Late bucket sends STM to State over Madison

A last second lob to Ryan Wojcik lifted the St. Thomas More Cavaliers to a 45-43 win over the Madison Bulldogs in the SoDak16 on Tuesday night in Kadoka.                                                        

In the game dominated by defense, it was the Cavaliers that forced Madison into early turnovers and took a six-point lead in the first quarter. While turnovers would haunt the Bulldogs throughout the game, Madison was able to use their bench’s height advantage to take a two-point lead at halftime. Most of the scoring load was carried by sophomore Aiden Jensen, who put in a game high 14 points for the Bulldogs. Meanwhile, Madison’s guards limited St. Thomas More star Caleb Hollenbeck to just nine points and Cade Kandolim to 12.  The Cavaliers re-took the lead in the third quarter going up by as many as eight before Madison rallied to tie the game headed to the fourth. The Bulldogs held a slim lead for much of the fourth quarter before St. Thomas More tied it up at 43 apiece with less than a minute remaining.  After a 10-second violation on the Cavaliers, the Bulldogs had the basketball with a chance to go in front, but a blocked shot and jump ball gave the possession back to the Cavaliers with just 37 seconds left.  After calling a timeout with six seconds on the shot clock, Hollenbeck lobbed an inbound pass to Wojcik, who gave the Cavaliers the lead with only six seconds remaining. The Bulldogs’ last chance came to an end when Madison turned over the ball after the ensuing inbound.  The win put St. Thomas More into the State Class A tournament as the number five seed.  The Bulldogs season comes to an end with a 13-9 overall record.