-14 before taking over as the school’s athletic director.
“There were some games early in the year we won by large margins but we told the kids ‘that’s not good enough, you can do better.’ The kids really took to it and decided to make the pressure a privilege. When the pressure is on, you have to choose to be successful.”
Senior point guard Eden Hullinger helped navigate the RCS pressure by scoring a game-high 13 points and dishing five assists while knocking down all six of her free throws, including a few in the final minutes.
Washington did not need vintage offensive performances from its dynamic duo of major college talent in the season’s final act. Senior Sydney Schetnen (6 points) and junior Njakalenga Mwenentanda (4 points) were held 23 points below their combined season average. This, a night after O’Gorman transfer Mwenetanda terrorized her former teammates with a career-high 24 points, 10 rebounds, six assists, and 8-for-9 free throw shooting and Schentnen posted 13 points and 11 boards.
Yet, the presence of both “twin towers” helped deny any offense RCS could mount most of the game. RCS made three of its 22 first-half field goal attempts and finished 10-of-55 for the game (18 percent). Schetnen finished (unofficially) with four blocks to creep close to last year’s state record season total of 75. She’s off to play both volleyball and basketball at Louisville while Mwenentanda — ranked No. 24 in ESPN’s national rating of juniors — has one more season to play and decide between ten Power 5 conference schools, including Louisville.
A night after she scored 16 points and grabbed six steals in the Raiders’ 51-45 defensive masterpiece over Brandon Valley, RCS junior point guard Jayda McNabb mustered just 7 points on 2-of-9 shooting, while the Raiders’ leading scorer Kennedi Rising failed to score in her final career game.
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