Wessington Springs punches ticket to the 2025 State B Tournament
With a convincing 75-49 SoDak 16 win over Timberlake Tuesday, Wessington Springs secured their second-straight trip to the Class B state basketball tournament.
During SoDak 16 action in Ft. Pierre, the Spartans displayed their depth to cruise past the Panthers. Karter Mebius was the point leader Tuesday with 25 points. Colby Flowers netted 16 with Ryder Michalek finishing with 10. The team played without 1,000 point scorer Parker Graff — who was out with a knee injury.
Ahead 24-8 in the first-quarter, the Spartans led 42-24 at halftime. In the second half, the Spartans pushed ahead to a 20 point lead.
But they know it’s not the time to celebrate — there’s still work to do.
“After the game one of them said in the huddle, ‘back to work tomorrow,’” said Spartans Head Coach Joey Mitchell. “I congratulated them then told them you all have bigger goals. Each game all season is another step toward the goal.”
Goal setting and a game-by-game mindset has been championed since before the season even started. When the Spartans began their conditioning last summer, Mitchell asked the boys to write down three personal goals and three team goals.
“I told them it wasn’t something like, learn to dribble better. It had to be detailed and something you can measure,” he explained. “In their goals, every single player included making it to state again.”
With the deal-sealed and Wessington Springs state-bound once again, Mitchell points to using challenges, like injuries, to develop and grow further.
“Obviously we’ve had injuries all year. Branden had a knee injury, Parker had a knee injury early on too. Ryder had a football injury carrying over into basketball. He played a big role last year and without him on the court, it was easy to make it competitive right out of the gate,” he said. “We always say, ‘rent is due,’ meaning you’ve gotta do your job. It’s not about who starts, but who finishes the game.”
The Spartans have battled injuries throughout the season and he said they’re more well-rounded because of it.
“Knowing we’ve had three or four guys out throughout the year, the guys deeper on the bench got to develop more. Ultimately its’s allowed everyone, guys like Haiden, Richard, Ranick and Grady to do good things and gain experience,” Mitchell explained. “Practice is one thing, then getting out there to play against guys other than the ones you practice with everyday is another thing.”
Mitchell often credits the team’s success to the Spartans hard work ethic and conditioning. Daily drills practicing skills, shooting, working on defense, working on offense, sprints and burpees have prepared the team for three days playing back-to-back at state.
“I’m excited about that — I would put us with any team in the state condition-wise,” Mitchell said.”Because of who we have and what we have, there’s no drop off. We maintain the same urgency and intensity when guys sub in. It will be crucial to save legs and keep guys out for minutes at a time.”
The Spartans (21-2) will be the No. 4 seed at the Class B state tournament, taking the court at 1:45 p.m. on Thursday, March 20 in the state quarterfinals against No. 5 Wall in Aberdeen.
“As always I want to thank the community for their support and backing. Being that far away and seeing so many people on a Tuesday night is awesome — it keeps growing,” he said.
“Wall has good players, a good guard who can shoot and drive. They are typical Wall — in most sports Wall is fast, athletic and strong. They live in the weight room,” he explained. “I always say there are three things that make a championship team: leadership, right team mindset and connectedness — doing things together outside of basketball. Wall has that connectedness, I read their coach saying the team spends more time together than with their families.”
But Mitchell said the Spartans depth, conditioning and drive has reached a culmination point at the perfect time.
“We’re seeing it now, it is paying dividends here at the end of the season.”