The Dell Rapids Quarrier girls basketball team split games on back-to-back nights on Friday, December 14th, and Saturday, December 15th.
Dell Rapids traveled to Tea to take on the Tea Area Titans on Friday night. The Quarriers came away with a 67-60 win at Tea Area High School. The Titans starting the game on fire getting out to an early 8-2 lead after a minute and a half. Dell Rapids calmly scored the next seven points in just a little over a minute to take a 9-8 lead. Dell Rapids continued the run and pushed their lead to 24-15 by the end of the first quarter. The Titans pulled within five points at 29-24 with about three minutes to play, but Dell Rapids pushed the lad back to nine points at 37-28 with under a minute to go. Dell Rapids led 39-31 at halftime.
The Quarriers extended the lead to 11 points at 47-36 with about five minutes to play in the third quarter, which was the largest lead of the night. The Titans, however, again made a run, this time cutting the lead down to four at 47-43 with 1:36 to go in the third quarter. Dell Rapids closed the quarter on a 6-2 run to make it a 53-45 game heading into the fourth quarter. Dell Rapids pushed the lead back into double-digits halfway through the fourth quarter only to see the Titans bring back with six points at 64-58, but that was as close as Tea Area would get.
Jayda Knuppe led the Quarriers in scoring with 25 points. Aspen Hansen added 15 points, and Sam Price finished with 11 points.
Dell Rapids followed the win against Tea Area with a game against the De Smet Bulldogs at the 21st Annual Girls Michael J. Entringer Scholarship Classic on Saturday at Colman-Egan High School. The Bulldogs handed Dell Rapids a 55-37 loss to close out the classic.
De Smet held the Quarriers to just two points in the first quarter and built a 12-2 lead after eight minutes of play. The Quarriers got their offense rolling in the second quarter, and cut the Bulldog lead down to three points at 20-17 with two minutes to go in the half. Rynn Osthus knocked down two big three-point shots for De Smet before the end of the half to keep De Smet in front 26-17 at halftime.
The Quarriers got within two points at 29-27 with just under five minutes to play in the third quarter after a three-point play by Knuppe, but that was as close as Dell Rapids would get. The Bulldogs outscored Dell Rapids 14-4 the remainder of the quarter to take a 43-31 lead into the fourth quarter. De Smet then held the Quarriers to just six fourth quarter points on their way to the victory.
Dell Rapids shot 32% from the field while De Smet finished the game at 45.5%. De Smet was also 12-24 from the free-throw line while Dell Rapids was 2-3 in the game.
Hansen had 15 points and five rebounds to lead Dell Rapids. Knuppe finished with nine points and four rebounds. Price added seven points, and Emma Paul finished with four points.
Dell Rapids (2-1) will host Baltic in a girls and boys double header on Tuesday, December 18th. Both games can be seen on Big Sioux Media.