WATERTOWN – The Groton Tigers have used goldfish as their motivation this postseason, but Tuesday night, the squad more resembled piranhas.

The Tigers hawked the ball out front, sliced their way to rim inside, and claimed a 69-55 Class A SoDak 16 boys’ basketball win over Dell Rapids at the Watertown Civic Arena.

“We knew coming into the game that we’d put the work in, that we had a good shot to win,” said Groton sophomore Ryder Johnson, “so we gave it all we had.”

Groton was quicker to the ball all game, and made up for a size disadvantage by creating havoc for the Dell Rapids ballhandlers.

“Our post defense starts with ball pressure,” said Groton coach Brian Dolan. “It’s like if you want to go get (Kansas City Chiefs star quarterback Patrick) Mahomes, you better get a linebacker in the backfield. Don’t let him sit in the pocket and just throw. That’s what we talked about. Put ball pressure, ball pressure, ball pressure, and not let them have a Joe Montana pass into the post. I thought we did a decent job of that.”

The Quarriers led 17-16 after the opening quarter before Groton closed the first half on a 7-2 run to take a 33-25 halftime advantage. Five different players scored for the Tigers in the period.

Groton quickly opened a double-digit lead in the third quarter and Dell Rapids was unable to get the deficit under nine points the remainder of the game as the Tigers executed to near perfection by finding open teammates for high-percentage shots.

“We’ve been trying to do that all year,” said Groton sophomore Keegan Tracy. “Coaches want us to pass the ball and be a team. There’s no ‘I’ in team, so the more we swing the ball, the harder it is for teams to guard us and the more we score.”

Not only that, by the end of the evening Groton had outrebounded the taller Quarriers.

“Every day in practice we just talk about being mentally tough, mentally tough, mentally tough,” Johnson said. “And that mental toughness, our hard work throughout the year, we’ve been able to counter our size and it hasn’t affected us that much anymore.”

Groton has used goldfish as a rallying cry because they have 10-second memories, so the players can quickly forget about a bad play and move on. There was little need of that against Dell Rapids, though.

As they have all season, the Tigers used their quickness to get out in transition where they were able to score. They collected 10 steals in the contest, many of which led to fast-break opportunities.

“We watched film,” Tracy said. “We knew we could run on these guys, we just need to rebound first and then get out, swing the ball more, and then make your buckets.”

While Groton has three senior starters, the squad definitely got a boost from the starting sophomores against the Quarriers.

“Throughout the whole season we’ve had growing pains with our young guys,” said Groton point guard Lane Tietz, “but now towards the end of the season when you want to be playing your best basketball, we’re playing our best basketball and those guys are showing up.”

With the Quarriers’ defense focused on slowing down Tietz, the young Tigers rose to the challenge.

“Ryder Johnson, player of the game tonight,” Tietz said. “He showed up so big and Keegan, he’s so dang fast and he was doing great.”

The underclassmen wanted to make sure that Tuesday night’s contest would not be the last for the team’s seniors.

“Those seniors are great leaders,” Johnson said. “They come out every day and work as hard as they can to get to where they want to be, and it’s only right for us to work just as hard to help them get to where they want to go.”

Johnson led the Tigers with 20 points. Tietz followed with 16, Tracy added 14, and Jacob Zak contributed 10.

Zak scored nine points and had a pair of nifty assists in the fourth quarter to help ensure a Tigers victory.

“Get Jacob the ball 15 feet from the basket, something good is going to happen,” Dolan said, “I guaran-dang-tee it.”

Jack Henry scored a game-high 23 points for Dell Rapids.

Groton, 19-4 on the season, will take on Hamlin in the opening round of the State A tournament next Thursday in Rapid City. The Chargers are the second-seed in the tourney.

“We’re still playing and this team I think has proven that we can play,” Dolan said. “You’re going to have to beat someone good to win it. It doesn’t matter what round that’s in.”

Tietz, who played in the state tournament two years ago, is excited about finishing his prep career on the state’s biggest stage.

“It’s the best feeling. Punching your ticket to the state tournament is the best feeling in the world,” Tietz said. “Just knowing that you’re going to get to compete against the other best seven teams in the state, it’s a dream come true and to do it with my best friends.”

DELL RAPIDS (17-6): Lincoln Fersdahl 2 0-0 4, Rhett Kloth 3 0-0 6, Cole Ruesink 3 0-1 6, Treyse Eastman 3 0-1 6, Jack Henry 9 3-5 23, Tad Tjaden 5 0-0 10. Totals 25-41 3-8 55.

GROTON (19-4): Jacob Zak 4 1-2 10, Logan Ringgenberg 1 0-0 2, Keegan Tracy 6 1-1 14, Ryder Johnson 7 5-8 20, Lane Tietz 5 5-6 16, Colby Dunker 2 1-1 5, Teylor Diegel 1 0-0 2. Totals 26-46 13-18 69.

Dell Rapids 16 25 39 55

Groton 15 33 52 69

3-point field goals – Henry (2); Zak, Tracy, Johnson, Tietz. Total fouls – Dell Rapids 19; Groton 17. Rebounds – Dell Rapids 19 (Henry 7); Groton 21 (Johnson 5, Tietz 4, Diegel 4). Turnovers – Dell Rapids 15; Groton 8. Assists – Dell Rapids 17 (Eastman 5, Henry 5); Groton 13 (Johnson 4, Tracy 3, Tietz 3). Blocked Shots – Dell Rapids 2; Groton 0. Steals – Dell Rapids 5; Groton 10 (Tietz 4, Diegel 3).