By:  Lee Palmer

In 2004 Colby Fitzgerald and Scott LeBrun took their senior-laden team to a state championship. Seventeen years later they are leading another senior-laden group to the South Dakota Class “B” State Tournament this weekend in Aberdeen as coaches, Fitzgerald the head coach, LeBrun as an assistant along with Mark Liebl and Matt Hanson.

“We have watched that game too many times to count,” Connor Libis, Max Herber and Sam Palmer said.  Palmer added, ‘Like four times this week alone.”

These seniors and their teammates, who were just a barely a year old, or in some cases not even born, and have idolized the 2004 team, get their opportunity on the floor of the Barnett Center, the same venue Fitzgerald and LeBrun cut down the nets. Yet they haven’t lost sight of what it means.

“It is such a cool experience. Not very often does this happen,”  Herber said talking about their idols, who won a state championship, coaching these seniors to a state tournament.

“Yeah I have watched it, but mostly to see some of the stuff we ran when we were up there,” LeBrun said.

Fitzgerald said he has watched the 2002 state championships more. “My mom was not a very good camera person.  She took video of the games, because that was before the games were all televised, so she took the film.  It is special,” Fitzgerald said. “I just want the boys to enjoy themselves. That is what I remember the most is the fun we had when we were up there, and I want them to enjoy that too.”

“They (the coaches) are great. They are letting us have fun and keeping us loose. We are here on a goal, but they want us to have fun doing it as well. It really helps they know what we are feeling, so they are letting us enjoy it,” Palmer mentioned.

Libis reiterated what Palmer said, “Coaches told us to enjoy it. We are happy to be here, but we are not done.”

When asked if there were similarities between the two groups, Libis said that both teams had a lot of seniors, both teams had/have some size, but the game is different and the teams are different.

LeBrun, in his first year as an assistant, said he was honored to be coaching this team and is really glad Fitzgerald asked him to join the staff. Fitzgerald, in his second year as head coach, said it is great to be able to share this with someone he built a life long friendship with from their days playing. He joked that LeBrun should have joined last year because all Scott does is go to state championships.

When talking about idols as coaches Palmer, who wears Fitzgerald’s number 13 partially in honor of his coach, said, “It is really cool. Been a very long time since that number has been on the Barnett floor for St. Mary, and to wear it now with Colby as my coach is really special.”

It’s been sixteen years since the Dell Rapids St Mary Cardinal boys basketball team has been to the State B tournament.  That changed when the Cardinals posted a 54-45 Region 4B win over Hanson on Friday, March 5th, and then a 58-51 win over the Elkton-Lake Benton Elks in the SoDak 16 on Tuesday, March 9th.

The #3 seeded Cardinals took on the #2 seeded Hanson Beavers at the Mitchell Corn Palace in the final game of the Region 4B tournament on Friday, March 5th.

In a much anticipated match-up, the first quarter was back and forth as many expected.  The Cardinals were able to grab a slim 16-13 lead by the end of the quarter.  St Mary was able to push that lead to four points at halftime, 28-24.

St Mary then used a big surge in the third quarter to pull away in the game.  The Cardinals went on a 9-4 run to push the lead to 37-28 with 4:45 to play in the third quarter.  They finished the quarter with a 10-point lead, 43-33.  The Beavers made a push in the first few minutes of the fourth quarter.  Hanson cut the lead to 45-40 with 5:00 to go, but the Cardinals responded with a 5-0 run to get back to a 10-point lead, 50-40, with 2:40 left in the game.  St Mary was able to hold the lead to take the victory and qualify for the SoDak 16.

The Cardinals were able to take advantage of 17 Hanson turnovers in the game while committing only four themselves.  Three players finished in double figures.  Connor Libis had 15 points, six rebounds, three assists, and two steals.  Ty Brown had 13 points and six rebounds.  Sam Palmer finished with 11 points, four assists, two rebounds, two steals, and two blocks.  Max Herber tallied eight points and five rebounds.  Ashaun Roach-Valandra had four points, but also had four assists, three rebounds, and three steals.

