Photo taken and used with permission by Tammy Chamley, Dells City Journal
The match-up has been set with the Sioux Falls Christian Chargers for the Dell Rapids Quarrier girls basketball team. Dell Rapids will play the #2 seeded Chargers in one of the SoDak 16 Qualifying games of the Region 3A tournament after beating the Tri-Valley Mustangs 66-41 in the opening round on Monday, February 25th at Dell Rapids High School.
Tri-Valley used a slow-paced offense and a 2-3 zone in the opening quarter to frustrate the Quarriers. The Mustangs took an 8-3 lead after a Paige Jewett three-point shot with 2:40 to play in the quarter, but Dell Rapids went on an 8-0 run to close out the quarter for an 11-8 lead. The run continued into the third quarter as Dell Rapids built a 23-11 lead with 3:20 to play in the half. Tri-Valley was able to cut the lead to 28-19 by halftime.
The Quarriers finally got into their style of game in the third quarter. Their man-to-man pressure defense led to a more up-tempo offense, and the Quarriers outscored Tri-Valley 16-8 in the third quarter for a 44-27 lead. They continued to apply the pressure in the fourth quarter and outscored the Mustangs 20-14 to cruise to victory.
Emma Paul led the Quarrier offense with 26 points in the game. Jayda Knuppe finished with 19 points, and Aspen Hansen added nine points. Ravyn Hoffman ended the game with five points and multiple assists. Jewett led the Mustangs with 19 points.
Dell Rapids (13-7) will play Sioux Falls Christian on Thursday, February 28 at Tea Area High School. Dell Rapids defeated the Chargers 53-51 earlier in the season on December 11th. Tip-off on Thursday night is set for 8:00 p.m. The game can be seen on Big Sioux Media.