The Dell Rapids St Mary Cardinals won their second game in a row and evened their season record at 3-3 with a 56-35 win over the Iroquois Chiefs on Wednesday, December 28th, at the Swiftel Classic in Brookings.
The game was close through the first three quarters. St Mary held a three-point lead at 14-11 at the end of the first quarter. Both teams scored 11 points in the second quarter, and the Cardinals went to the locker room at halftime with a 25-22 lead. The Cardinals were able to get extend the lead to eight points by the end of the third quarter at 41-33. The St Mary defense then only allowed two points in the final quarter and scored 15 to pull away for the win.
St Mary finished the game shooting 21-66 (32%) from the field, 8-26 (31%) from three-point area, and 6-10 (60%) from the free-throw line. The Cardinals had a total of 38 team rebounds, 10 assists, and 16 steals. The stat of the game was the turnover differential. The Cardinals only turned the ball over seven times while forcing Iroquois into 23 turnovers.
The Cardinals were led in scoring by Connor Libis with 33 points. Libis also had four steals. Luke Brown finished with a double-double in the game with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Brown also had four assists and three steals. Logan Gaspar and Garret Frost both had four points each in the game. Zach Geraets pulled down five rebounds. Austin Welbig finished with four assists.
St Mary will play Estelline on Saturday, December 31st, at 12:00 p.m. at Brookings High School. The game can be seen on Big Sioux Media.