South Dakota
Alabama offense comes alive vs. South Dakota State – WVUA 23
By WVUA Sports reporter Hunter Brantley
Coming into the weekend, Alabama’s offense was sputtering. The Crimson Tide began the season only shooting 31 percent from thee point range.
That changed in big way on Sunday, in a 105-82 win over South Dakota State.
Senior Grant Nelson got the scoring going, as the Devils Lake, N.D. native recorded the first eight points of the game for the Tide and finished the game with 17 points and eight rebounds.
Sophomore transfer Aden Holloway had his best game of the season, scoring 26 points off the bench while making 8 three-pointers in the win.
“It’s kind of crazy, because (Alabama coach Nate Oats) gets mad when I don’t shoot and that throws me off,” Holloway said. “I just take a second to just like be thankful and go out and play and do what we do. I’m grateful that he instills confidence in me and lets me play my game.”
Prolific guard Labaron Philon also dropped a season high, the freshmen concluded the game with 21 points, five rebounds and six assists to earn him SEC Freshman of the Week honors for the second time this season.
“Obviously, maybe a surprise to the public, but we kind of knew within the program based on play in the summer how good Labaron has been. He’s been really good in the games too,” Oats said.
Another developing story that transpired on Sunday was forward Derrion Reid missing the game with an ankle injury.
“He’s got an ankle injury that he sustained in practice two days ago. Little bit of a flare-up from a summer injury. We’re hoping that clears up quickly and he can practice by the middle of the week, get him ready for Oklahoma,” Oats said.
No. 5 Alabama will be in action on Saturday as they host No. 12 Oklahoma in its SEC opener. The game is set to tip off at 5 P.M on SEC Network.
South Dakota
Rounds, Office of the Inspector General requesting first-hand accounts of poor mail service in South Dakota
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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – A squishy stress toy that’s been sitting on store shelves for years is suddenly becoming one of the hottest items in South Dakota, thanks to the power of social media.
NeeDoh, a line of sensory squeeze toys made by Schylling, has exploded in popularity on TikTok, where videos of people squeezing, stretching, and collecting the colorful toys have racked up millions of views. The viral attention is now translating into real-world demand, with retailers across the country struggling to keep them in stock.
At Child’s Play Toys in Sioux Falls, owner Nancy Savage recently announced a new shipment during a Facebook Live video.
Within hours, both Sioux Falls locations had sold out.
“So I’ve been in business, this November will be 17 years, and I have never seen anything like this,” Savage said. “It is the craziest thing.”
The frenzy isn’t limited to Sioux Falls.
At Black Hills Rally & Gold in Sturgis, manager Madison Bestgen said the store ordered what they believed would be enough inventory to last through the summer.
Instead, the shipment disappeared in less than two days.
“We made an order that we thought was going to get us all the way to the end of summer, and then when we got it in at the end of February, it lasted like a day and a half,” Bestgen said. “At that moment, we were like, ‘Oh yeah, this has blown up. This is something bigger than we thought.’”
The toys themselves aren’t new.
Both stores have carried NeeDoh products for nearly a decade and have built a steady customer base among children and adults alike.
But that changed once the product gained traction online.
“We had them out for people to play with, we’ve shown them to people, people with arthritis, we’ve sold them to so many adults, but all of a sudden, it went viral,” Savage said.
The surge in popularity has become a textbook example of what retailers call the “TikTok Effect,” where a single viral trend can transform an ordinary product into a sensation.
“It can change anything overnight into something absolutely wild,” Bestgen said.
The demand has been so intense that customers are traveling significant distances in search of the toys.
“We have people coming from everywhere,” Bestgen said. “We have people from Rapid City, Spearfish, Gillette, even, that are driving just because they want these NeeDohs.”
Savage has seen similar enthusiasm in Sioux Falls, especially when she goes live on Facebook to tell everyone.
“This is kind of a funny one, but at one of the salons downtown, somebody was getting their nails done, and the light popped up, and both the nail tech and the person getting their nails done ran down to pick up NeeDoh,” she said with a laugh.
NeeDoh’s popularity has also sparked a treasure-hunt mentality among collectors as stores wait for new shipments to arrive.
Savage believes that’s creating something positive beyond the sales numbers.
“It’s a fun, fairly inexpensive summer activity for people to go on a NeeDoh hunt and go around town looking for NeeDoh,” she said. “I think that is building community.”
Whether it’s the stress relief, the satisfying squish, or simply the influence of social media, retailers say the craze shows no signs of slowing down.
More information on Black Hills Rally & Gold Inc. can be found here.
More information on Child’s Play Toys can be found here, and the upcoming drop on Savage’s Facebook live can be found here.
Copyright 2026 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.
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