SIOUX FALLS — In a back-and-forth contest, it was the Sioux Falls Roosevelt Rough Riders that had the last run, outscoring the Huron Tigers 12-5 over the final four minutes of the game to scratch out a 63-53 win in non-conference boys’ basketball action Tuesday night at the Roosevelt High School gym.

Huron falls to 4-8 with the loss, while Roosevelt improves to 7-6

“We just really failed to execute at a crucial time when we really needed to tonight,” said coach Tim Buddenhagen. “That will be the message at walk-throughs this week before we face Spearfish and Sturgis. Execute, execute, execute.”

The Tigers immediately found themselves down 7-0, as Rider forward Garang Kuol hit a three-pointer from the wing, took a pass off a steal generated by the Roosevelt press for a layup and then scored a baseline jumper on the next SFR possession.

The Tigers bounced back as Reilyn Zavesky hit a short shot in the paint and then CJ Gainey gathered in a full-court pass from Dawsyn Rogers and converted the deuce at the 5:50 mark of the quarter. Huron employed a defense that switched from a 2-3 zone to a man-to-man and back again, causing a bit of confusion on the Rider attack and after a basket by Jack Radel that put Roosevelt up 9-4, the two teams went into a scoring desert for the next three minutes.

A Roosevelt free throw and a three for the Tigers’ Zavesky made it 10-7 at the break.

Dylan Lichty tied the score immediately in the second quarter as he drained a three from the top of the key. After another Roosevelt free throw, and a Radel bucket, Zavesky tied it back up with a three. Radel answered with a three of his own, but Zavesky tied it at 16-16, with his second three in as many possessions.

Huron eighth-grader Anderson Porisch gave the Tigers their first lead as he hit a shot at the midway point of the second quarter that made it 18-16. Unfortunately for Huron, Roosevelt outscored the Tigers 13-3 the rest of the half to take a 29-21 halftime advantage.

“Their press caused us some problems at the start, but I thought we adjusted and did a decent job as the half progressed,” Buddenhagen said. “We got to a point where we were dribbling a lot and we do better when we move the ball passing.”

Coming out of the break, Roosevelt quickly pushed the margin to 13 points, at 36-23, before Zavesky collected a traditional three-point play and Rogers connected from distance to bring the margin back to single digits. The teams traded three pointers before the Rogers ignited a 9-0 Huron spurt with a slash to the basket. Sophomore Trace Wenz made a steal off the Tiger press and converted a layup, Rogers hit another layup and Wenz drained a three that tied the score at 41-41. Traded baskets on the next two possessions for each team made the score 46-all after a Mason Davis three pointer at the 5:15 mark.

“We came out after the timeout and had a play set up, then just went away from it and instead of getting a good shot inside, we got a poorer shot from the outside,” Buddenhagen said. “We missed and they went down and hit a three. From there, they started trapping again and we got sped up instead of going back to what got us going in the third quarter,”

But the Tiger rally ended there. Kuol hit a three and Radel hit two buckets in the paint while Zavesky hit two charity tosses and the lead was three. After a timeout, Roosevelt scored the next eight points to go up 59-48 and although a Zavesky three at the 2-minute mark made it 59-51, the Riders hit 4 of 6 from the line in the final minute of play to take the win.

Zavesky led all scorers with 24 points for the Tigers. Roosevelt had a balanced attack, as both Kuol and Radel each netted 14 points, while Hayden Goff and Abraham Kamara each notched 11 points.

Huron will be busy over the next 10 days, with five games on the schedule, four of them at Huron Arena.

The teams split the lower level games, as Roosevelt took the JV game 75-53, but the Sophomore game went to the Tigers, 59-55.

Huron           7 21 41 53
S.F. Roosevelt     10 29 41 63