Photo taken and used with permission by Tammy Chamley

The Howard Tigers outscored the Dell Rapids St Mary Cardinals 35-20 in the second half to get a 54-39 win at St Mary High School on Thursday, February 11th.

Playing in their third game in four days, the Cardinals held strong in the first half.  The two teams were tied 11-11 at the end of the first quarter, and then again 19-19 at halftime.  St Mary was only down one point at 26-25 with 4:15 to play in the third quarter, but Howard then used their size advantage and muscled their way to 36-29 lead heading into the fourth quarter.  St Mary seemed to run out of gas in the fourth quarter as the Tigers took the win.

St Mary finished the game shooting 36% (12-33) from the field, 33% (5-15) from three-point area, and 71% (10-14) from the free-throw line.  Howard finished 51% (23-45) from the field in the game, but 15-24 in the second half.  The Tigers also out-rebounded the Cardinals 27-15 in the game.

Courtney Brown had 13 points, three rebounds, and two assists.  Ella Griffin had 11 points and two rebounds.  Ella Heinitz had six points, and Karlie Klein had five points.

St Mary (12-5) will host Oldham-Ramona/Rutland on Monday, February 15th.  The game can be seen on Big Sioux Media.

The Dell Rapids St Mary Cardinal girls basketball team has provided plenty of excitement in their last two games.  St Mary defeated Arlington in the final seconds on Monday, February 8th, and then followed that with an overtime win against Baltic on Tuesday, February 9th.

St Mary traveled to Arlington to play the Cardinals and got locked into a close battle.  Arlington led at the first three quarter breaks, but never by more than four points.  Arlington led by three points at the end of the first quarter 12-9.  The lead for Arlington was only two points at 21-19 at halftime.  They were able to increase the lead to four points by the end of the third quarter at 33-29.  St Mary was able to take advantage of Arlington’s struggle on the offensive end in the fourth quarter.  Arlington went 2-13 in the fourth quarter, scoring only six points, allowing St Mary to take the lead.

Ella Heinitz made a three-pointer to give St Mary a 35-33 lead.  Ella Griffin followed with another three-pointer to give St Mary a 38-33 lead.  Arlington came back to tie the game 39-39.  The score remained tied 39-39 with :11 to go.  St Mary inbounded in front of their bench, and Heinitz took the inbound pass and drove to the hoop making a layup while being fouled with :08 on the clock.  She made the free-throw to give St Mary a 42-39 lead.  Madala Hanson got a steal in the back court to secure the win for St Mary.

St Mary finished the game shooting just 29% (15-51) from the field, 25% (4-16) from three-point area, and 73% (8-11) from the free-throw line.  They had 36 team rebounds, 11 steals, and 10 assists.

Heinitz finished with 12 points, eight rebounds, five steals, and three assists.  Karlie Klein had eight points and seven rebounds.  Griffin finished with six points, seven rebounds, and two assists.  Hanson also had six points, three steals, and three assists.

The Cardinals followed that performance with a 69-62 overtime win over the Baltic Bulldogs.  This was another back-and-forth game with neither team able to take a large lead.

For the first two quarters of play, the two teams played even.  The score was tied 13-13 at the end of the first quarter and then again 29-29 at halftime.  The Cardinals seemed to be gaining momentum in the third quarter and took a 47-42 lead into the fourth quarter.  The lead grew to a game-high eight points, 58-50, after a layup by K. Klein with 3:30 to play.  That was the final basket for St Mary in regulation.  Baltic cut the lead to 58-55 with seconds to go.  After a missed one-and-one by St Mary, the Bulldogs got the ball back with :10 to go.  After a timeout with :05.5, Berklee Erickson made a game-tying three-point shot at the buzzer to force overtime.

Baltic had two small leads early in overtime at 59-58 and 61-60.  After a 62-62 tie with 1:10 to go, Griffin made a three-pointer from the right wing with under a minute to play for a 65-62 St Mary lead.  Heinitz made two free-throws with with :18 to play to give the Cardinals a 67-62 win.

The Cardinals finished the game shooting 43%.  They were 10-19 on three-point shots and 11-16 from the free-throw line.  St Mary also had 20 points off of Baltic turnovers.

Heinitz had 24 points, five rebounds, five steals, and four assists.  Griffin had 12 points, five rebounds, two steals, and two assists.  K. Klein finished with nine points, six rebounds, two assists, and two steals.  Sydney Klein had seven points, and Hanson finished with seven points and two assists.

St Mary (12-4) will host Howard on Thursday, February 11th.  The game can be seen on Big Sioux Media.