The Dell Rapids St Mary Cardinal boys basketball team saw their season come to an end at the Mitchell Corn Palace in the quarterfinals of the Region 4B tournament on Tuesday, February 27th. The Cardinals fell to the Ethan Rustlers 68-60 in the second game of the day.
The two teams went back and forth in the first quarter with neither team getting a lead bigger than four points. St Mary tied the game at 13-13 with just a few seconds remaining, but the Rustlers were able to get the ball up the court and made a last second shot to take a 15-13 lead after the first quarter. The Rustlers grew their lead to 27-18 with about 3:25 to go in the first half. St Mary got the lead down to two points at 31-29 with about 2:00 left in the quarter. Ethan scored the final basket of the half and led 33-29 at halftime.
The Cardinals got the lead down to one point at 38-37 with about 4:40 remaining in the third quarter. Ethan responded with an 11-4 run over the remainder of the quarter to push their lead to eight points at 49-41 heading into the fourth quarter. After the Ruslters had a 55-43 lead early in the fourth quarter, St Mary went on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to five points at 55-50 with just under 3:00 to go in the game. Still at a five-point lead at 57-52 with 1:23 to go, Ethan kept making free throws down the stretch. The Cardinals got within three points at 61-58 after a layup by Connor Libis with :40 to go, the Rustlers responded with seven more made free throws for the win.
St Mary finished the game shooting 46% from the field and 75% from the free-throw line. The Cardinals had 20 team rebounds. Libis led the team in scoring with 27 points. Weston Geraets had 16 points. Max Herber finished with 11 points and six rebounds.
The Cardinals season ends with an overall record of 11-10