Yankton boys basketball hasn’t had much control over how their seasons have ended
YANKTON, S.D. (BVM) — “It’s been a crazy last three years.”
That’s what Yankton High School boys basketball coach Chris Haynes had to say about what his team has gone through recently. In those three years, the Bucks have gone from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows, and in many ways they had no control over those lows.
All of this has been experienced in the pursuit of playing on the last day of the season.
“Playing in the last game of the season is special,” Haynes said. “That whole day, that Saturday and that Saturday night and the buzz about that entire day is something that is kind of indescribable if you’ve never experienced it before.”
The desire started after the 2017-18 season where the Bucks, coming off a below .500 record the year before, surprised everyone in the state and won the South Dakota Class AA state championship.
“We kind of came out of nowhere and were a team that was playing well at the end of the season,” Haynes said. “We went on a great run and kind of improbable. We beat the three best teams in the state right in a row, boom, boom, boom.”
The catalyst for that run was a freshman, the best player on the team who was also one of the best players in the state that season. Matthew Mors had been on varsity since seventh grade and had made second team all-state as an eighth grader.
However, it was his freshman year that put him on the map, and he hasn’t looked back. Since the state title his freshman year, Mors has been a three-time first team all-state honoree, two-time Argus Leader Player of the Year and a two-time Gatorade South Dakota Boys Basketball Player of the Year.
This past season as a junior, Mors verbally committed to play basketball at the University of Wisconsin. He also reached the 2,000-point plateau and surpassed Eric Klien as the Class AA all-time scoring leader — a record Klien had held since graduating from Aberdeen Central in 1991.
Mors is a legitimate generational-type player that any high school coach would like to have on their team. Add in the fact that he led the Bucks to a state championship his freshman year, anyone would look at Yankton and see the beginnings of a dynasty. Which seems to be the case as Yankton has been one of the best teams in South Dakota, but the Bucks haven’t been back to a state championship game.
It started last year in Mors’ sophomore season when Yankton went into the state semifinal game against O’Gorman High School. A back-and-forth battle that went down to the wire ended with a buzzer-beater that won O’Gorman the game and secured a state final berth, but Haynes said the final shot came after the buzzer.
“We lose by one and the activities association didn’t have replay at the time,” Haynes said. “But they replay it on the big screen in the arena like 20 seconds after, so while we’re still on the floor everyone sees that it was late.”
It was a devastating loss, but it would only motivate Mors to come back this past season on a mission.
“Having the premier player in the state and with a chip on his shoulder going into a season usually those things turn out in your favor,” Haynes said.
It was working out for Yankton. The Bucks were on a tear, even beating one of the top high school teams in Massachusetts, all leading up to a No. 1 seed in the state tournament. But they never got a chance to play a game. The tournament was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was officially canceled in early April.
“Not that you were robbed of two state championships by any means,” Haynes said, “but you were robbed of two opportunities.”
The Bucks know that they were not guaranteed a championship either of the last two years. However, it is still hard to accept, and with a player like Mors, they can’t help but think ‘what if’ when looking back at the last two seasons.
“Just the possibilities of doing something special,” Haynes said, “maybe two out of three even if you lose last year but get back to the title game because you have a first and a second, you’ve been there back-to-back seasons.”
No one could have guessed that this would be how the Yankton boys basketball team would end their last two seasons, but the Bucks aren’t done yet.
Mors will be back for his senior season, and with six of the team’s top eight players returning, the Bucks will be focused on just one thing — getting to a state championship game and playing on that Saturday night.
The crazy ride isn’t over yet.
