Sully Buttes appeared to have all the momentum, before De Smet came up with all the right answers Friday afternoon at Wachs Arena.

De Smet trailed by 11 points late in the third quarter before finishing out the game on a 22-4 surge to claim a 50-43 win over the Chargers in consolation round action during the State B Boys’ Basketball Tournament.

“Our guys all season have been pretty mentally tough on that,” said De Smet coach Jeff Gruenhagen of his team’s comeback. “We can claw back in this, we can get stops, we can control the boards long enough to get this done.”

A big part of De Smet’s dramatic reversal in fortune came as a result of hitting outside shots. Facing a defense designed to stop 6-foot-10 center Grant Wilkinson inside, the Bulldogs nailed back-to-back 3-pointers to start the fourth quarter. The shots not only gave De Smet a jolt of energy, it began to loosen things up for Wilkinson.

“Guys are coming out (to the perimeter) and Grant is just posting up ready for the ball,” said De Smet’s Noah Luethmers, who made a fourth-quarter 3-pointer. “It helps.”

And when one person steps up and makes an outside shot, shooting becomes contagious.

“Momentum is what we run on basically,” Luethmers said. “One guy makes a shot, celebrate, next guy’s up.”

On the other end of the floor De Smet switched to a zone defense to help cut down on the Chargers ability to drive into the lane. Soon the Sully Buttes offense, which was cooking in the first three quarters dried up, managing just one basket in the final period.

“We went zone and just said don’t let them drive,” Luethmers said, “make them shoot outside.”

The result was a complete turnaround as De Smet took control down the stretch.

“I thought our plan was good going through it,” said Sully Buttes coach Brian White, “we just weren’t able to finish it off.”

The Chargers, who’s tallest player is 6-3, figured to have an issue dealing with Wilkinson, as most teams do. Wilkinson finished the contest with 18 points and 16 rebounds despite having fresh guys rotated on to him throughout the game.

“He’s a large human who is really tough to handle down there,” White said. “Obviously, we’re undersized to begin with. We’re portably the smallest team here and then you add that on there, it just makes it a little more challenging.”

Sully Buttes was able to build a double-digit advantage thanks to an 18-4 start to the third period before everything changed in a major way.

“We didn’t shoot very well,” said Chargers guard Jett Yackley, “and they started having some shots go in.”

The switch to the zone then made things even more difficult.

“That definitely slowed us down a lot,” Yackley said. “It was harder to get cleaner looks.”

Wesley Wittler scored 19 points to lead a balanced Sully Buttes attack. Yackley and Easton Moore each finished with 10.

The Chargers will face Viborg-Hurley for seventh place at 11 this morning.

“Ending it off with a win would be really nice,” Yackley said. “It’s awesome we’re here and obviously it hasn’t gone the way we want, but we can’t take it for granted.”

In addition to Wilkinson’s total, the Bulldogs received nine points from Coy Van Regenmorter, and eight each from Luethmers and Kolby Sinclair.

De Smet will square off against Aberdeen Christian for fifth place at 12:45 this afternoon.

“It will be a crazy matchup, because they are also very athletic and long guys … just enough to mess with passes,” Gruenhagen said. “We’ll have to be on our game again. Hopefully we can spread out the scoring and get a little balance going.”

De SMET (20-5): Noah Luethmers 2 2-4 8, Kolby Sinclair 3 0-0 8, Grant Wilkinson 6 6-10 18, Carter Wilkinson 2 1-4 7, Coy Van Regenmorter 4 0-2 9. Totals 17-38 9-20 50.

SULLY BUTTES (18-7): Easton Moore 4 0-0 10, Jett Yackley 2 4-4 10, Wesley Wittler 7 3-7 19, Gavin Colson 1 2-2 4. Totals 14-53 9-13 43.

De Smet 11 24 32 50

Sully Buttes 12 21 39 43

3-point field goals – Luethmers 2, Sinclair 2, C. Wilkinson 2, Van Regemorter; Moore 2, Yackley 2, Wittler 2. Fouled out – C. Wilkinson; Sully Buttes, Cooper Falkenhagen. Total fouls – De Smet 15; Sully Buttes 20. Rebounds – De Smet 38 (G. Wilkinson 16); Sully Buttes 30 (Wittler 11). Turnovers – De Smet 12; Sully Buttes 5. Assists – De Smet 15 (Slayten Wilkinson 4, Luethmers 3, G. Wilkinson 3, C. Wilkinson 3); Sully Buttes 7 (Yackley 3, Wittler 2). Blocked shots – De Smet 2; Sully Buttes 2. Steals – De Smet 2; Sully Buttes 6 (Wittler 5).