DE SMET, S.D. (KELO) – Entering the season with tempered expectations, the De Smet girls basketball team would end up being one of the best in Class B, behind their senior leader Kennadi Buchholz.

De Smet’s Kennadi Buchholz has been playing basketball since her early days of elementary school.

“The first time I got in during a game I think it was at the very end and it didn’t really matter and I just remember the girl going, ‘You’re going to guard me.’ It was a girl on the other team. And I was like, ‘Okay, thanks,'” De Smet senior forward Kennadi Buchholz said with a laugh.

As a freshman at De Smet, Buchholz was a part of a state championship team but she would begin to get more recognition as an individual player in the next coming two seasons.

“Her sophomore and junior year she was third team all state in Class B. Going into this year I knew obviously she was a very, very good basketball player but I think she improved a lot between her junior and senior year,” De Smet girls head coach Brendon Pitts said.

The Bulldogs came into this past season a bit under the radar but that would soon change.

“I think we were 10-0 and I was like, ‘Wow, we’re halfway through the season like we haven’t lost yet,'” Buchholz remembered.

Behind the 20 plus points and 13 rebounds a night average of Buchholz, the Bulldogs would enter post-season play with a record of 19-1 and would defeat Faith in the semifinals, advancing into the Class B state championship.

“It was really awesome. I just remember looking out into the crowd with everyone standing up, on their feet. It was.. just hearing the crowd, it was amazing,” Buchholz remarked.

The Bulldogs would fall short in the title game against Viborg Hurley but that won’t change the senior’s lasting legacy as the De Smet girls all time leading scorer.

“You want to talk about morning workouts, open gyms, summer camps, she didn’t miss a single one of them. And it doesn’t matter if it was a 7th grader or an 8th grader or a freshman, or what age basketball player, she was helping them along the whole time,” Pitts stated.