by Coach Cory Buchholz
The Blue Dragon JV team faced off against the Dell Rapids St. Mary’s Cardinals on Feb. 1st, took control from the opening tip, and garnered a 43-14 victory.
“Right away from the opening tip we did almost everything right. The first half was key for us outscoring them 34-8 going into halftime. I knew that size was going to be an issue for the Cards and the boys finally figured it out in the second quarter. We have such a great combination with speed and size that it is hard for teams to match up against us,” stated Coach Buchholz.
Having his best scoring output of the year was big man Rhett Kloth scoring 20 points (12 in the second quarter). Caydn Ockenga did a great job getting to the line while scoring 7 points and Isaiah Gnadt knocked down 2 3-pointers for his 6 points. Matthew Gilbert and Sam Schleuter each had 3 points while Dylan Jessen and Clay Lardy each contributed a 2-point bucket to round out the scoring attack.
The Blue Dragon JV team eclipsed the .500 mark (7-6) for the second time this year by defeating the Baltic Bulldogs in the Dragon’s Lair, by a score of 39-33, on Tuesday Feb. 2nd. The game marked a season high 3-game winning streak for the young squad.
“With this game being an always closely contested rivalry game, I knew that the boys were going to come out ready to play. We hit some big shots and kept pushing tempo the first 3 quarters to thankfully get us out to a decent enough lead (37-19) to hold on at the end. Once again for some reason, our bench was not ready to play when they were asked to go in which let the Bulldogs back into the game. We can and will fix this going forward,” said Coach Buchholz.
Scorching the nets (5 3-pointers) for his season high of 17 points was Isaiah Gnadt while followed closely by Sam Schleuter with 13 points in 3 quarters of work. Cayden Ockenga, while taking it hard to the rim, scored 5 points and our two starting post players Clay Lardy and Rhett Kloth each contributed 2 points apiece.
The Dragons were on the road at McCook Central/Montrose (Feb. 5) and Beresford (Feb. 9) for two conference games and will travel to Parker on Tuesday Feb. 16th.
