The Flandreau Fliers took third in last week’s Big East Conference Tournament.

Flandreau defeated McCook Central-Montrose 40-22 in the first round on Thursday, Jan. 28, lost to Sioux Valley 59-37 in the second round the next evening and defeated Parker 44-26 for third place on Saturday, Jan. 30.

“It has been a few years since our kids have had the opportunity to play in a conference tournament,” said Flier head coach Brian Relf. “I am happy our kids were able to experience the 3-day, 3-game format and come away with third place.”

The first two games were played in Volga, and the Fliers’ third place game against Parker was in Baltic.

The Fliers got off to a hot start in Saturday’s finale against Parker, outscoring the Pheasants 24-11 in the first half and maintaining a comfortable margin in the second half to come out with the 44-26 victory.

Relf was proud of the way the girls came back from a loss to Sioux Valley the night before.

“We were able to bounce back after a tough game on Friday and get a big win,” he said. “I was very pleased with our defensive effort. We were able to limit Parker to one contested shot and also force some turnovers.”

The Fliers limited Parker to 20 percent shooting from the field while shooting at a clip of 35 percent themselves.

Nicole Veldkamp led the Fliers in scoring with 12 points and snagged six rebounds. April Weber added eight points for Flandreau, while Cassie Feske had a team-high seven rebounds and five points.

“I thought our kids did a nice job of attacking the basket and finding open teammates for scoring opportunities,” Relf said. “Nicole Veldkamp had a nice game, going 6/7 from the field. I felt she really played well against a very physical interior defense.”

In the tournament’s opening round Thursday, a great defensive effort and a strong offensive second half were key to the Fliers’ 40-22 victory over McCook Central-Montrose.

"We kind of relaxed a little bit; we (hadn’t) played for a while," Relf said of the gap between games due to weather cancellations. "You have to give McCook Central credit; their defense got us going a little faster than we wanted to. At halftime, we just talked about being under control and going with the flow of the game. We wanted to dictate on offense."

In the first half, McCook Central-Montrose attacked the baskets frequently, getting Flandreau in trouble defensively while giving MCM some offensive advantages. From the onset, the game looked to be an offensive struggle for both teams as turnovers were a key as the teams combined for 54.

Meanwhile the Fighting Cougars struggled from the field as a team; shooting just 14.6 percent, a near exact replica of their performance against Sioux Valley two weeks ago.

The second half saw in increased hustle from Anne Parsley, which in return sparked Flandreau. Parsley finished with only nine points but played a big role in over a third of the Fliers 17 steals. The steals more often than not ended up with Flandreau seeing wide-open spaces on the court for easy layups.

"I thought the big key was that we got a huge second half from Anne Parsley," Relf said, "not necessarily the scoring as much as the hustle plays. She got her hands on a lot of their passes, got a lot of tips and we got some steals. I think because of Anne's stepping up in the second half, the rest of the team followed her."

Brooke Relf finished with a game-high 13 points. Cassie Feske added eight rebounds, four blocks, four points and an assist for Flandreau.

Katie Binder, Chelsea Hiemstra and Sierra Miles each chipped in four points to lead McCook Central-Montrose.

In Friday’s semifinal game, Cossack junior guard Hailey Peterson had a big night for Sioux Valley – scoring 13 straight points at one juncture - as the Cossacks defeated Flandreau 59-37.

After Sioux Valley found itself down 7-3 early, Peterson hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give her team a 9-7 lead and forced Flandreau to take a time out with 11:11 left in the first half. The Cossacks never looked back from there.

"Flandreau had a pretty good zone," said Cossack head coach Leah Pitts. "Their 2-3 zone, they extended it and we really couldn't get it to the baseline. Not turning the ball over too much was nice."

Peterson closed the first half by hitting a long-distance jumper to give Sioux Valley a 27-15 lead at the half.

After the Fliers' April Weber opened the second half with a 3-pointer, Peterson responded again. Building on her long jumper to end the half, the junior hit a running layup. Not to be outdone by Weber's threeball, Peterson hit back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Cossacks a 38-18 lead.

The junior guard wasn't alone in the great outside play as fellow junior Taylor Olson had a hot hand from long range, finishing the game 3-of-6 from beyond the arc, as Sioux Valley went 8-for-17 from 3-point land.

Peterson paced all players with a game-high 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting, including a 4-for-7 performance from behind the arc, while picking up two steals. Olson finished with 18 points for the Cossacks.

Weber led the Fliers with nine points while Makayla Dietrich, Cassie Feske and Brooke Relf each had five points.

“Sioux Valley was able to keep us from getting into any type of offensive flow with their physical defensive play,” said Relf. “We forced or rushed our shots and were out of sync all night.

“I thought our kids played hard; we just didn’t have an answer for Sioux Valley’s 3-point shooting.”

Relf said he was also pleased with the play of his reserves.

Chester Area defeated the Cossacks 46-40 in Saturday night’s BEC championship game.