High school girls basketball roundup: Cossacks, Fliers pick up wins in BEC Tournament

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The Sioux Valley Cossacks and Flandreau Fliers opened up play in the Big East Conference Tournament on Thursday night. The top-seeded Fliers earned a 48-25 over Parker in Flandreau while the second-seeded Cossacks picked up a 62-41 victory over Baltic in Salem.

• Sioux Valley 62, Baltic 41

SALEM – Three players scored in double figures as the Cossacks used a fast start to defeat the Bulldogs during the opening round of the tournament.

Sioux Valley jumped out to a 13-9 lead in the first quarter and extended the lead to 28-18 in at halftime. The Cossacks out-scored the Bulldogs 20-13 in the third quarter to go ahead 48-31 and won the fourth quarter by a score of 14-10. It was also a great night for the Cossacks defensively as they held Baltic to just over 31 percent shooting and forced 26 turnovers.

Landree Wilson led Sioux Valley with 15 points on the night while Landree Wilson had 14 points and six rebounds and Isabelle Bloker had 12 points in the win.

Baylee Breece had 10 points and six rebounds for Baltic while Maiya Fredrickson had eight points and four rebounds and Addison Geigle had seven points and four rebounds. Daynica Witzel and Peyton Krull had five points each in the loss.

Sioux Valley shot 37.5 percent from the floor but were out-rebounded by the Bulldogs 33-32. The Cossacks also committed 16 turnovers in the win.

The Cossacks improved to 9-3 on the season and will face McCook Central/Montrose in the second round of the tournament on Friday night.

The Fighting Cougars (7-5) beat Chester Area 55-37 in the other semifinal in Salem on Thursday night.

• Flandreau 48, Parker 25

FLANDREAU – The Fliers used a big night from Claire 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 Lily Klein had 12 points, seven rebounds and four steals. Sadie Lott also had a solid night, scoring 10 points to go with six rebounds. Mesa Wright was the leading scorer for Parker with nine points.

The Fliers, who are now 7-4 on the season will take on fourth-seeded Garretson in the second round of the tournament in a game in Flandreau on Friday night.

The Blue Dragons (7-5) beat Beresford 46-43 in the other quarterfinal game in Flandreau on Thursday night.

The winners of the semifinal games will meet at the Cossack Center in Volga for the championship at 4:30 on Saturday, while the third-place game will take place at 3 p.m.