submitted by Coach Cory Buchholz
Blue Dragon “C” team falls behind early; comes from behind to beat Parker
Garretson’s boys’ “C” team (1-1) traveled to Parker on January 7th. They came out of the gates a little sluggish while attempting to shake off the rust from a long lay-off came away with a convincing 30-19 victory.
“We finally started to push the tempo in the second quarter and stayed with what was working on the offensive side of the court. We found what was working and stayed with it. Also, our rebounding was huge in this game in getting us second and third chance points,” said Coach Buchholz.
Having themselves a great night night in the scoring column was Treyton Chester and Blaine Trower each connecting for 7 points apiece. Clay Lardy and Dylan Jessen paced the second and third quarters each with 6 points apiece in the middle stanzas. Matthew Gilbert rounded out the offensive effort with 4 points of his own.
Young Dragons tripped up by the Pheasants
The Blue Dragon JV team (2-3) sputtered down the stretch, was outscored 6-14 in the fourth quarter, to take a loss by a score of 36-41. “As is the key to every game, getting out and getting a lead early proves to be vital for our team. We did just that but started to play complacent and settle for shots that we do not normally take. Making shots on one end helps us keep after it on the defensive side of the court. Unfortunately, we started to miss shots and get panicked. We just couldn’t recover in the fourth quarter once they started to gain momentum,” added coach Buchholz. “We also need to learn who the other team’s key players are as two of their players scored 37 of their 41 points.”
Big man Rhett Kloth led the way in scoring with 14 points, followed closely by Cadyn Ockenga with 10. Clay Lardy dumped in 9 points while Sam Schleuter rounded out the point totals with 3 of his own.
Blue Dragon “C” team starts strong but loses steam against Watchdogs
The Blue Dragon “C” team (1-2) took on the Watchdogs from Beresford on January 8th in another re-vamped Big East Tournament contest and came away 22-35.
“We really came out the first half and took control. Unfortunately, we could not maintain it going into the second half as Beresford had a young man come in the second half and just shut us down. Physicality was a huge issue the second half as we only managed 5 points for the half.” said Coach Buchholz.
Junior Olson came out strong, scoring 7 of his 10 points in the first quarter. Blaine Trower followed Olson in the scoring column by scoring 5 points of his own. Rounding out the scoring was Treyton Chester with 3 points along with Tyler Edmondson and Matthew Gilbert each scoring 2 points apiece.
The young Dragons next take on the Trojans from West Central January 14th at 5 o’clock in Hartford.
Blue Dragon JV pushed to the limit, pulls out win in final seconds against Beresford
In the JV contest, it was a different story for the home team being down most of the game and coming back in the waning seconds to beat Beresford by a score of 39-36.
“We came out aggressive in the first quarter and really took it to the Watchdogs. We pushed tempo, attacked the rim, and did everything right. For some reason, we shied away from that in the second and third quarters and became complacent for some reason,” said Coach Buchholz. “The last three minutes of the game was much like the first quarter. For some reason something clicked again, and we just wanted it more than they did.” stated Coach Buchholz.
The biggest shot of the game was from Isaiah Gnadt with 8.9 seconds left on the clock, he cashed a 3-pointer from the right wing to put the Dragons up by 2.
“He struggled shooting the last couple of games and I could tell. I drew up a play for him and plainly told him to quit thinking and shoot with confidence,” said coach Buchholz.
Leading the effort was Sam Schleuter with 10 points followed closely by Rhett Kloth with 9. Isaiah Gnadt with his big 3-pointer, finished with 6 points. Cadyn Ockenga had a good game taking the ball hard to the rim scored 5 points. Clay Lardy had 4, Dylan Jessen with 3, and Blaine Trower added a 2-point bucket to round out the scoring.
