Rangers fall to Dakota Valley, West Central

By: 
Esther Noe

After a Christmas break, the Hill City High School Ranger boys basketball team traveled to the Parkston School District for the Parkston Classic Dec. 29. There the Rangers faced off against the Dakota Valley Panthers.
Up to this point in the season, the Rangers had won three out of four games, and the Panthers had won five games.
“They (the Panthers) are one of the better teams in the state and have a couple of the better players in the state. We just had a hard time stopping one of those players,” said head coach Laramie Harvey.
Devin Buehler led the Rangers in scoring with 20 points and Alex Stoeckmann scored 13 points.
The Rangers fell to the Panthers, 86-56.
The next day the Rangers headed to the West Central High School Colosseum for a game against the West Central Trojans. Going into the game, the Trojans were sitting at 2-3 and the Rangers were now sitting at 3-2 for the season.
“We didn’t shoot the ball real well, but our boys competed from the start to the finish,” said Harvey. “Our boys competed hard and did some good things. We just didn’t have as many shots fall as we do at times so that kind of hampered us a little bit.”
Buehler again led the Rangers in scoring with 18 points and Everett Sullivan scored 10 points.
In the end, the Trojans came out with the victory at 60-45.
At this point in the season, Harvey said, “We’re doing some really good things. We’re just going to keep pushing and try to get better and use this time to learn. Hopefully, we’re playing our best basketball later on in the season when it matters.”
The Rangers are down one player since Erik Jorgensen was injured in the game against Hot Springs and will be out for the rest of the season.
Next up, the Rangers will face the Spearfish Spartans for an away game Thursday, Jan. 4 at 7:30 p.m. Historically, the Spartans have beaten the Rangers with a score of 85-60 in 2022 and 63-60 in 2023.
After that, the Rangers have a home game against the Philip Scotties Jan. 5 at 7:30 p.m. The Rangers won the last game against the Scotties 73 to 61.
“Spearfish is going to be tough. They’re a great team. They’ve got some good wins this year, and Philip is a good squad too. So we got to come out ready to go, and continue to learn and get a feel for each other,” said Harvey. “We’re just excited for the opportunity to play again.” .

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