Last weekend, the Lady Dragon Basketball team headed to Flandreau and Volga to take part in the Big East Conference tournament, coming out with a 3rd place finish against McCook Central/Montrose.
On Thursday, Garretson faced Beresford in the tournament, finishing the game with a come-from-behind win the team can be proud of. The Dragons started the game off strong, taking the lead from the Watchdogs. Beresford was able to slip past the Dragons' lead and stretched it out to a 14-point gap in the third quarter when the Dragons got some air under their wings and began finding the net.
They held the Watchdogs to 38 points for most of the quarter and into the 4th, then held them to 41 points while the Dragons sank the ball into the hoop again and again. Beresford was only allowed to score two more points in the final minutes of the game, while Garretson took back the lead and ended at the buzzer with 46 points to the Watchdogs' 43.
The next day, the Dragons took on Flandreau and found themselves again tangling with a tough opponent. Garretson initially played the Fliers in early January, and Flandreau served the team their first loss of the season.
Garretson started off the game with strong plays, but were unable to overcome the Fliers' offensive as Flandreau stole the lead and began widening the gap. The Dragons did their best to continue scoring, narrowing the gap in the 2nd quarter, but weren't able to close it in the second half of the game. Staring at a 10-point gap at the end of the 4th, the team made a hail-Mary steal and pass and sunk the ball into the net as the buzzer sounded, a 2-pointer that ended the game 43-51.
The Fliers ultimately won the Big East Conference tournament after beating Sioux Valley. As of press time, they were sitting at a season win-loss score of 10-4.
Undeterred, the Dragons again hit the road on Saturday to face McCook Central/Montrose to vie for third place. The two teams stayed fairly evenly matched throughout the first half of the game, though Garretson was able to grab the lead early on and keep it. In the second half, the Dragons strengthened the lead to twenty points, but didn't take it for granted as they continued to play a hard offensive against MCM. The team ended the game with the win, 63-34.
After that intense schedule, the Lady Dragons are playing only one game this week, playing a re-match versus MCM tonight (Thursday) in the Dragons Lair at 7:30 p.m. Next week, they'll head to Beresford on Tuesday and Canton on Friday. Their next (and final) home game will be on Thursday, February 16 versus Sioux Valley.
