South Dakota

Sophomores lead Tea Area boys basketball to gritty win over O’Gorman

Published

5 months ago

February 4, 2026

Sophomores lead Tea Area boys basketball to gritty win over O’Gorman

Things didn’t look great coming out of halftime for the Tea Area boys basketball team, and O’Gorman made a point to shut off the Titans’ star juniors, Gavin Shawd and Grifin Wiebenga.

Sophomores Mitch Grant and Blake Lundin stepped up to the plate, helping author a 15-8 third that put Tea Area in front for good in a 65-61 win over O’Gorman on the Knights’ home floor.

“At the defensive end, we really just locked in and collapsed the paint and they didn’t really know what to do,” Lundin said.

Not only did the defense shut down the Knights, but Grant scored eight big points with a pair of threes and Lundin had a bucket and commanded lots of attention in the paint.

“I just think we started working as a team really well,” Grant said. “Griff and Gavin started to get in rhythm. I hit a couple big shots. We just play so well together when we get in stride, and when we get in stride it’s hard to stop.”

Tea Area closed out the game without forfeiting the lead, building it to as big as 52-41 early in the fourth. The Titans then had to grind their way to the finish, just like they did the entire first half.

“We talk a lot about taking punches,” Tea Area head coach Drew Weber said. “We don’t play very deep. When you play five or six guys most of the game, it’s hard to play good basketball for 32 minutes. We knew that O’Gorman can play really well and they did in that first quarter. We couldn’t guard worth a hoot in the first quarter, and we took a punch there.”

This young Titans team has learned how to take a punch, though, and dished one back when things mattered most on their 14-0 run between the end of the third and beginning of the fourth.

“That’s kind of been our MO in a lot of these games,” Weber said. “You take some punches here and there, then you throw one back with a 10-0 run, a 12-2 run, something like that.”

Tea Area is now 10-3 and in the midst of its best start since opening 12-3 in the 2022-23 season. It’s been led by two juniors — Shawd and Wiebenga — and the two sophomores, and those guys have used defeat as fuel for improvement.

The last two losses were an 82-55 defeat to Sioux Falls Roosevelt on Jan. 16, and a 62-60 loss to unbeaten Sioux Falls Lincoln on Jan. 31.

“The Roosevelt game hurt, and I feel like the score doesn’t do it justice,” Grant said. “That put a big dagger in us. That Lincoln game, it just hurt us more which helped us this game with energy and stuff.”

“That Lincoln game, that hurt,” Lundin said. “We probably played the best we’ve ever played and coming into this game, I think we knew they’re a top, competitive team. I think we all played together.”

Those losses have helped the Titans up their focus in practice, and the results of that focus have shown in their road win over Mitchell, close loss to Lincoln and road win over O’Gorman.

“Before the Lincoln game, we knew we really had to try at practice,” Grant said. “Practice just got better. Even our scout team started to step up and give us better looks. There’s days where the scout team is playing 10 times better than us. They’re key to our success.”

This Tea Area team thrives on its tough mentality and youthfulness. The Titans have showed that time and time again this season, and are anticipating more chances to prove their mettle with games left against Sioux Falls Jefferson, Sioux City East, Harrisburg, Brandon Valley, Sioux Falls Washington and Marshall.

“I’ve got a tough group of kids, that’s for sure,” Weber said. “Mental toughness in that game really showed.”

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South Dakota

South Dakota incumbent Republican lawmaker facing felony election fraud counts

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5 hours ago

June 24, 2026

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South Dakota incumbent Republican lawmaker facing felony election fraud counts

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South Dakota

Rounds, Office of the Inspector General requesting first-hand accounts of poor mail service in South Dakota

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15 hours ago

June 24, 2026

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Rounds, Office of the Inspector General requesting first-hand accounts of poor mail service in South Dakota | DRGNews

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South Dakota

Social media’s latest squeeze is flying off South Dakota shelves

Published

1 day ago

June 23, 2026

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Social media’s latest squeeze is flying off South Dakota shelves

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.

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