Staff reports
The girls basketball team has been on a strong winning streak throughout the season, battling foes and coming away with the win all but once until they faced up against the Sioux Falls Christian Chargers.
"We played Warner on Saturday, January 16, who was 6-0 at the time," said Coach Matt Schrank. "We got off to a good start early and never looked back. We had a 17-7 lead after the first quarter by setting the tone defensively.
"The 2nd quarter was a lot of the same story, and we led 33-14 at the half. The 3rd quarter we got hot and hit a lot of shots, and outscored them 20-5 for a 53-19 lead. Then the running clock in the 4th quarter made it a quick turnaround for a 64-25 victory. Jaelyn Benson led us in scoring with 22 points, Lizzie Olson had 16 and Logan Bly had 8."
On Tuesday, January 19, the Blue Dragons had a great matchup with a region foe, 8-1 and Region 3 first seed Sioux Falls Christian. Though they worked hard, the Chargers prevailed and the final score was 43-57.
"They are a long, athletic team that is only averaging giving up 42 points a game. So, we knew that offensively, we weren’t going to have that many opportunities to open up the scoring," said Coach Schrank. "Defensively, they have Lexi Unruh, who has been highly recruited and is heading to Creighton to continue her basketball career. Our goal was to slow her down, and force the others to beat us.
"We got off to a slow start early in the first quarter but settled in for the battle that was going to ensue. After the first quarter, we led 16-15 after a 3-point bucket by Logan Bly at the buzzer. In the second quarter, we couldn’t get anything going on the offensive end, and they chipped away little by little. They hit a couple of threes that broke open the score a little bit, and they outscored us by 9 to lead 30-22 at halftime."
Unfortunately, the Chargers weren't done.
"After the half, they came out with a couple of well-designed plays, and had a small 6-0 run to start the half," Coach Schrank continued. "The 3rd quarter was a lot of the same for us offensively, quick shots that didn’t amount to much for scoring. We were down by 18 for most of the 3rd quarter and it was an SFC 13-point lead going into the 4th quarter. In the middle of the 4th quarter we got the score down to 8 points. A turnover and a missed 3 that led to 4 transition points for SFC put them back up by 12, and we never got the game under 10 from that point."
Lizzie Olson had 18 points and 9 rebounds, and Jaelyn Benson had 8 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists. Logan Bly also chipped in with 7 points and 5 rebounds.
The Chargers' Lexi Unruh led all scorers with 30 points on 13/29 shooting.
"The girls battled hard in this game and our offensive end proved to be on the short end of the stick and we couldn’t get over the hump to challenge them late," said Coach Schrank.
Though the Chargers gave them one of only two losses so far this season, the girls faced up against the Vermillion Tanagers on the home court last Friday and again put themselves on the board.
Vermillion took an early lead in the first quarter, quickly bringing the score up to 11 versus the Blue Dragons' 2 points, but the Blue Dragons held them back and eventually surpassed the team in the second quarter. They kept widening the gap after halftime, holding the lead to the end and won with a final score of 55-42.
The girls again take to the court tonight (Thursday) against Parker in Garretson for the first game of the Big East Tournament, which will continue throughout the weekend. The game will begin at 6:30 p.m.
