Photo used with permission from the St Mary Cardinal Athletics Twitter page.
Playing in their first Dakota Valley Conference tournament championship game since 2006, the Dell Rapids St Mary Cardinal boys basketball team came home as tournament champs with a 66-57 win over the Arlington Cardinals on Saturday, January 25th.
St Mary and Arlington are not only two of the top teams in the DVC, but are also considered two of the teams that could make a deep post-season run. The game had a post-season atmosphere as fans packed the Colman-Egan High School gymnasium.
The two teams didn’t take long to attack the rim the first quarter. Both teams got a field goal attempt in the first 15 seconds of the game. Arlington used the fast pace to get out to an 11-4 lead at the 4:30 mark of the first quarter. Arlington maintained the lead the rest of the quarter and led 17-11 at the break. St Mary scored the first seven points of the second quarter while holding Arlington scoreless for an 18-17 lead with 4:15 to play in the half. The defenses continued to play strong, and Arlington took a slim, one-point advantage into the locker room at 24-23.
The start of the third quarter belonged to Sam Palmer and St Mary. Palmer knocked down three three-point shots in the first two minutes, and St Mary led 34-24 with 6:00 to go in the third quarter. Palmer finished the third quarter with four made three-pointers and 15 of the team’s 22 points as St Mary led 45-36 heading into the fourth quarter. The second-half momentum for St Mary continued into the fourth quarter as the team played unselfishly on the offensive end finding the open man for numerous easy baskets. The defense played strong making key stops to keep keep Arlington from getting any closer than three points in the final quarter to secure the win.
Palmer finished the game with a team-high 23 points. Connor Libis added 16 points.
St May (9-2) will travel to Lake Preston to take on the Divers on Friday, January 31st in a girls and boys double-header. The games can be seen on Big Sioux Media.