MELLETTE – Leola-Frederick pushed the pace, produced from the perimeter, and punched its ticket the State B Tournament Tuesday night.

The Titans nailed a dozen three-point field goals and pulled away from Potter County for a 72-56 victory in Class B SoDak 16 boys’ basketball action at Northwestern High School. The win catapulted Leola-Frederick into the state tournament for the first time since 2005.

“It means a lot,” said Titans senior Brayden Sumption. “I didn’t think we had a chance of making it to state and we just did it. We made it.”

Leola-Frederick took a six-point lead into the second half before using an aggressive offensive attack to stretch its lead to as many as 15 points in the third quarter. Titans coach Brock Pashen said not many adjustments were made in the locker room at halftime.

“We passed and caught a lot better,” Pashen said. “We made a couple lay-ups, we made a couple threes, but it wasn’t really X’s and O’s. It was just the kids going out and doing what they do.”

Meanwhile, Potter County coach Bryce Hall said turnovers hurt his team in the second half.

“We come out and one turnover, and then another turnover, and they score off it, and they score off it,” Hall said. “Next thing you know, we’re not taking shots, but we’re giving them shots. You can’t give a team like that extra opportunities to beat you, because they’ll take advantage of it.”

The second half followed a close, up-tempo first half that saw both teams get up and down the floor at a rapid pace, matching each other basket for basket. The Battlers built a 22-15 lead before the Titans finished the quarter with three consecutive 3-pointers, including Sumption’s 3-point basket at the buzzer to give the Titans a 24-23 advantage heading into the second quarter.

“They were running a lot with us,” Sumption said of the see-saw first half. “They kept doing it with us.”

Potter County was able to match the Leola-Frederick scoring attack by finding baskets of its own, mostly in transition and at the free throw line.

“We struggled at the three-point line at times, but were able to get inside and able to get some transition points for ourselves,” Hall said. “In the second (quarter), we settled in, got some easy buckets ourselves, we break their press, we were able to get some transition, you know, we fought.”

Despite the fight that the Battlers brought, the Titans cashed in on nine 3-pointers in the first half, including three in the second quarter that helped them extend their lead to 11 points before Potter County closed the half on a 10-5 run to cut the deficit to 43-37 at halftime.

Battlers senior Ryder Falkenhagen said the Leola-Frederick 3-point barrage wore the team out.

“That’s very draining on someone,” Falkenhagen said. “It’s hard to fight back.”

In the end, the Titans hot shooting was too much to overcome for Potter County, which finished its season with a 15-7 record. The Battlers put four players in double figures, with Falkenhagen leading the way with 16 points. The senior said despite the loss the team exceeded expectations this season.

“No one thought we were going to be here this year after what we did last year,” Falkenhagen said. “Lost all those seniors a couple years ago and just really didn’t have team chemistry. But this is what we’re all about. We’re going to go out there and give you our best shot every game. Win or lose, we’re just going to give you our best shot.”

Chance Smith scored 13 points for the Battlers, while Landon Larson had 12 and Jhett Simon added 10.

In addition to Falkenhagen, the Battlers will say goodbye to three other seniors in Smith, Carter Luikens, and Sean Seurer. Hall says each one will be missed.

“We’re a different team without those four guys here, so they mean a lot,” Hall said. “We leaned on them a lot last year, and they played a lot of minutes last year. This year they played a lot of minutes. They’re going to be missed, and it’s going to be tough to recover that when we’re pretty young coming back again next year, so we’ve got our work to do.”

Noah Kippley led Leola-Frederick with 24 points, while Sumption finished with 19. Ethan Petrich had nine points, and Milo Sumption had seven points and a team-leading seven rebounds.

The Titans (22-1) enter this year’s Class B tournament as the sixth seed where they will play third-seeded Castlewood in the opening round next Thursday at 7:45 p.m. at Wachs Arena.

Sumption said it is a dream come true to play in a state tournament.

“It means the most to me,” Sumption said. “I’ve been thinking about this since I was a little kid, and I finally did it. We finally made it as a team.”

Pashen had a simple word to describe what it means to the communities of Leola and Frederick to qualify for the state basketball tournament.

“Everything,” Pashen said. “It’s just fun times right now.”

POTTER COUNTY (15-8): Carter Luikens 2 1-2 5 Ryder Falkenhagen 7 1-3 16, Landon Larson 2 7-9 12, Jhett Simon 5 0-0 10, Chance Smith 6 1-2 13. Totals 22 10-16 56.

LEOLA-FREDERICK (22-1): Brayden Sumption 6 1-2 19, Gavin Nickelson 2 2-3 6, Noah Kippley 9 2-2 24, Milo Sumption 2 2-2 7, Ethan Petrich 4 1-1 9, Westyn Thorpe 2 0-0 5, Titus Kippley 0 2-4 2. Totals 25 10-14 72.

Potter County 23 37 47 56

Leola-Frederick 24 43 60 72

3-point field goals – Falkenhagen, Larson; B. Sumption (6), N. Kippley (4), M. Sumption, W. Thorpe. Total fouls – Potter County 17; Leola-Frederick 19. Rebounds – Leola-Frederick (M. Sumption 7).