In a hard-fought battle to the very end, the Garretson Blue Dragons hung on to beat the Dell Rapids St Mary Cardinals 63-53 on Tuesday, January 7th, at Dell Rapids St Mary High School.
The first quarter went back and forth as the two teams traded the lead multiple times. The Cardinals led 11-7 with 2:15 to go in the quarter, but Garretson closed out the quarter on a 9-2 run for a 16-13 advantage heading into the second quarter. The Blue Dragons scored the first eight points of the second quarter and led 24-13 with 5:15 to play in the half. The Cardinals were able to cut the lead down to 30-23 by halftime.
St Mary came out of the locker room at halftime and outscored Garretson 6-2 in the first two minutes to cut the Blue Dragon lead to 32-29. Garretson was able to stay ahead of St Mary by three-to-six points most of the third quarter. The Blue Dragons scored the final basket of the third quarter to push their lead to 45-37 heading into the final quarter.
The Blue Dragons scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter and pushed their lead to a game-high 15 points at 52-37. St Mary then started chipping away at the lead. The Cardinals got the lead down to five points with 2:33 to play at 56-51. The lead was cut down to three points at 56-53 with 2:00 to go in the game. Garretson, however, closed out the game on a 7-0 run by hitting their free throws down the stretch for the victory.
Ella Heinitz had a game-high 29 points for St Mary. Lizzie Olsen finished with 19 points for Garretson.
St Mary (4-3) will host the De Smet Bulldogs in a girls and boys double-header on Friday, January 10th. Both games can be seen on Big Sioux Media.