Dragons Come up Short Against Gobblers

Pine City hosted Aitkin on Friday.

Both teams played their style of basketball very well. And alot of times when you have one team who likes to push the pace, that can lead to a lopsided game. But the Dragons defense held its ground for much of the game, especially in the 1st half. It was a lower scoring half but the Dragons seemed to find some success on both sides of the ball. On offense, instead of trying to match the Aitkin pace, they slowed things down and ran a more patient operation. They executed this at a high rate and while they didn't always score they rarely turned the ball over. Their defense also played very well and made some key rebounds. At half Pine City was down 28-24.

The 2nd half of this game was fairly similar to the 1st, but one offense was able to find more success. Sadly for Pine City that was Aitkin, and alot of that offense came from one man who stood above the rest, literally. The Gobblers 6'9 center was key in the half collecting 2nd and 3rd chance scoring opportunities with his rebounds. He would put a majority of he rebounds back for points. The Dragons still played well defensively, but were simply outmatched. Their offense still played well, but just couldn't find any openings. Pine city fought hard till the very end, but came up short 59-43.

Scoring

Pine City:

Grant Haverhals 19 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals

Grant Larson 11 points, 1 rebound, 1 steal

Sam Johnson 5 points, 3 rebounds, 2 steals

Grant Skluzacek 4 points, 7 rebounds, 1 block

Tanner Fix 4 points, 4 rebounds