RAPID CITY - Sioux Falls Roosevelt head coach Bob Wilber knew that he had to try to get something more out of his seniors after a heartbreaking loss to Huron in the first round of the Class AA boys state basketball tournament. So he went to his group of seniors before their consolation round game Friday against Pierre, let them know and they responded.

Senior point guard Colin Strasburg scored 24 points and grabbed nine rebounds, Preston Evans added 14 points and Isaac Jorgensen snared nine rebounds as Roosevelt topped Pierre, 59-51.

"You have to," Wilber said of talking to his seniors about getting the most out of them in their final two high school games. "I mean, you know these are going to be their last games. I'll be real honest with you, I was as disappointed after that loss last night as I've been in 28 years of coaching. I don't think we've ever had a tougher loss than that one, so, to have our kids, especially our seniors, come back and play like they did today is pretty impressive."

The Governors actually held an eight-point lead, 39-31, with 7:31 to play. But the Rough Riders slowly chipped away, as Jorgensen, Evans, Strasburg and junior Jake Weiss all made big plays and some key free throws down the stretch.

Pierre cut the lead to two at 53-51 when Kyle Cichos flipped in a circus shot with just under a minute to play, but the Governors weren't able to find the bucket again.

"I thought we did some good things," Pierre head coach Terry Becker said. "I just thought that we made a few bad decisions down the stretch that cost us. We took some bad shots and had a couple of turnovers that really were the difference."

Cichos scored a game-high 25 points for the Governors (10-15 overall). Michael Gardner added 16 points for Pierre. Both Cichos and Gardner hit three 3-pointers apiece, which will take on Sturgis in the seventh-place game today at noon.

The Rough Riders (18-7) will take on Yankton for the consolation championship at 1:45 p.m. Evans was key to Friday's win, according to Wilber.

"I don't want to make any excuses," Wilber said. "But (Preston) was as sick as a dog yesterday. His energy level was so much better today and he was just feeling better, you could see it in his play. He's kind of the guy who gets us going emotionally a little bit, and he was just out of sync all day yesterday. He played much better today."