RAPID CITY – Clark-Willow Lake couldn’t find its rhythm on offense when it needed to, falling 56-43 to second-seeded West Central in the semifinals of the State A Boys’ Basketball Tournament at Summit Arena on Friday night.

The Cyclones managed just two points in the opening quarter, and never caught back up. West Central also outscored the Cyclones 21-6 at the free-throw line to maintain its distance.

“We just couldn’t find our groove offensively,” said Clark-Willow Lake coach Jerome Nesheim. “Give them credit, defensively they did a great job of taking things away that we wanted to do. They did a great job of that, and when you play a (West Central coach) Dave Hollenbeck team, that’s what you’re going to get. We just didn’t do a very good job of adjusting to it.”

After putting four guys in double digits in Thursday’s opening round, the Cyclones had just one player reach that plateau on Friday. Sullivan Fellberg notched 13 points and eight rebounds to lead the squad in both categories. Bo Begeman had eight points, and Chris Bevers finished with seven points and six boards.

West Central got 22 points from Connor Mebius, who was a perfect 14-of-14 front the free-throw line. Will Kuhl added 15 points and nine rebounds for the Trojans, who moved to 24-0.

Clark-Willow Lake will look to rebound in today’s third place contest, where they will face Hamlin for the second time in roughly a month. The Cyclones won a regular-season meeting between the two teams by a 58-50 count, but Nesheim said that won’t matter come tipoff tonight.

“We battled, we competed, we did what we had to do to try and win, and it just didn’t work out,” he said following Friday’s setback. “Now we have one more game (Saturday). We forget about tonight and try to end the season on a win.”

CLARK-WILLOW LAKE (22-2): Emmerson Larson 3 0-1 6, Chris Bevers 3 1-1 7, Jakob Steen 2 0-0 4, Bo Begeman 4 0-1 8, Sullivan Felberg 3 5-5 13, Joey Ries 1 0-0 2, Miles Olson 1 0-0 3. Totals 17-50 6-8 43.

WEST CENTRAL (24-0): Connor Mebius 3 14-14 22, Boche Knight 1 3-4 6, Hayden Heier 1 1-2 3, Kolte Garry 1 0-2 2, Will Kuhl 7 2-4 16, Carter Gross 0 1-2 1, Bubba Kono 1 0-0 2, Tanner Wagner 2 0-0 4. Totals 16-44 21-28 56.

Clark-Willow Lake 2 14 21 43

West Central 10 21 36 56

3-pt field goals – Felberg 2, Olson; Mebius 2, Knight. Fouled out – Begeman. Total fouls – Clark-Willow Lake 20; West Central 11. Rebounds – Clark-Willow Lake 28 (Felberg 8, Bevers 6); West Central 37 (Kuhl 9). Assists – Clark-Willow Lake 4 (Larson 2, Bevers 2); West Central 6 (Knight 2, Heier 2). Turnovers – Clark-Willow Lake 12; West Central 7. Steals – Clark-Willow Lake 3 (Larson, Bevers, Steen); West Central 6 (Knight 2, Kono 2). Blocks – Clark-Willow Lake 1 (Larson); West Central 2 (Kuhl 2).