St Mary then traveled to Colman to face a familiar Region 4 and Dakota Valley Conference opponent, the Elkton-Lake Benton Elks, in the SoDak 16 game on Tuesday, March 9th.

The Elks held an 11-10 lead, which was their largest lead of the game, with 1:30 to play in the first quarter.  Libis hit a base-line jumper to give the Cardinals a 12-11 lead with 1:18 left in the quarter.  It was a lead St Mary would not lose.  They finished the quarter scoring four more straight points for a 16-11 lead heading into the second quarter.  The Elks got within two points, 16-14, with 6:45 to play in the half.  St Mary then went on a 15-2 run for a 31-16 lead with 4:00 to go in the quarter.  Elkton-Lake Benton responded with a 14-5 run of their own to close out the quarter, and St Mary led 36-30 at halftime.

The Cardinals again pushed the lead to 15 points outscoring the Elks 9-0 in the first four and half minutes of the third quarter.  St Mary led 45-30 with 3:30 to go in the quarter.  The Elks, however, would not go away.  They ended the quarter on an 11-3 run to pull within seven, 48-41, heading into the fourth quarter.  The Cardinals were able to keep a 10-point lead throughout much of the fourth quarter.  The Elks got within six at 55-49 after an offensive rebound and put back with :31 to go in the game, but the St Mary lead was too big to overcome as the Cardinals took the 58-51 victory to qualify for the state tournament.

Libis finished with a game-high 22 points along with seven rebounds and four assists.  Palmer had 14 points, six rebounds, and two assists.  Roach-Valandra had six points, four rebounds, and three steals.  Brown also had six points.  Herber finished with five points and eight rebounds. 

The Cardinals will be the #6 seed in the South Dakota Class B State Tournament.  Their first game will be Thursday, March 18th against #3 White River at 7:45 p.m. in Aberdeen.

It wasn’t easy, but the Dell Rapids St Mary Cardinal boys won their first game in the Region 4B tournament, 57-42, over the Chester Flyers at home on Tuesday, March 2nd.

Things seemed to be headed towards an easy victory for the Cardinals after the first quarter, but the craziness that can happen in the post season made itself known.  St Mary was able to get out to a nice 17-5 lead at the end of the first quarter.  Chester, however, kept it close the rest of the game.  The Cardinals were only able to add one point to their lead by halftime, 30-17.

The Cardinals opened the third quarter on an 8-3 run for a 38-20 lead, the largest of the game, with 4:55 to play in the quarter.  The Flyers responded with a 13-5 run of their own to cut the lead down to 10 points, 43-33, heading into the fourth quarter.  Chester got the lead down to eight points, 47-39, with 5:25 to go in the game, but Ashaun Roach-Valandra came up big for the Cardinals in the fourth quarter.  He scored 12 of his game-high 22 points in the final quarter to help St Mary hang on for the win.

St Mary finished the game shooting 41% (21-51) from the field, 42% (8-19) from three-point area, and 50% (7-14) from the free-throw line.  Chester was 30% (14-47) from the field, 33% (7-21) from three-point area, and 32% (7-22) from the free-throw line.  The Cardinals out-rebounded Chester 40-27 and forced 11 Flyer turnovers.

Roach-Valandra had 22 points, 16 rebounds, and two steals.  Connor Libis had 20 points, four rebounds, three assists, and two steals.  Sam Palmer also had double-figures with 10 points along with three steals and two blocks.  John Pica had three points and five rebounds, and Max Herber finished with two points and seven rebounds.  Chester was led by Ashton Olivier with 15 points and Brock Wages with 13 points.

St Mary improves to 17-4 on the season.  The win also gave the Cardinals a perfect 8-0 record at home on the year.  St Mary will play Hanson in a SoDak-16 qualifying game against Hanson on Friday, March 5th at the Mitchell Corn Palace.  Tip-off is scheduled for 4:00 p.m., and the game can be seen on Big Sioux Media.