Photo taken and used with permission by Lee Palmer
Junior Connor Libis hit a milestone few have reached in their high school basketball career on Saturday, February 15th. Libis made his 2,000th point in the game against the Hanson Beavers at the DWU/Culvers Classic in Mitchell, but the Beavers took the game by a score of 78-52. Libis made his 2,000th point from the free-throw line with 1:55 to play in the second quarter.
In a battle of the top two teams in Region 4B, the first quarter played out as most people expected the entire game would. Hanson held a slim two point advantage after the quarter at 15-13. The Beavers took control of the game in the second quarter, and the Cardinals couldn’t recover. Hanson outscored St Mary 20-7 in the quarter and led 35-20 at halftime. The Beavers continued to pull away in the second half. They extended the lead to 57-37 by the end of the third quarter and outscored the Cardinals 21-15 in the final quarter.
St Mary finished the game shooting 37% (19-51) from the field, just 15% (2-13) from three-point area, and 75% (12-16) from the free-throw line. Libis finished with a team-high 19 points and also had five rebounds. John Pica had eight points and two rebounds. Max Herber and Weston Geraets both had six points each.
St Mary (12-4) will be in Howard on Thursday, February 20th as part of a girls and boys double header. The games can be seen on Big Sioux Media.