With the shot clock and game clock winding down, Eddie Price hit a shot just beyond the free-throw line to give the Dell Rapids Quarriers a 53-51 win over the Flandreau Fliers on Tuesday, January 30th at Dell Rapids High School.
The Quarriers found themselves in a hole early in the ball game. Mason Schmidt sunk a three-point shot from the right wing to start the game. The Fliers, however, responded with 16-0 run and led 16-3 with 3:15 to go in the quarter. Dell Rapids got the score to 18-11 with about a minute to play. Flandreau then closed out the quarter on a 5-0 run and led 23-11. The second quarter flipped for the two teams. The Dell Rapids defense held Flandreau to just eight points while the offense scored 18 points. Dell Rapids cut the lead to 31-29 by halftime.
Dell Rapids scored the first five points of the third quarter and regained the lead at 34-31 with 7:25 to go. The Fliers responded with their own 5-0 run to go back in front 36-34. The lead grew to 41-37 with 4:00 to go in the quarter. The Quarriers ended the third quarter on an 8-2 run to lead 45-43 heading into the fourth quarter. Neither team scored until Logan Heim made a right-handed layup with 5:45 remaining in the game. Heim made another layup with 5:08 to go to give Dell Rapids their largest lead of the night at 49-43. Nathan Cloud made a three-point shot with 4:34 to go to cut the lead to 49-46. Jeffrey Schuch responded with a basket from the free-throw line with 4:18 to go giving Dell Rapids a 51-46 lead. Connor LeBrun capped a 5-0 run with a three-point basket with 1:37 to go tie the game at 51-51. After a Dell Rapids turnover, LeBrun missed a driving shot from the lane that was rebounded by Heim with about :36 to go. The Quarriers held on to the ball to get as late of a shot as possible. Carson Rentz took one dribble from the right wing to the elbow drawing a double team. He threaded a beautiful pass to Price who was wide open just beyond the free-throw line. Price took the wide-open shot and knocked it down as time expired on the shot clock and with :03.4 on the game clock. After a series of timeouts, Dylan LeBrun launched a shot from just beyond half court that was no good for Flandreau.
Drew Van Regenmorter had a big game for Dell Rapids. Van Regenmorter finished with 16 points to lead the team. Schuch added 12 points, 16 rebounds and six blocked shots. Rentz and Schmidt both had four assists each.
Dell Rapids (10-4) will host Tri-Valley as part of a girls and boys double-header on Friday, February 2nd. Seniors will also be recognized at Senior Night between the girls and boys games. Both games can be seen on Big Sioux Media.