Titan boys improve to 7-1 with wins over Sioux Center, Pierre

On Friday, Jan. 9 the Tea Area High School boys’ basketball team competed against Sioux Center in the Border Battle at the Pentagon in Sioux Falls. 

The Titans fought hard and earned a 54-52 victory. 

“Talk about a tough, gritty win. Sioux Center is a very good team with a lot of depth and a lot of talent. They did a few things in this game that gave us fits, but we executed down the stretch very well and got some hard-nosed stops when we needed it most,” said Titan head coach Drew Weber. “We have a lot of boys that are battling injury right now, so the week’s practice wasn’t all that we would hope for after Christmas break, but they never complained and never quit. This performance makes a coach feel very proud.”

For Tea Area, Grifin Wiebenga led the way with 25 points, hitting two from downtown. Wiebenga also grabbed five rebounds and had two assists. 

Gavin Shawd finished the night with 23 points, hitting three from three-point range. He also had four rebounds, and three steals for the Titans. 

Mitch Grant finished with four points, five rebounds, and one steal and Lane Sieber had two points, two rebounds, one assist and one steal. Kayden Williamson grabbed eight rebounds to lead the Titans in that category and had two assists and one steal. 

Tea Area hosted Pierre on Tuesday, Jan. 13 and improved to 7-1 on the season with a 63-43 win.

“This was a really nice all-around win by the boys. We were tremendous defensively in the first half, which was probably the most complete half we have had all season. We then struggled in the third quarter a bit, mainly due to Pierre just playing a lot better, but we closed the game strong,” said Weber. “We had a lot of guys contribute, both in scoring and on the defensive end, which we really needed to see. The schedule gets much tougher from here on out but we’ve put ourselves in a good position 40% of the way through the season.”

Shawd led the team with 27 points, hitting three from downtown in the game. He also had four assists and a team-high six steals. Wiebenga finished with 16 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals. Grant had nine points, four rebounds, one assist and three steals. Williamson scored four points, grabbed two rebounds, had five assists and two steals. Caden Bohnenberger finished with three points, and Lane Sieber and Trey Severin each had two points. 

The Titans will travel to Sioux Falls Roosevelt on Friday, Jan. 16 for a 7 p.m. game and will travel to Aberdeen on Saturday, Jan. 17 to take on Aberdeen Central in a 3 p.m. match-up.