On Thursday, February 20th the Dell Rapids St Mary Cardinal and Howard Tigers found themselves locked in a close Region 4B game at Howard High School.
With the two teams evenly matched, the first quarter went just as expected. The two teams traded baskets in a high-scoring, high-paced fashion as the two teams combined for 44 points. Howard held a slim 23-21 lead after the first quarter. The Tigers were able to push their lead to 33-27 in the second quarter only to see the Cardinals cut it back down to two points at 35-33. Howard, however, ended the second quarter on a 6-3 run to push the lead back to five points by halftime at 41-36.
The third quarter saw each team go on spurts. Howard struck first to go on an 8-4 run to push the lead to nine points at 49-40. St Mary responded with the next five points to cut the lead down to four at 49-45. The Tigers then scored seven in a row for the largest lead of the night at 56-45. St Mary would get the lead down to seven by the end of the quarter at 58-51. The Cardinals then went on an extended run in the fourth quarter. They were able to get the game tied at 60-60, and then take their first lead at 62-60 at about the midway mark of the fourth quarter. The lead for the Cardinals remained at two points at 64-62 with 3:00 to play. Howard scored the next four points to regain the lead at 66-64 with just under 2:00 to go. With the scored 66-65 in favor of Howard, the Cardinals got the ball and had a chance to take the lead with just seconds remaining, but were called for an offensive foul with :04.8 on the clock. The Cardinals had to foul on the inbound. Howard made one of two free throws, and St Mary was able to grab the rebound and call a timeout with :02.9 to go. A last second three-point shot from half court for St Mary hit off the backboard and back of the rim before falling away no good as Howard hung on for the victory.
The Cardinals were 43% (26-61) from the field, 33% (6-18) from three-point area, and 58% (7-12) from the free-throw line. Weston Geraets finished with 17 points, nine rebounds, three steals, and two assists. Connor Libis had a team-high 21 points and five steals. Max Herber added 10 points, three rebounds, and two assists. Sam Palmer had six points and four rebounds, and Cole Welbig had five rebounds and four assists.
St Mary (13-5) will be in Baltic on Friday, February 21st. The game can be seen on Big Sioux Media.