VOLGA — The Sioux Valley girls’ basketball team will be playing in the state tournament for the first time since 2014 this weekend.

The Cossacks will be the No. 7 seed in the Class A Tournament in Spearfish. They punched their ticket to state on March 6 with a 60-34 win over Miller in the SoDak 16.

Sioux Valley head coach Jamie Granum said even though this is the first time in a decade that the Cossacks have been to the state tournament, his team is focused on winning games in Spearfish this weekend.

“The focus at practice has been front and center. It’s kind of a team that maybe isn’t just satisfied with going to a state tournament. You hear, oh, for Sioux Valley it’s the first time since 2014 and you can get into that mindset of relief. Hey, we made it back to a state tournament. We don’t want to have that mindset. We want to have the mindset to go out there and win basketball games like we have all year,” Granum said.

Sioux Valley will face No. 2 seeded Dakota Valley in the quarterfinals at 7 p.m. Central time on Thursday. The Panthers beat the Cossacks 73-65 on Feb. 4. The Cossacks had a 57-54 lead going into the fourth in that game but Dakota Valley outscored Sioux Valley 19-8 in the fourth quarter.

That was the last loss for Sioux Valley as the Cossacks have won eight-straight games. Granum said there are a few things that he thinks about when he looks back on that game against the Panthers.

“Dakota Valley is the best offensive team I’ve scouted in my years of scouting basketball,” Granum said. “They are extremely talented with a couple of Division I guards and a Division II post player. They can score at all five spots. If I look statistically at the first matchup, one worrisome thing for me would be that we made 15 three’s and that’s hard to duplicate in a second game [with them]. 

“The counter to that though is that we turned it over 26 times, which I know we won’t do this time. That should give us a few more shot attempts. We’ve been really focusing on rebounding against their athleticism this week and we hope that translates to the game on Thursday night.”

The Cossacks rely on their starters a lot. The players in the starting five have all played over 500 minutes this season and only one other player has played more than 250 minutes.

Four players average double figures in scoring with sophomore forward Kailey Cradduck leading the way at 14.1 points per game. Junior guard Talya Vincent averages 13.6 points per game and shoots 38% from three to lead Sioux Valley. Senior center Keyra Kruse averages 11.4 points per game and junior guard Liberty Trygstad averages 10.7 points per game. Junior guard Amari Ward is the fifth starter and averages 8.6 points per game.

Granum said having five players that can score like that makes it tough for the opposition because they can’t key in on just one player.

“[Having five players that score like that] limits what other teams can do to us defensively. In years past if a team came out, speaking generally of any team, if a team came out in a triangle and two or a box and one, we would do a little panic on the sideline. This year, we’ve had one team attempt that on us and we kind of took that away from them and showed them that we can beat them with our other scorers and players. It’s obviously a luxury to have,” Granum said.

The Cossacks will be guaranteed two more games as they’ll play in the semifinals or consolation semifinals on Friday. Then the seventh-place, fifth-place, third-place and championship games will be played on Saturday.  

Granum said it’s nice knowing that his team will be playing on the final day of the season no matter what on Saturday.

“We get to play on the final day and that’s kind of fun. This year we’ve had two more weeks of basketball that we normally haven’t had in years past. I think it creates and generates some excitement for the community and lower levels of basketball in the towns of Volga, Bruce and Sinai. To get three extra games that are six hours away, these girls have all the spotlight on them this year, which is really cool for them. They’ve earned that with the time that they’ve put in,” Granum said.

The Sioux Valley girls’ team continues a year of success for Cossack athletics. The Sioux Valley football team finished as runner-up in Class 11B in the fall and the Cossack volleyball team came in sixth place in the Class A State Volleyball Tournament in the fall. Summer Guthmiller also became the first girls wrestler to win a state championship earlier this month.

Granum said the Sioux Valley community has been very supportive over the past week and it’s a special thing to be a part of.

“The community of Volga specifically, the support, it’s small enough that everyone is interested in everything and they truly will back you and support you. Not only with cheering, attending, watching online, but with donations of meals and shirts. With it being my first experience with it, it’s overwhelming, it’s generous. It says more about the people in town than it does about the girls basketball team, even though I feel that we’re well liked and do good things,” Granum said.