After taking a 20-point lead into the locker room at halftime, the Dell Rapids St Mary Cardinals survived a second half rally by the Colman-Egan Hawks and picked up a 64-62 win at the Corn Palace in Mitchell on Friday, March 1st. The win sends the Cardinals to the SoDak 16.
The Cardinals got out to a fast start to start the game. St Mary opened the game on a 10-1 run in the first three minutes. The Hawks cut the lead to three points at 12-9 with two minutes to go, but St Mary finished the quarter leading 20-11. The Cardinals again went on a run in the early part of the second quarter. St Mary extended their lead to 30-13 with 4:51 to go in the half. The lead grew to 20 points at 41-21 by halftime.
The Hawks cut the lead down to 12 points a couple of times in the third quarter, but St Mary led the Colman-Egan by 14 points at 56-42 heading into the final quarter. Colman-Egan held St Mary scoreless over the first four minutes of the fourth quarter and cut the lead down to four points at 56-52. Connor Libis ended the scoring drought with a left-handed layup with 3:35 to play to put the Cardinals ahead by six at 58-52. Weston Geraets hit a shot from the left block with 2:24 to play to extend the lead to eight points at 60-52. Leading by just three points with under a minute to play, Connar Kangas made two big free-throws to give St Mary a 64-59 lead. Dalton Voelker hit an off-balance three-point shot from the left corner with :16 to go to make it a two-point game. After two missed free throws by Libis, Colman-Egan secured the rebound. Nate Tolley launched a last-second, three-point shot from the right wing that hit off the backboard and back of the rim, falling away no good giving St Mary the two-point victory.
Libis led St Mary in scoring with 28 points. Sam Palmer finished with 14 points in the game. Geraets had five rebounds and five assists in the game. Voelker led Colman-Egan with 27 points, and Tolley added 17 points.
St Mary (18-4) will be the #14 seed in the SoDak 16 and play the #3 seeded Clark/Willow Lake Cyclones on Tuesday, March 5th. Tip-off is at 7:00 p.m. at Sioux Valley High School. Big Sioux Media is planning on streaming the game.