Last Tuesday, January 31, the Garretson Lady Dragon Basketball team stayed on the home court for a re-match with McCook County/Montrose, whom they had soundly beat in the prior weekend's Big East Tournament. Garretson won the match 58-47, keeping the bragging rights for the third-place finish they'd had just a few days earlier.
The Fighting Cougars were out for revenge, and took off offensively at the beginning of the game. Despite some solid early defense from the Dragons, MCM scored the first two points.
The Dragons did not allow that to stand for long, as they pulled into the lead within the next two minutes of the game. They continued to study the Cougars' offensive, as MCM gathered control of the ball. Garretson, feeling confident they had it down, stole the ball back and worked hard to keep it on their side of the court through steals and rebounds.
By the end of the first quarter, the Dragons had stretched that lead to 9, leading 13-4.
The second quarter, Garretson pulled out its pile offensive, keeping three guards on one player to make passing the ball difficult. While the Cougars were able to shorten the gap, at one point getting to 11 points to the Dragons' 14, Garretson didn't let them take the lead. The home team held them to 11 points and went on a 9-point run, getting to 23 before MCM was able to score another two points. The team went into the half at 32-22.
Garretson saw the Cougars attempt to make a comeback play early in the second half, as the opponents worked hard to keep the ball in their court. Playing some hard defense, the Dragons kept the Cougars from making any strong progress. With a strong team dynamic, the Dragons kept the ball moving from player to player as MCM took increasingly more desperate steps to try and gain the lead. The Dragons counteracted those steps, keeping the Cougars to a 10-point gain throughout the third quarter while gathering another 16 points themselves, ending the quarter 48-32.
The Dragons allowed MCM to come back a bit in the fourth, seeing the Cougars gain 10 points while Garretson racked up 6, leaving it at 54-42 halfway through the quarter. However, the final few minutes of the game only saw a few points from both as the teams battled back and forth with the ball. The Dragons never gave up the lead, and ended the game 58-47.
Before the game with Beresford on Tuesday Feb. 7 the team was at a win-loss score of 9-6 and in second place in Region 3A, just behind Sioux Falls Christian.
The game on Tuesday (results not available at press time), and will be heading to Canton on Friday to take on the C-Hawks. Next week Thursday, February 16, they'll play their final home game and regular game of the season against Sioux Valley.
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