RAPID CITY – Aberdeen Central survived the SoDak 16 – a contrast to last season’s half-court heave by Sioux Falls Jefferson that ousted them – but the Golden Eagles are in no way satisfied with a mere one step forward.

Central enters the Class AA girls’ basketball state tournament as the fifth seed and is here to do damage. Not absorb it.

“(Most) of these girls have never been to a state tournament, so there’s just like an area of the unknown for a lot of them,” said Central coach Paiton Burckhard. “For them to even be here is one thing, but coming here and competing well is another. We’ve talked a lot about how, OK we’ve made it, now it’s time to go and see what we can do here.”

For starters, the Golden Eagles are healthy, which is something they couldn’t claim for a significant portion of the back half of the season. Central spent a handful of games without senior center Taryn Hermansen and at times were missing multiple starters because of an illness/injury combination.

In other words, things didn’t always go according to plan. But those mid-season adjustments weren’t all bad, Burckhard said.

“We’ve had to have other girls step up and we’ve had to figure out how to play differently without Taryn,” she said. “We just got to see some different basketball out of our girls, which ultimately plays toward a strength for us. Going into the state tournament, as much as it didn’t help us at the time, it did help us in the long run.”

Central’s offense runs primarily through Hermansen and junior Lauryn Burckhard, both of whom power the team’s inside-out style of play. But in Hermansen’s absence – and ultimately when Central is playing in top form – the Golden Eagles become something more than their post players.

“From the beginning of the season, we’ve talked about how all five of us on the floor need to be a threat,” Coach Burckhard said. “Whether that’s offensively scoring, defensively being one that forces turnovers and gets steals, you need to be a threat at some point. And I feel like we’ve had a lot of girls step up.”

Coach Burckhard pointed out the scoring efforts from Emma Dohrer, Kamdyn Borge and Kenadi Withers, all of whom have the scoring range to be threats from the outside or the ball handling ability to get to the free throw line.

“We’ve had a lot of games where we’ve had four to five girls in double digits in scoring and two to three with rebounding,” Burckhard said. “Those are awesome stats to see, and when we play like that, it’s hard to play with us when we have four or five girls that are threats on the floor.”

Those multi-angle threats change how teams have to game plan for the Golden Eagles.

“Lauryn and Taryn are always going to get their double digits,” coach Burckhard noted. “They just kind of work that way and that’s how our offense flows, is through them. But when you have Emma Dohrer knocking down three 3’s and then getting to the free throw line and when you have Kenadi Withers going really hard on the boards and finishing and doing some really nice aggressive things, now it’s harder than just focusing on two (players).”

Regardless of who is putting up the points, Burckhard said, Central’s approach to the state tournament is the same one it adopted at the beginning of the season – moment by moment.

“A big thing for us is winning smaller moments, focusing on things in front of us,” she said. “We even break it down possession-wise. Let’s get a stop, a score and a stop. I don’t think it’s any different in the state tournament. We’re focused on our first game against Rapid City Stevens. That’s all we’re worried about right now is getting through that first thing and coming out with a win. Then we’ll focus on the next.”

Central opens the tournament today, taking on the Raiders of Rapid City Stevens in the 1:45 p.m. time slot. The winner of that contest will take on the winner of top-seeded Brandon Valley and No. 8 Tea Area. All games will be played at the Monument Summit Arena.